How to run ssh-add on windows

Question

I m following  335 Deploying to a VPS   and near the end of the episode  we need to run ssh-add to give server access to github repo   The problem is how do I run it in windows  What need to install   I know that to run ssh to access the remote server  I can use Putty  But this command needs to run locally  I do know how to use Putty to do this

User · Accepted Answer

One could install Git for Windows and subsequently run ssh-add:

Step 3: Add your key to the ssh-agent

To configure the ssh-agent program to use your SSH key:

If you have GitHub for Windows installed, you can use it to clone repositories and not deal with SSH keys. It also comes with the Git Bash tool, which is the preferred way of running git commands on Windows.
Ensure ssh-agent is enabled:
If you are using Git Bash, turn on ssh-agent:
# start the ssh-agent in the background
ssh-agent -s
# Agent pid 59566
If you are using another terminal prompt, such as msysgit, turn on ssh-agent:
# start the ssh-agent in the background
eval $(ssh-agent -s)
# Agent pid 59566
Add your SSH key to the ssh-agent:
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

User · Answer

If you are not using GitBash - you need to start your ssh-agent using this command start-ssh-agent cmd  This is brutally buried in the comments and hard to find  This should be accepted answer  If your ssh agent is not set up  you can open PowerShell as admin and set it to manual mode Get-Service -Name ssh-agent   Set-Service -StartupType Manual

User · Answer

Original answer using git s start-ssh-agent  Make sure you have Git installed and have git s cmd folder in your PATH  For example  on my computer the path to git s cmd folder is C  Program Files Git cmd  Make sure your id rsa file is in the folder c  users yourusername  ssh  Restart your command prompt if you haven t already  and then run start-ssh-agent  It will find your id rsa and prompt you for the passphrase  Update 2019 - A better solution if you re using Windows 10  OpenSSH is available as part of Windows 10 which makes using SSH  from cmd powershell much easier in my opinion  It also doesn t rely on having git installed  unlike my previous solution    Open Manage optional features from the start menu and make sure you have Open SSH Client in the list  If not  you should be able to add it  Open Services from the start Menu Scroll down to OpenSSH Authentication Agent   right click   properties Change the Startup type from Disabled to any of the other 3 options  I have mine set to Automatic  Delayed Start  Open cmd and type where ssh to confirm that the top listed path is in System32  Mine is installed at C  Windows System32 OpenSSH ssh exe  If it s not in the list you may need to close and reopen cmd    Once you ve followed these steps  ssh-agent  ssh-add and all other ssh commands should now work from cmd  To start the agent you can simply type ssh-agent    Optional step troubleshooting  If you use git  you should set the GIT SSH environment variable to the output of where ssh which you ran before  e g C  Windows System32 OpenSSH ssh exe   This is to stop inconsistencies between the version of ssh you re using  and your keys are added generated with  and the version that git uses internally  This should prevent issues that are similar to this   Some nice things about this solution    You won t need to start the ssh-agent every time you restart your computer Identities that you ve added  using ssh-add  will get automatically added after restarts   It works for me  but you might possibly need a config file in your c  Users User  ssh folder  You don t need git  You can register any rsa private key to the agent  The other solution will only pick up a key named id rsa   Hope this helps

User · Answer

In order to run ssh-add on Windows one could install git using choco install git  The ssh-add command is recognized once C  Program Files Git usr bin has been added as a PATH variable and the command prompt has been restarted   C  Users user Desktop repository gt ssh-add  ssh id rsa Enter passphrase for  ssh id rsa  Identity added   ssh id rsa   ssh id rsa   C  Users user Desktop repository gt

User · Answer

I have been in similar situation before  In Command prompt  you type  start-ssh-agent  and voila  The ssh-agent will be started  Input the passphrase if it asked you

User · Answer

The Git GUI for Windows has a window-based application that allows you to paste in locations for ssh keys and repo url etc   https   gitforwindows org

User · Answer

If you are trying to setup a key for using git with ssh  there s always an option to add a configuration for the identity file   vi    ssh config  Host example com IdentityFile    ssh example key

[windows] How to run ssh-add on windows?

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