Generating a new SSH key and adding it to the ssh-agent

create_new_ssh_key.md

Generating a new ssh-key

Open Terminal. Paste the text below, substituting in your GitHub email address.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

This creates a new ssh key, using the provided email as a label

Generating public/private rsa key pair.

1. When you're prompted to Enter a file in which to save the key press Enter to accept the default file location.

Enter the file in which to save the key (you can press ENTER for default path):

(/Users/you/.ssh/id_rsa): [Press enter]

At the prompt, type a secure passphrase.

Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [Type a passphrase]

Enter same passphrase again: [Type passphrase again]

Adding your SSH key to the ssh-agent

Before adding a new SSH key to the ssh-agent, you should have checked for existing SSH keys and generated a new SSH key.

Ensure ssh-agent is enabled:

start the ssh-agent in the background

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Agent pid 59566

Add your SSH key to the ssh-agent. If you used an existing SSH key rather than generating a new SSH key, you'll need to replace id_rsa in the command with the name of your existing private key file.

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

I have exactly what anonperezj got. I created the key and i don't know whether I have id_rsa file in my .ssh directory or not. How can check it please? And if not, what can I do?

@mitia-anah I don't know which Operating system you are on, but check you are seeing "invisible" files. The way you check is to go to that directory and see if the file is there.

I had the problem people are describing: "ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa" results in "No such file or directory"

I'm on Windows, I believe I solved the problem by using the command "ssh-add C:\Users\USER\.ssh\id_rsa" instead of using a tilde ~/.ssh/id_rsa to shorten the path.

For Windows, this worked for me:
$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
Agent pid 554

$ ssh-add sshkey

note: sshkey is my filename

For Windows, this worked for me: $ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)" Agent pid 554

$ ssh-add sshkey

note: sshkey is my filename

Thanks. It also worked for me.