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Eddy Vinck
Eddy Vinck

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How to use a SSH key for GitHub on unix based systems (Linux or Mac)

#webdev #beginners #tutorial #productivity

Navigate to ~/.ssh

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your@email.com"
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When asked to give your key a name I recommend naming it after the service you are using it for, so for me this will be github.

Create ~/.ssh/config with the following content

Host github.com HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github
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Add the contents of the public key file (~/.ssh/github.pub) to your GitHub account https://github.com/settings/keys

Done! Now you don't have to specify which SSH key you want to use when using SSH to interface with GitHub.

connecting with SSH without specifying which key to use

This is how I do it.

Bonus: If you use multiple accounts you can do this in your config:

# account myfirstaccount (username) Host github.com-myfirstaccount HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-myfirstaccount # account mysecondaccount Host github.com-mysecondaccount HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-mysecondaccount
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