Setting Up SSH Access to GitHub and Creating a New File

I just went through the process of setting up SSH access to GitHub, and I thought I'd share what I learned today. It was a bit of a learning curve, but I feel much more confident now. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what I did.

Step 1: Generating an SSH Key

First things first, I needed to generate an SSH key pair on my local machine. This key pair helps in securely connecting to GitHub. Here’s the command I used:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"        

This command creates a new SSH key using the Ed25519 algorithm, which is known for its security. When the terminal asked where to save the key, I just pressed Enter to accept the default location. For the passphrase, I decided to skip it by pressing Enter twice.

Step 2: Adding the SSH Key to the SSH-Agent

Next, I had to make sure that the SSH-agent was running and then add my new SSH private key to the agent. Here’s how I did it:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519        

This ensures that my key is readily available when I need to connect to GitHub.

Step 3: Adding the SSH Key to My GitHub Account

With my key generated, the next step was to add it to my GitHub account. Here’s how I did it:

Copy the SSH public key to my clipboard:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | clip        

(For Mac users, replace clip with pbcopy.)

• Once you have generated your SSH key and copied it, the next step is to add it to your GitHub account. This allows you to connect securely to GitHub, making it easier to manage your code directly from your computer. Here’s how you can do it:
• Log in to GitHub and navigate to Settings > SSH and GPG keys.
• Click on "New SSH key."
• Give it a title like "My Computer" so you can recognize which device the key belongs to.
• In the "Key" field, paste the SSH key you copied from Git Bash. This is the key that was generated and displayed when you ran the cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub command.
• Click "Add SSH key."
• The goal of this step is to link your SSH key with GitHub, allowing you to securely push and pull code between your local machine and your GitHub repositories. This setup ensures that you can work on your projects seamlessly from your computer without needing to repeatedly enter your credentials.

Step 4: Testing the SSH Connection

To make sure everything was set up correctly, I tested the SSH connection with this command:

ssh -T [email protected]        

I got a message saying:

Hi <my GitHub username>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.        

This meant my SSH key was working perfectly!

Step 5: Cloning a Repository

Now, I was ready to clone a repository. I used this command, replacing username and repository with my actual GitHub username and the name of the repository I wanted to clone:

git clone [email protected]:username/repository.git        

Then, I navigated into the cloned repository:

cd repository        

Step 6: Creating and Committing a New File

I decided to create a new file in my repository and add some content to it:

echo "This is a new file." > newfile.txt        

To add this file to the staging area, I used:

git add newfile.txt        

Then, I committed my changes with a message:

git commit -m "Add newfile.txt"        

Step 7: Pushing the Changes to GitHub

Finally, I pushed my changes to the GitHub repository:

git push origin main        

(If your branch name is different, replace main with your branch name.)

Conclusion

And that’s it! I successfully set up SSH access to GitHub, cloned a repository, and created a new file in it. It feels great to have learned something new and to see it working smoothly. I hope this guide helps anyone else who’s going through the same process. Happy coding!