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