Running SSH Agent when starting Git Bash on Windows

Question

I am using git bash  I have to use  eval  ssh-agent exe  ssh-add  my ssh location    every time when I start a new git bash   Is there a way to set ssh agent permanently  Or does windows has a good way to manage the ssh keys   I m a new guy  please give me detailed tutorial  thanks

User · Answer

I found the smoothest way to achieve this was using Pageant as the SSH agent and plink.

You need to have a putty session configured for the hostname that is used in your remote.

You will also need plink.exe which can be downloaded from the same site as putty.

And you need Pageant running with your key loaded. I have a shortcut to pageant in my startup folder that loads my SSH key when I log in.

When you install git-scm you can then specify it to use tortoise/plink rather than OpenSSH.

The net effect is you can open git-bash whenever you like and push/pull without being challenged for passphrases.

Same applies with putty and WinSCP sessions when pageant has your key loaded. It makes life a hell of a lot easier (and secure).

User · Answer

I wrote a script and created a git repository  which solves this issue here  https   github com Cazaimi boot-github-shell-win   The readme contains instructions on how to set the script up  so that each time you open a new window tab the private key is added to ssh-agent automatically  and you don t have to worry about this  if you re working with remote git repositories

User · Answer

Create a new  bashrc file in your   directory   There you can put your commands that you want executed everytime you start the bash

User · Answer

In a git bash session  you can add a script to    profile or    bashrc  with   being usually set to  USERPROFILE    in order for said session to launch automatically the ssh-agent   If the file doesn t exist  just create it   This is what GitHub describes in  Working with SSH key passphrases    The  Auto-launching ssh-agent on Git for Windows  section of that article has a robust script that checks if the agent is running or not  Below is just a snippet  see the GitHub article for the full solution     This is just a snippet  See the article above  if   agent is running  then     agent start     ssh-add elif   agent has keys  then     ssh-add fi   Other Resources    Getting ssh-agent to work with git run from windows command shell  has a similar script  but I d refer to the GitHub article above primarily  which is more robust and up to date

User · Answer

Simple two string solution from this answer   For sh  bash  etc        profile if   pgrep -q -U  whoami  -x  ssh-agent   then ssh-agent -s  gt     ssh-agent sh  fi      ssh-agent sh   For csh  tcsh  etc        schrc sh -c  if   pgrep -q -U  whoami  -x  ssh-agent   then ssh-agent -c  gt     ssh-agent tcsh  fi  eval  cat    ssh-agent tcsh

User · Answer

P S  These instructions are in context of a Bash shell opened in Windows 10 Linux Subsystem and doesn t mention about sym-linking SSH keys generated in Windows with Bash on Ubuntu on Windows  1  Update your  bashrc by adding following in it    Set up ssh-agent SSH ENV   HOME  ssh environment   function start agent       echo  Initializing new SSH agent         touch  SSH ENV     chmod 600    SSH ENV        usr bin ssh-agent   sed  s  echo  echo    gt  gt     SSH ENV            SSH ENV    gt   dev null      usr bin ssh-add      Source SSH settings  if applicable if   -f    SSH ENV      then          SSH ENV    gt   dev null     kill -0  SSH AGENT PID 2 gt  dev null              start agent       else     start agent fi   2  Then run   source    bashrc to reload your config    The above steps have been taken from https   github com abergs ubuntuonwindows 2-start-an-bash-ssh-agent-on-launch  3  Create a SSH config file  if not present  Use following command for creating a new one   ssh  touch config  4  Add following to    ssh config  Host github com- lt YOUR GITHUB USERNAME gt   HostName github com User git PreferredAuthentications publickey IdentityFile    ssh id work gmail   path to your private key AddKeysToAgent yes   Host csexperimental abc com IdentityFile    ssh id work gmail   path to your private key AddKeysToAgent yes   lt More hosts and github configs can be added in similar manner mentioned above gt    5  Add your key to SSH agent using command   ssh-add    ssh id work gmail and then you should be able to connect to your github account or remote host using ssh  For e g  in context of above code examples     ssh github com- lt YOUR GITHUB USERNAME gt    or    ssh  lt USER gt  csexperimental abc com   This adding of key to the SSH agent should be required to be performed only one-time   6  Now logout of your Bash session on Windows Linux Subsystem i e  exit all the Bash consoles again and start a new console again and try to SSH to your Github Host or other host as configured in SSH config file and it should work without needing any extra steps   Note    If you face Bad owner or permissions on    ssh config then update the permissions using the command chmod 600    ssh config  Reference  https   serverfault com a 253314 98910 For the above steps to work you will need OpenSSH v 7 2 and newer  If you have older one you can upgrade it using the steps mentioned at https   stackoverflow com a 41555393 936494 The same details can be found in the gist Windows 10 Linux Subsystem SSH-agent issues   Thanks

User · Answer

Put this in your    bashrc  or a file that s source d from it  which will stop it from being run multiple times unnecessarily per shell  if   -z  quot  SSH AGENT PID quot     then         eval  ssh-agent -s  fi  And then add  quot AddKeysToAgent yes quot  to    ssh config  Host       AddKeysToAgent yes  ssh to your server  or git pull  normally and you ll only be asked for password passphrase once per session

User · Answer

As I don t like using putty in Windows as a workaround  I created a very simple utility ssh-agent-wrapper  It scans your  ssh folders and adds all your keys to the agent  You simply need to put it into Windows startup folder for it to work   Assumptions    ssh-agent in path shh-add in path  both by choosing the  RED  option when installing git private keys are in  USERPROFILE   ssh folder private keys names start with id  e g  id rsa

User · Answer

I could not get this to work based off the best answer  probably because I m such a PC noob and missing something obvious  But just FYI in case it helps someone as challenged as me  what has FINALLY worked was through one of the links here  referenced in the answers   This involved simply pasting the following to my  bash profile   env    ssh agent env  agent load env      test -f   env   amp  amp      env   gt    dev null      agent start           umask 077  ssh-agent  gt     env           env   gt    dev null      agent load env    agent run state  0 agent running w  key  1 agent w o key  2  agent not running agent run state   ssh-add -l  gt    dev null 2 gt  amp 1  echo      if       SSH AUTH SOCK          agent run state   2    then     agent start     ssh-add elif     SSH AUTH SOCK     amp  amp     agent run state   1    then     ssh-add fi  unset env   I probably have something configured weird  but was not successful when I added it to my  profile or  bashrc  The other real challenge I ve run into is I m not an admin on this computer and can t change the environment variables without getting it approved by IT  so this is a solution for those that can t access that   You know it s working if you re prompted for your ssh password when you open git bash  Hallelujah something finally worked

User · Answer

If the goal is to be able to push to a GitHub repo whenever you want to  then in Windows under C  Users tiago  ssh where the keys are stored  at least in my case   create a file named config and add the following in it Host github com     HostName github com     User your user name     IdentityFile    ssh your file name  Then simply open Git Bash and you ll be able to push without having to manually start the ssh-agent and adding the key

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