Git clone with SSH shows error permission denied (publickey)

Question

I am trying to clone a github repository but it gives me this error. (I'm using cmder bash on Windows)

What have I done wrong or am I missing something here? I can't understand why it's not working... Here is the error.

λ git clone [email protected]:squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer.git
Cloning into 'PHP_CodeSniffer'...
[email protected]: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

I also tried it like this and got this error:

λ git clone ssh://[email protected]:vuejs/vue.git
Cloning into 'vue'...
ssh: Could not resolve hostname github.com:vuejs: Name or service not known
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

I generated an ssh key pair

λ ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (C:\Users\Martins/.ssh/id_rsa): C:\Users\Martins\.ssh\id_rsa_github
Your identification has been saved in C:\Users\Martins\.ssh\id_rsa_github.
Your public key has been saved in C:\Users\Martins\.ssh\id_rsa_github.pub.
The key fingerprint is: SHA256:Zdkc0cerbea3ofgBLavgOLzfLm5JiFw2hZXQ41C0CY martins@MartinsPC

I added it to ssh-agent

λ ssh-add C:\Users\Martins\.ssh\id_rsa_github
Identity added: C:\Users\Martins\.ssh\id_rsa_github (C:\Users\Martins\.ssh\id_rsa_github)

I added it to my /.ssh/config file

Host github
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile C:\Users\Martins\.ssh\id_rsa_github

I added it to Github > SSH and GPG keys > New SSH Key

Title: Martins PC
Key: ssh-rsa AAAAB3HkbB1yc2EAAADAQBAAABAQxbprOpXw7qD9dnb1PIeo8AZ5YxaTUQ8wjpiBGcvw3WjcXCotBLgSWilahLdPVouGjlAh0xB0YB1g3oMrAqQRHb54CDzWJMUWqatzMwL+xorVqPKuNAGVxWcvgWBooteX7D/XrrW5kjUooBM9ffTO2gpP3WcKBMdtjQDZJB0Ba6W/zNMF+1k2u2kq6m7z9QBspMIMqYJhc4YsmOr96JUTFb2Gn4ekJ5kJqW3L5m0UBzwj6WS0DczcgEKUy5r3fZ7sBHS7vhc3ZnNtpfzSpBbL+j/Mgvz8CC+xDGkjR/J/29m7nL martins@MartinsPC

Liga · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-15 15:30:41Z

1

I finally found the problem. For anyone else who runs into this - the Host in my config file said "github" instead of "github.com". When I changed it to "github.com" now it is working.

It's still strange to me because I thought the Host section was for aliases only, maybe someone can explain that further.

answered Oct 15, 2020 at 15:30

Liga

3,4596 gold badges40 silver badges71 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Radek Liska Over a year ago

That's true, but you must actually use the alias. The following could have possibly worked for "github" alias in ssh config: git clone ssh://git@github:vuejs/vue.git

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Git clone with SSH shows error permission denied (publickey)

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related