Generating Your SSH Public Key (2024)

Chapters ▾

1. Getting Started
1. 1.1 About Version Control
2. 1.2 A Short History of Git
3. 1.3 What is Git?
4. 1.4 The Command Line
5. 1.5 Installing Git
6. 1.6 First-Time Git Setup
7. 1.7 Getting Help
8. 1.8 Summary
2. Git Basics
1. 2.1 Getting a Git Repository
2. 2.2 Recording Changes to the Repository
3. 2.3 Viewing the Commit History
4. 2.4 Undoing Things
5. 2.5 Working with Remotes
6. 2.6 Tagging
7. 2.7 Git Aliases
8. 2.8 Summary
3. Git Branching
1. 3.1 Branches in a Nutshell
2. 3.2 Basic Branching and Merging
3. 3.3 Branch Management
4. 3.4 Branching Workflows
5. 3.5 Remote Branches
6. 3.6 Rebasing
7. 3.7 Summary
4. Git on the Server
1. 4.1 The Protocols
2. 4.2 Getting Git on a Server
3. 4.3 Generating Your SSH Public Key
4. 4.4 Setting Up the Server
5. 4.5 Git Daemon
6. 4.6 Smart HTTP
7. 4.7 GitWeb
8. 4.8 GitLab
9. 4.9 Third Party Hosted Options
10. 4.10 Summary
5. Distributed Git
1. 5.1 Distributed Workflows
2. 5.2 Contributing to a Project
3. 5.3 Maintaining a Project
4. 5.4 Summary

6. GitHub
1. 6.1 Account Setup and Configuration
2. 6.2 Contributing to a Project
3. 6.3 Maintaining a Project
4. 6.4 Managing an organization
5. 6.5 Scripting GitHub
6. 6.6 Summary
7. Git Tools
1. 7.1 Revision Selection
2. 7.2 Interactive Staging
3. 7.3 Stashing and Cleaning
4. 7.4 Signing Your Work
5. 7.5 Searching
6. 7.6 Rewriting History
7. 7.7 Reset Demystified
8. 7.8 Advanced Merging
9. 7.9 Rerere
10. 7.10 Debugging with Git
11. 7.11 Submodules
12. 7.12 Bundling
13. 7.13 Replace
14. 7.14 Credential Storage
15. 7.15 Summary
8. Customizing Git
1. 8.1 Git Configuration
2. 8.2 Git Attributes
3. 8.3 Git Hooks
4. 8.4 An Example Git-Enforced Policy
5. 8.5 Summary
9. Git and Other Systems
1. 9.1 Git as a Client
2. 9.2 Migrating to Git
3. 9.3 Summary
10. Git Internals
1. 10.1 Plumbing and Porcelain
2. 10.2 Git Objects
3. 10.3 Git References
4. 10.4 Packfiles
5. 10.5 The Refspec
6. 10.6 Transfer Protocols
7. 10.7 Maintenance and Data Recovery
8. 10.8 Environment Variables
9. 10.9 Summary

Generating Your SSH Public Key

Many Git servers authenticate using SSH public keys.In order to provide a public key, each user in your system must generate one if they don’t already have one.This process is similar across all operating systems.First, you should check to make sure you don’t already have a key.By default, a user’s SSH keys are stored in that user’s ~/.ssh directory.You can easily check to see if you have a key already by going to that directory and listing the contents:

$ cd ~/.ssh$ lsauthorized_keys2 id_dsa known_hostsconfig id_dsa.pub

You’re looking for a pair of files named something like id_dsa or id_rsa and a matching file with a .pub extension.The .pub file is your public key, and the other file is the corresponding private key.If you don’t have these files (or you don’t even have a .ssh directory), you can create them by running a program called ssh-keygen, which is provided with the SSH package on Linux/macOS systems and comes with Git for Windows:

$ ssh-keygen -oGenerating public/private rsa key pair.Enter file in which to save the key (/home/schacon/.ssh/id_rsa):Created directory '/home/schacon/.ssh'.Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):Enter same passphrase again:Your identification has been saved in /home/schacon/.ssh/id_rsa.Your public key has been saved in /home/schacon/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.The key fingerprint is:d0:82:24:8e:d7:f1:bb:9b:33:53:96:93:49:da:9b:e3 schacon@mylaptop.local

First it confirms where you want to save the key (.ssh/id_rsa), and then it asks twice for a passphrase, which you can leave empty if you don’t want to type a password when you use the key.However, if you do use a password, make sure to add the -o option; it saves the private key in a format that is more resistant to brute-force password cracking than is the default format.You can also use the ssh-agent tool to prevent having to enter the password each time.

Now, each user that does this has to send their public key to you or whoever is administrating the Git server (assuming you’re using an SSH server setup that requires public keys).All they have to do is copy the contents of the .pub file and email it.The public keys look something like this:

$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pubssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAQEAklOUpkDHrfHY17SbrmTIpNLTGK9Tjom/BWDSUGPl+nafzlHDTYW7hdI4yZ5ew18JH4JW9jbhUFrviQzM7xlELEVf4h9lFX5QVkbPppSwg0cda3Pbv7kOdJ/MTyBlWXFCR+HAo3FXRitBqxiX1nKhXpHAZsMciLq8V6RjsNAQwdsdMFvSlVK/7XAt3FaoJoAsncM1Q9x5+3V0Ww68/eIFmb1zuUFljQJKprrX88XypNDvjYNby6vw/Pb0rwert/EnmZ+AW4OZPnTPI89ZPmVMLuayrD2cE86Z/il8b+gw3r3+1nKatmIkjn2so1d01QraTlMqVSsbxNrRFi9wrf+M7Q== schacon@mylaptop.local

For a more in-depth tutorial on creating an SSH key on multiple operating systems, see the GitHub guide on SSH keys at https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent.

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Generating Your SSH Public Key (2024)

1. Getting Started

2. Git Basics

3. Git Branching

4. Git on the Server

5. Distributed Git

6. GitHub

7. Git Tools

8. Customizing Git

9. Git and Other Systems

10. Git Internals

A1. Appendix A: Git in Other Environments

A2. Appendix B: Embedding Git in your Applications

A3. Appendix C: Git Commands

Generating Your SSH Public Key

References