Different SSH locations for git?

Question

I recently reinstalled Windows on my PC. However the new SSH location on my PC is different because the username is different. When I try to sync git, it still looks for the previous ssh location.

My question is simply why is it looking for the previous location?

EDIT

I forgot to mention that I copied all my repositories and .ssh folder over.

What do you mean by the SSH location? do you mean your private key? — Philip Couling, Jan 31 '19 at 23:28
The .ssh folder in your user space (C:/Users/[username/.ssh) — gagarwa, Feb 01 '19 at 21:36

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '19 at 05:50

1

Git will always look by default for ssh keys in %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_rsa(.pub).

Warning, with Git 2.19+, you need to add the -m PEM option to ssh-keygen:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -m PEM -P ""

The only way Git would look elsewhere is if you have restored your %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\config file, in which you could have set a specific path for a private key.

answered Feb 01 '19 at 05:50

VonC

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You are right. I copied and stored my entire .ssh folder since I had multiple keys I was using. In the config file, I had to update the location it was looking for my keys. – gagarwa Feb 01 '19 at 21:38
@gagarwa OK, that makes sense: the config can specify through the IdentityFile entry a different path. Note that environment variable can also influence said path, since Git 2.10+: https://stackoverflow.com/a/38474220/6309 – VonC Feb 01 '19 at 21:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 01 '19 at 01:14

all it's looking for is the private key. since you reinstalled Windows, you would have lost you previous key. only option you have is to generate a new key and configure it's corresponding public key on git again.

P.S: you are incorrect in assuming that it's due to change in location or that git's even looking for your key at a certain location.

Different SSH locations for git?

2 Answers2