I am having a really hard time getting my SSH keys up and running after installing Windows 10. Normal method is create it and throw it in the user's account under .ssh. This folder does not appear to be available in Windows 10.
Anyone else run into this? I need to have 3 SSH keys for different repos and this is really holding me up.
This question is related to
ssh-keys
windows-10
I finally got it to work by running opening command line with "Run a Administrator" even though I was already admin and could create directory manually
I found a notable exception that in Windows 10, using the described route only wrote the files to the folder if the file names where not specified in the ssh-keygen generator.
giving a custom key name caused the files containing the RSA public and private keys not to be written to the folder.
ssh-keygen
c:/Users/YourUserName/.ssh/
(using Admin Command Line and Windows 10 Pro)
Warning: If you are saving your keys under C:/User/username/.ssh ( the default place), make sure to back up your keys somewhere (eg your password manager).
After the most recent Windows 10 Update (version 1607), my .ssh folder was empty. This is where my keys have always been, but Windows decided to delete them when updating.
Thankfully I had backed up my keys... But... I bet some people will be reverting their PC's today.
Create private/public key:
git bash
, PowerShell
, cmd.exe
etc.)ssh-keygen
~/.ssh/id_rsa
)RSA
is 3072
or aboveYou have now created a private/public key pair.
For GIT the key must have a strength of 2048
, must be located in the users .ssh
directory and be called id_rsa
and id_rsa.pub
. When pasting the keys anywhere make sure to use a program that does not add new lines like VIM.
If you have Windows 10 with the OpenSSH client you may be able to generate the key, but you will have trouble copying it to the target Linux box as the ssh-copy-id command is not part of the client toolset.
Having has this problem I wrote a small PowerShell function to address this, that you add to your profile.
function ssh-copy-id([string]$userAtMachine, [string]$port = 22) {
# Get the generated public key
$key = "$ENV:USERPROFILE" + "/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"
# Verify that it exists
if (!(Test-Path "$key")) {
# Alert user
Write-Error "ERROR: '$key' does not exist!"
}
else {
# Copy the public key across
& cat "$key" | ssh $userAtMachine -p $port "umask 077; test -d .ssh || mkdir .ssh ; cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys || exit 1"
}
}
You can get the gist here
I have a brief write up about it here
WINDOWS: If you have git for windows installed go to its folder.
Look in the bin directory. There is a sh.exe file. Run that.
Then type:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your email here"
Follow through instructions and then type:
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | clip
It copies the key to your clipboard. Now you can paste that public key to the server side.
cd
to a different one.ssh-keygen
/c/Users/YourUserName/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
p.s.: If you installed git with bash integration (like me) open "Git Bash" instead of "cmd" on first step
I'm running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, Version 10.0.17763 Build 17763, and I see my .ssh folder easily at C:\Users\jrosario\.ssh without having to edit permissions or anything (though in File Explorer, I did select "Show hidden files, folders and drives"):
The keys are stored in a text file named known_hosts, which looks roughly like this:
2019-04-07 UPDATE: I tested today with a new version of windows 10 (build 1809, "2018 October's update") and not only the open SSH client is no longer in beta, as it is already installed. So, all you need to do is create the key and set your client to use open SSH instead of putty(pagent):
ssh-keygen
and press enterI tested on Git Extensions and Source Tree and it worked with my personal repo in GitHub. If you are in an earlier windows version or prefer a graphical client for SSH, please read below.
2018-06-04 UDPATE:
On windows 10, starting with version 1709 (win+R and type winver
to find the build number), Microsoft is releasing a beta of the OpenSSH client and server.
To be able to create a key, you'll need to install the OpenSSH server. To do this follow these steps:
Now you can open a prompt and ssh-keygen
and the client will be recognized by windows. I have not tested this.
If you do not have windows 10 or do not want to use the beta, follow the instructions below on how to use putty.
ssh-keygen
does not come installed with windows. Here's how to create an ssh key with Putty:
For openssh keys, a few more steps are required:
Now that the keys are saved. Start pagent
and add the private key there ( the ppk file in Putty's format)
Remember that pagent
must be running for the authentication to work
cd
to a different one.mkdir .ssh
Also, you can try (for Windows 10 Pro)
Run Powershell as administrator and type ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"
Source: Stackoverflow.com