Could not create directory '/home/username/.ssh'

Question

Git suddenly stopped working for me. (I use Git Bash under Windows 7. I am not using Cygwin.)

Every time I try to pull or push it says:

Could not create directory '/home/sigod/.ssh'

My SSH keys located in C:\Users\sigod\.ssh and HOME set to /c/Users/sigod. Which should work according to various SO questions.

If I place SSH keys into C:\Program Files\Git\home\sigod\.ssh then Git starts working again. But how can I make it work without dirty solutions?

As a temporary solution I created symlink for `c:\Program Files\Git\home\ <<===>> c:\Users`. — sigod, Mar 15 '16 at 12:25
Git should be using your home directory, which should be configured by the operating system. Presumably `/home/sigod` does not exist (or is not a directory), but something in your environment is telling git that that's your home directory. Even under Linux, the home directory for user `sigod` is not necessarily `/home/sigod`; the home directory for a user is set by the entry in `/etc/passwd`, which is used to set the `$HOME` environment variable, which is what git looks at. It probably works differently under Windows. Perhaps a Windows expert can help. — Keith Thompson, Jun 06 '18 at 21:31

Miron Veryanskiy · Answer 1 · 2022-06-28T11:56:03.860

Git Bash is built using MSYS2, which is a very close cousin to CygWin. The following steps might just work for your case:

Open cmd.exe as administrator, and set the HOME system environment variable to point to your user directory.
```
setx -m HOME ^%UserProfile^%
```

The above command will set HOME=%UserProfile% for your system environment.

Open git bash, and make sure that /etc/nsswitch.conf file contains an uncommented db_home line entry. Make sure it matches one of the below configurations:

option a:
```
db_home: env windows cygwin desc
```
option b:
```
db_home: windows
```
Fully close git-bash when trying out options in step 2 (to be sure no background processes are keeping git-bash alive, log off from windows and log back in).

I based the above on an answer explaining the CygWin version of the same question.

thanks for the correction. modified my answer. btw https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/FAQ — yosefrow, Jun 06 '18 at 21:23

yosefrow · Answer 2 · 2018-06-06T21:19:28.660

GitBash is similar to Cygwin which uses traditional linux permissions.

I suggest you make sure your ssh directory exists in the correct place and has the right permissions by running from git bash the following commands:

mkdir ~/.ssh
chown $USER:$USER -R ~/.ssh

then run stat ~/.ssh to see that the permissions changed correctly

ls ~/.ssh

to see that your key is properly installed in the correct place.

You can see which directory is actually registered as your home directory by running echo ~ or echo $HOME.

You can change your linux HOME by modifying ~/.bashrc and adding the line export HOME=/some/directory

You can see how your GitBash filesystem corresponds to your windows filesystem by typing the command mount

MINGW64 /c $ mount
C:/Program Files/Git on / type ntfs (binary,noacl,auto)
C:/Program Files/Git/usr/bin on /bin type ntfs (binary,noacl,auto)
C:/Users/MyUser/AppData/Local/Temp on /tmp type ntfs (binary,noacl,posix=0,usertemp)
C: on /c type ntfs (binary,noacl,posix=0,user,noumount,auto)
D: on /d type ntfs (binary,noacl,posix=0,user,noumount,auto)

If nothing else works, you can also try modifying the %HOME% environment variable in windows to make sure it directs to the right path. But any windows env var will be overwritten by linux vars you add to your ~/.bashrc

Thank you for detailed response. Unfortunately, I cannot test it, as the problem disappeared along with symlink. — sigod, Jul 10 '17 at 14:52
In my case the owner was correct but there was a permissions issue. A blanket `chmod -R 777 .ssh` fixed the issue (and a subsequent issue with writing to the known_hosts file) - but would of course strongly recommend taking a backup of the existing `.ssh` folder for anyone doing this. — Steve Chambers, Feb 26 '18 at 14:40
@SteveChambers hi, thanks for bringing this issue to my attention. I would strongly advise *against* chmod -R 777 .ssh as this enables any visitor or guest to your computer to see your private ssh keys. Instead I would simply add -R to my command to make it recursive. I've update my answer to reflect this. Regarding the permissions in your .ssh folder I suggest running `chown $USER:$USER -R ~/.ssh` to make yourself the owner and fixing the permissions with : `chmod 644 -R ~/.ssh` `chmod 700 ~/.ssh` `chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa` — yosefrow, Feb 27 '18 at 19:31

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 13 '20 at 13:13

Make sure which one [ssh.exe] you are executing ! $ where ssh

D:\xxxx\bin\ssh.exe
C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\ssh.exe
C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe

In my case, there is another ssh.exe in my export Path. (i.e.: D:\xxxx\bin\ssh.exe)

So I remove the the ssh.exe and keep the original one! (C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\ssh.exe)

Everything is nice now!

Najathi · Answer 4 · 2022-08-01T18:27:14.903

1

Windows Machine

you can use cd ~/.ssh/ instead of ~/.ssh

cd ~/.ssh/

edited Aug 01 '22 at 18:27

answered Feb 23 '21 at 09:53

Najathi

2,529
24
23

2

What difference would that make? What does this have to do with the question being asked? – ChrisGPT was on strike Feb 23 '21 at 12:56
Please add some explanation to your answer such that others can learn from it – Nico Haase Feb 23 '21 at 13:28
no need to create the .ssh folder. by default, it has on windows or any other os, in Windows you just type ~/.ssh, will get an error. if you change the directory cd ~/.ssh/, it will navigate to .ssh folder on your machine – Najathi Feb 24 '21 at 08:53
that so wierd i run 'ls -al' but not showing .ssh but if run cd ~/.ssh/ then enter .ssh. – Berkay Nayman Aug 01 '22 at 13:32

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 14 '18 at 19:31

Same thing here: Could not create directory '/home/carlos.leao/.ssh', in Git Bash for Windows, version 2.17.1.2-64-bit. Using Windows 10.

Solve with sigod workaround. But insted of create the folder struture C:\Program Files\Git\home\carlos.leao and copied the folder C:\Users\carlos.leao.ssh into it i've created a symbolic link from C:\Users\carlos.leao.ssh to C:\Program Files\Git\home\carlos.leao.ssh. To do it (replace carlos.leao with your Windows username):

Create this folder struture C:\Program Files\Git**home\carlos.leao**
start CMD.exe
run the comand: mklink /d "C:\Users\carlos.leao.ssh" "C:\Program Files\Git\home\carlos.leao.ssh"

Works like a charm!

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 07 '22 at 10:40

0

Reinstalling git-bash worked for me.

answered Apr 07 '22 at 10:40

Jony

1,035
7
17
43

Could not create directory '/home/username/.ssh'

6 Answers6