There may be better tools if one is working directly in Linux. Replace id_rsa with id_ed25519 or your key name.

Create SSH Private/Public Keys for GIT

Update APT and install OpenSSH Client and GIT

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y openssh-client git

mkdir -p ~/.ssh/<your_git_repo_host>

Where <your_git_repo_host> can be github.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C 'your@email.com' -f ~/.ssh/<your_git_repo_host>/id_ed25519

or using RSA if your github server doesn't support EdDSA:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C 'your@email.com' -f ~/.ssh/<your_git_repo_host>/id_rsa

Not having a password for the private key is convenient for not having to enter it for prompts, but not as secure.

Get the public key so it can be provided to your git host.

cat ~/.ssh/<your_git_repo_host>/id_ed25519.pub

Open your github URL through a web browser.

1. Click under your profile at the top right corner.

2. Click Settings.

3. Navigate to SSH and GPG keys on the left pane.

4. Under SSH keys section click the New SSH Key button.

5. On the SSH keys/Add New page, add a descriptive Title and paste the value of your id_ed25519.pub or id_rsa.pub to the Key textbox and click the Add SSH key button.

Start SSH Agent

Start ssh-agent since it is the key manager for your private key allowing authentication with the public key you provided to github.

eval $(ssh-agent)

Note, you can kill the agent if you need to with eval "$(ssh-agent -k)".

ssh-add ~/.ssh/<your_git_repo_host>/id_ed25519

Github Host Configuration

If keys to the host were not preserved by the line above a config can be created manually:

touch ~/.ssh/config
vim ~/.ssh/config

# Configure to use key based off host.
Host <your_git_domain_name>
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<your_git_repo_host>/id_ed25519

or

echo "# Configure to use key based off host." > ~/.ssh/config
echo "Host github.com" >> ~/.ssh/config
echo -e '\tIdentityFile ~/.ssh/your_git_repo_host/id_ed25519' >> ~/.ssh/config

If you encounter an issue with WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE! and your private key was password protected. It's likely a permission issue.

sudo chmod 600 ~/.ssh/<your_git_repo_host>/id_ed25519

or everything under ~/.ssh

sudo chmod 755 ~/.ssh

You can test your git connection issues with verbose logging to better determine the cause for authentication failures:

ssh -vT git@<your_git_domain_name>.com

SSH Key Password

It's a bit annoying to type in your SSH key password every time you run a git command so you can use keychain to store it. It will prompt for the password once and cache it. Keychain will automatically start the ssh-agent.

sudo apt-get install keychain

Update your .bashrc:

# SSH
#eval `ssh-agent
#eval ``keychain --eval --agents ssh <your_git_repo_host>/id_ed25519
eval $(keychain --eval <your_git_repo_host>/id_ed25519)

Show Git branch in Terminal

Windows Terminal doesn't show the Git branch by default.

parse_git_branch() {
     git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/(\1)/'
}
export PS1="\u@\h \[\e[32m\]\w \[\e[91m\]\$(parse_git_branch)\[\e[00m\]$ "

Pipe command output to clipboard

Works best with pure Linux below due to this issue Install

sudo apt install xclip

Example

cat /etc/os-release xclip -selection c

Set alias in ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc or ~/.bashrc_profile

echo 'alias xclip="xclip -selection c"' >> ~/.profile

WSL Option:

cat /etc/os-release | clip.exe

VS Code and WSL

VS Code for an editor with remoting directly to WSL.

• code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl

TODO: MOAR!!!

Personal Access Token Alternative

You can also use personal access tokens (PAT) to authenticate with github. If you have only a few repositories you use, this may be an easier option to authenticate to github.

1. Click under your profile at the top right corner.

2. Click Settings.

3. In the left pane select Developer settings.

4. On the new left pane select Personal access tokens.

5. Click Generate new token.

6. Select the appropriate expiration date for the token from the drop-down options.

7. Select the appropriate level of access.

   1. For just pull/push, I use would select the repo checkbox which should automatically select everything under it.

      

8. Click Generate token.

   1. The token will be shown on the redirect page. Make note of it since it won't be shown again.

9. Note if you're on Windows, there you may just clone normally and it will cache your username and password. This may not be possible with single-sign-on (SSO). If this is the case you can use the token directly when cloning:

git https://your_personal_access_token@your_repo/some_path.git

Notes

• WSL2.0 uses ~/.profile

• When cloning either select the https (PAT) or ssh option from your github repository page depending on the authentication your set up.

  

References

• https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent

• https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/creating-a-personal-access-token

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdDSA

• https://thucnc.medium.com/how-to-show-current-git-branch-with-colors-in-bash-prompt-380d05a24745

• https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4933

• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18880024/start-ssh-agent-on-login

• https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/troubleshooting-ssh/error-permission-denied-publickey