The following should cover the basics. If you need further help, se link at the bottom of the page.
Before generating a new key pair, check if you already have an existing SSH key. Run the following command in your terminal:
ls -al ~/.ssh
Look for files named id_rsa (private key) and id_rsa.pub (public key). You might also have a keys named id_ecdsa or ``
id_ed25519` with their corresponding public keys.
If you don't have existing keys or wish to generate a new pair, use the following command to generate one:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"
Replace "[email protected]" with your GitHub-associated email. When prompted to "Enter a file in which to save the key," press Enter. This accepts the default file location.
Now you need to copy the public key to your clipboard: (replace the file path, if you have a keypair with different names)
On Mac, you can run pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
On Windows, you can run clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
Alternatively, you can open the file in your favorite text editor or run cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to print it out to the terminal and copy it from there.
Now go to your GitHub account settings, navigate to "SSH and GPG keys," and click "New SSH key." Paste the copied key into the provided field and add a descriptive title.
To ensure the key is correctly configured, test the SSH connection to GitHub:
ssh -T [email protected]
If successful, you'll receive a message like "Hi username! You've successfully authenticated...". If it is the first time you connect to GitHub you might get a "Unknown host" warning, just type "yes" to continue.
To clone repositories using SSH, use the SSH URL provided on the GitHub repository page. For example:
git clone [email protected]:username/repository.git
Replace username/repository with the actual repository name.
For more detailed instructions or troubleshooting, refer to the GitHub's SSH key setup guide.