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skylock/create_new_ssh_key.md

Forked from JoaquimLey/create_new_ssh_key.md
Created April 23, 2018 06:01
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Generating a new SSH key and adding it to the ssh-agent
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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 a file in which to save the key:

(/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

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