Fix "Permission denied (publickey)" error when pushing with Git

publickey-git-error.markdown

"Help, I keep getting a 'Permission Denied (publickey)' error when I push!"

This means, on your local machine, you haven't made any SSH keys. Not to worry. Here's how to fix:

1. Open git bash (Use the Windows search. To find it, type "git bash") or the Mac Terminal. Pro Tip: You can use any *nix based command prompt (but not the default Windows Command Prompt!)
2. Type cd ~/.ssh. This will take you to the root directory for Git (Likely C:\Users\[YOUR-USER-NAME]\.ssh\ on Windows)
3. Within the .ssh folder, there should be these two files: id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. These are the files that tell your computer how to communicate with GitHub, BitBucket, or any other Git based service. Type ls to see a directory listing. If those two files don't show up, proceed to the next step. NOTE: Your SSH keys must be named id_rsa and id_rsa.pub in order for Git, GitHub, and BitBucket to recognize them by default.
4. To create the SSH keys, type ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your_email@example.com". This will create both id_rsa and id_rsa.pub files.
5. Now, go and open id_rsa.pub in your favorite text editor (you can do this via Windows Explorer or the OSX Finder if you like, typing open . will open the folder).
6. Copy the contents--exactly as it appears, with no extra spaces or lines--of id_rsa.pub and paste it into GitHub and/or BitBucket under the Account Settings > SSH Keys. NOTE: I like to give the SSH key a descriptive name, usually with the name of the workstation I'm on along with the date.
7. Now that you've added your public key to Github and/or BitBucket, try to git push again and see if it works. It should!

More help available from GitHub on creating SSH Keys and BitBucket Help.

Hello, I think I’m not the correct audience for this mail chain. If yes , please exclude me from this call. Best Regards, Vani From: Ekta Arora @.> Date: Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 07:30 To: adamjohnson @.> Cc: Vani Swamy @.>, Comment @.> Subject: Re: adamjohnson/publickey-git-error.markdown @Ekta17 commented on this gist.
…
________________________________ this works! one extra step is to add the rsa key in your path: touch ~/.ssh/config vi ~/.ssh/config paste following in this file and change location of the rsa file: Host * AddKeysToAgent yes UseKeychain yes IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHubhttps://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2F5682757%23gistcomment-4319125&data=05%7C01%7Cvani.swamy%40ingka.ikea.com%7Cd6fe2548628e4f8db1bc08daa1dbc5a9%7C720b637a655a40cf816af22f40755c2c%7C0%7C0%7C638000262552187699%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rwkWT3KspXxH6erjIjL9gwD3kDudmWZU0iw4KVKwpGc%3D&reserved=0, or unsubscribehttps://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnotifications%2Funsubscribe-auth%2FAYDSDCEK2WYHRR7PWI4B62TWAUSQVANCNFSM4HI4HAHA&data=05%7C01%7Cvani.swamy%40ingka.ikea.com%7Cd6fe2548628e4f8db1bc08daa1dbc5a9%7C720b637a655a40cf816af22f40755c2c%7C0%7C0%7C638000262552187699%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=SqRZnNCXjvPN0YuNvdd1WWp23nQELzxKeB5Hjdphjis%3D&reserved=0. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

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How did you fix it with another user?

I got the same error when following the key generation guid for Mac on Github docs: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent#generating-a-new-ssh-key

The problem for me was the entry in .ssh/config which has to be for host *github.com and not *.github.com as the guide says since *.github.com does not match the ssh domain git@github.com:your-user.... So Git didn't even use the key when trying to push to Github.

THANK YOU! Finally connected PyCharm because of this.

thanks, you are awesome!!!

This helped. Thank you so much 🙏

Thank you!

Bravo!! I was getting the Permission Denied (publickey) error when trying to execute npm run deploy to publish an app to gh-pages for the first time. Kept going in circles on different forums without much luck. One suggestion was to change the remote's URL from SSH to HTTPS - which I tried, and it worked ONCE (published to gh-pages successfully) - and then some time later I tried to publish new changes and it failed with the same error as before. Such a headache, but the solution described here worked like a charm after I switched my remote URL back to SSH and followed the steps. Thank you so much! :)

worked for me. had to rename files to id_rsa respectfully

Thank you so much! fixed a problem I was having for a few days...

Very helpful, thanks

Thank you SO much!

using WSL, this DID solve my problem for windows-based git. however, using WebStorm and a project based in the linux file system, it still wasn't enough and I couldn't get it to work for several months. the solution finally came by wrapping the git that WebStorm (or IntelliJ etc) uses for WSL projects in a bash script that starts the respective ssh-agent, see this thread:
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-275823/Git-from-WSL-Support-SSH-agent-from-WSL

Thanks, it works with Ubuntu on WSL2

Thanks man, i named my keys id_"some_custom_name" but i renamed it to rsa and it started working fine.
Still i didnt get why it didnt work for custom name. I added the identity in the config file

This is very helpful. Easy steps saved lots of trouble.

WARNING!
Powershell terminal users!

You'll keep getting this error even after following the outlined instructions. It only works in the Bash/Cygwin terminal. In Cygwin, I ran:

ssh -T git@github.com

Result:

Hi steveninety! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Find the comment by @2bam where he explains how to get rid of the error in Powershell.

thanks. it's work master.

I am also running into same issue on my mac. I tried above solution but didn't work. Following is my ~/.ssh/config file:

Host *
AddKeysToAgent yes
UseKeychain yes
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Can anyone please help!

I have this issue and need help! My config file is set up correctly, I can connect to GitHub using the command ssh -T@github.com. I ran the command ssh -vT git@github.com and was able to see my public key connect successfully. However when I run the command ssh-add -l -E sha256 I receive this error message "The agent has no identities." I can not understand how this is possible and any help would be greatly appreciated as I have been working on this issue for 2 weeks. Using a Mac.

Thanks!

Thanks! It's really works! <3

It worked! Thanks!

Thank you! Finally it worked!

Not working at all

Thank you so much!!!!!

Thanks!

Thank You! Works like a charm.

you saved me

Thanks man, i named my keys id_"some_custom_name" but i renamed it to rsa and it started working fine.
Still i didnt get why it didnt work for custom name. I added the identity in the config file

hello sir, I also have the same issue how can I rename ? please help