Issue on adding SSH key to GitHub

Question

I have got an issue that seems about the format of SSH key used by GitHub. I used Git Bash to generate a new SSH key:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]"

Then, I copied the key to the SSH section in settings of my GitHub account page. However, it came with the issue notice as follows:

Key is invalid. It must begin with 'ssh-ed25519', 'ssh-rsa', 'ssh-dss', 'ecdsa-sha2-nistp256', 'ecdsa-sha2-nistp384', or 'ecdsa-sha2-nistp521'. Check that you're copying the public half of the key

Following that, I edited my SSH key starting with ssh-rsa and my email address at the end. However, the issue is still there.

What is the solution to this?　

Answer 1

ssh-keygen will generate you a pair of keys, one private and one public. It sounds like you uploaded the wrong one. GitHub wants the public key, typically here: ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

Answer 2

Simply follow these steps and you will set up your SSH key in no time:

• Generate a new ssh key (or skip this step if you already have a key) ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your@email"

• Once you have your key set in home/.ssh directory (or Users/<your user>.ssh under windows), open it and copy the content

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How can I add the SSH key to the GitHub account?

• Login to the GitHub account

• Click on the rancher on the top right (Settings)

  

• Click on the SSH keys

  

• Click on the Add SSH key

  

• Paste your key and save

And you are all set to go :-)