Git: How to solve Permission denied (publickey) error when using Git?

If the user has not generated a ssh public/private key pair set before

This info is working on theChaw but can be applied to all other git repositories which support SSH pubkey authentications. (See [gitolite][1], gitlab or github for example.)

First start by setting up your own public/private key pair set. This
can use either DSA or RSA, so basically any key you setup will work.
On most systems you can use ssh-keygen.

  • First you’ll want to cd into your .ssh directory. Open up the terminal and run:

cd ~/.ssh && ssh-keygen

  • Next you need to copy this to your clipboard.
  • On OS X run: cat id_rsa.pub | pbcopy
  • On Linux run: cat id_rsa.pub | xclip
  • On Windows (via Cygwin/Git Bash) run: cat id_rsa.pub | clip
  • On Windows (Powershell) run: Get-Content id_rsa.pub | Set-Clipboard (Thx to @orion elenzil)
  • Add your key to your account via the website.
  • Finally setup your .gitconfig.
  • git config --global user.name "bob"
  • git config --global user.email bob@...
    (don’t forget to restart your command line to make sure the config is reloaded)

That’s it you should be good to clone and checkout.

Further information can be found at https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys (thanks to @Lee Whitney)
[1]: https://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite

If the user has generated a ssh public/private key pair set before

  • check which key have been authorized on your github or gitlab account settings
  • determine which corresponding private key must be associated from your local computer

eval $(ssh-agent -s)

  • define where the keys are located

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

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