You should not use the Open SSH client that comes with Git for Windows. Instead, Windows 10 has its own implementation of Open SSH that is integrated with the system. To achieve this:
- Start the
ssh-agent
from Windows Services:
- Type
Services
in theStart Menu
orWin+R
and then typeservices.msc
to launch the Services window; - Find the
OpenSSH Authentication Agent
in the list and double click on it; - In the
OpenSSH Authentication Agent Properties
window that appears, chooseAutomatic
from theStartup type:
dropdown and clickStart
fromService status:
. Make sure it now saysService status: Running
.
- Configure Git to use the Windows 10 implementation of OpenSSH by issuing the following command in Powershell:
git config --global core.sshCommand C:/Windows/System32/OpenSSH/ssh.exe
- Configure SSH to automatically add the keys to the agent on startup by editing the
config
file found at$HOME\.ssh\config
(full path -C:\Users\%YOUR_USERNAME%\.ssh\config
), and add the following lines:
Host *
AddKeysToAgent yes
IdentitiesOnly yes
You can also add the following lines if you generated an SSH key with custom name or multiple SSH keys:
Host github.com
HostName github.com
User your_user_name
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/your_file_name
- Add your SSH key to the
ssh-agent
by issuing thessh-add
command and entering your passphrase:
ssh-add $HOME/.ssh/your_file_name
- Done! Now restart your Powershell and even Windows if necessary.
If this was useful, you can buy me a coffee here. Thank you!
@BroMattMiller You shouldn't have done this tutorial if that's what you wanted. As you said, you shouldn't add these in your
~/.ssh/config
config file:And you should set
OpenSSH Authentication Agent
toManual
instead ofAutomatic
. That way it will only start when you issue thessh-add
command (or at least I hope it starts that way). It should remember your passphrases until you close Powershell, or next time you reboot your system. I'm not 100% sure it will do that though, so let me know if it works.