Quick SSH setup guide
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Because I always find myself forgetting how to setup SSH, here is a short guide so that I don't forget.
Setup the SSH folder
Locate the folder that will store all SSH keys.
In the command line of Git BASH or Terminal, navigate to this folder with cd ~/.ssh.
If the directory doesn't exist, make it with cd ~ + mkdir .ssh + cd .ssh.
At the end of this step, the command line should be inside the .ssh
folder.
Generate a SSH key pair
Inside the .ssh
folder, use the ssh-keygen command to start the
setup process for a new SSH key.
Enter a file name to store the SSH key. The naming convention is usually
id_<name>
, where <name>
is a descriptive keyword.
Once a file name is entered it will prompt for a pass phrase. Enter a passphrase to generate the SSH key. To change an existing key's pass phrase run the ssh-keygen -p command.
Authorise the public key on the server
After creating a public SSH key it must be authorised. This means copying the
contents of id_rsa.pub
into a file called authorized_keys
. If this file does
not exist, create a blank one in the .ssh
folder on the server.
Paste in the contents of the public key into authorized_keys
. If the public
key was uploaded to the server the contents of can be appended by running
cat id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys
Otherwise, if you just need to copy the contents to your clipboard, use pbcopy < id_rsa.pub
Update the SSH config
With an SSH created, update the config
file within the .ssh
folder on the
local computer to link the server to the private SSH key. If this file does not
exist, create it.
Add the following lines to the config
file:
Host <domain-name>
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Where <domain-name>
is the server to connect to over SSH.
Add the SSH key
Using the SSH key is a matter of adding it to the authentication agent with the ssh-add id_rsa command.
Enter the key's pass phrase and the SSH key will be setup.
To confirm which keys are currently added, run the ssh-add -l command.
To add all SSH keys at once, run the ssh-add -A command.