Git: How to solve Permission denied (publickey) error when using Git?

Question

I'm on Mac Snow Leopard and I just installed git.

I just tried

git clone [email protected]:cakebook.git 

but that gives me this error:

Initialized empty Git repository in `/Users/username/Documents/cakebook/.git/` Permission denied (publickey). fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly 

What am I missing?
I've also tried doing ssh-keygen with no passphase but still same error.

Answer 1

If the user has not generated a ssh public/private key pair set before

This info is working on theChaw but can be applied to all other git repositories which support SSH pubkey authentications. (See [gitolite][1], gitlab or github for example.)

First start by setting up your own public/private key pair set. This can use either DSA or RSA, so basically any key you setup will work. On most systems you can use ssh-keygen.

• First you'll want to cd into your .ssh directory. Open up the terminal and run:

cd ~/.ssh && ssh-keygen

• Next you need to copy this to your clipboard.
• On OS X run: cat id_rsa.pub | pbcopy
• On Linux run: cat id_rsa.pub | xclip
• On Windows (via Cygwin/Git Bash) run: cat id_rsa.pub | clip
• On Windows (Powershell) run: Get-Content id_rsa.pub | Set-Clipboard (Thx to @orion elenzil)
• Add your key to your account via the website.
• Finally setup your .gitconfig.
• git config --global user.name "bob"
• git config --global user.email bob@... (don't forget to restart your command line to make sure the config is reloaded)

That's it you should be good to clone and checkout.

Further information can be found at https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys (thanks to @Lee Whitney) [1]: https://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite

-

If the user has generated a ssh public/private key pair set before

• check which key have been authorized on your github or gitlab account settings
• determine which corresponding private key must be associated from your local computer

eval $(ssh-agent -s)

• define where the keys are located

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa