Configure GitHub in your Linux system using public\private ssh keys instead of username/password – csforce.de

🟩 Step 1 — Generate your SSH key pair (public key .pub and private key) at ~/.ssh/

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

🟩 Step 2 — Start the SSH agent

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

You should see something like:

Agent pid 1234

🟩 Step 3 — Copy your pub key to GitHub

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

copy the conent of your .pub key to GitHub

Go to your github profile ➤ Settings ➤ SSH and GPG kyes ➤ New SSH key

Paste the content of your pub key in text box above under the word “Key” and give it a name in textbox above under the word “Title”

🟩 Step 4 — tell SSH client which private key to use which is paired to the pub key used at GitHub earlier

e.g under current’s user .ssh folder

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
nano ~/.ssh/config

Add:

Host *
AddKeysToAgent yes
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

ctrl-o to write and ctrl-x to close nano.

Then secure it:

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config

🟩 Step 5 – testing it

ssh -T git@github.com

you should see sth like this:

Hi github_username! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.