SSH is looking in the wrong place for the public/private key pair on Windows

Question

I'm trying to configure GIT on my Windows XP machine, but SSH keeps creating and looking for the public/private key pair in non-sensical places, e.g. /.ssh/id_rsa

Is there a configuration file in the GIT Installation for Windows where I can switch this to my home directory, or another user defined place? By default, it offers to create new key pairs at //.ssh/id_rsa but that gives me the error "Could not create directory '//.ssh'." And when I'm able to find a directory I can create it in, GIT won't look there.

Answer 1

Figured out how to manually set my home directory in Windows XP:

1. Right click "My Computer"
2. Choose the "Advanced" tab
3. Click the "Environmental Variables" button
4. Under the "System variables" section, click "New"
5. In the "Variable name" enter in "home".
6. In the "Variable value" enter in the path to your profile.

To do the same via command prompt do :

setx HOME "your\path\to\home"

( Please note the suffix x - This is used to persist the change )

Answer 2

Recommended method from MSYS2 is to set db_home in /etc/nsswitch.conf to your home directory.

Credit to @VarunAgw for pointing in the right direction.

Git-for-Windows includes env in db_home, which should read your HOME bash variable, however, it is unreliable.

Answer 3

Check which ssh to see if you are using /usr/bin/ssh or something else, that might have installed by accident.

In my case my ssh was replaced by Chocolatey after installing rsync. After running choco uninstall rsync, my SSH was working again.

Answer 4

I was having a similar problem on Windows 7. The HOME environment variable seemed to be set correctly:

$ echo $HOME
C:\Users\craibuc

However, attempts to connect to test github's ssh access failed:

$ ssh -Tv git@github.com
OpenSSH_6.6.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1i 6 Aug 2014
debug1: Connecting to github.com [192.30.252.129] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
Could not create directory 'C/.ssh'.
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version libssh-0.6.0
debug1: no match: libssh-0.6.0
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: RSA 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48
The authenticity of host 'github.com (192.30.252.129)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is xx:xx:xx.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Failed to add the host to the list of known hosts (C/.ssh/known_hosts).
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_ecdsa
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

For some reason, ssh was attempting to access C/.ssh.

When I set the variable using setx HOME /c/users/craibuc and restarted the shell, I was able to connect:

$ ssh -T git@github.com
Warning: Permanently added the RSA host key for IP address '192.30.252.130' to the list of known hosts.
Hi craibuc! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Answer 5

I had the same kind of problem when using a machine with domain policy setting the user profile to a network drive (in this case mapped to Z:).

When trying to do anything from Powershell I'd get messages like this. Setting home PATH variable didn't help.

git clone ssh://myusername@mydomain.com:1234/myproject
Cloning into 'myproject'...
Could not create directory '/z/.ssh'.
The authenticity of host '[mydomain.com]:1234 ([1.1.1.1]:1234)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 00:11:22:33:$4:55:66:77:88.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Failed to add the host to the list of known hosts (/z/.ssh/known_hosts).
Permission denied (publickey).

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

When I cloned from git bash it was fine, as /z/.ssh etc is a valid way to point to Z:\.ssh from a shell.

Answer 6

ln -s /c/Users/rofrol/.ssh /home/rofrol/ worked for me.

This did not:

$ echo $HOME
/c/Users/rofrol

$ cat ~/nsswitch.conf
db_home: /c/Users/rofrol

$ cat /home/rofrol/nsswitch.conf
db_home: /c/Users/rofrol

$ cat /etc/nsswitch.conf
# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd: files db
group: files db

db_enum: cache builtin

#db_home: cygwin desc
db_home: /c/Users/rofrol
db_shell: cygwin desc
db_gecos: cygwin desc

# End /etc/nsswitch.conf

Probably because of this:

SSH will require /home/$USER

https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/736#issuecomment-215123009

Answer 7

On Windows 7 Just Place your Private Key ( id_rsa ) inside C:\Users\.ssh FOLDER If .ssh Folder doesnt exist just create it. Download GIT for Windows, cd into your Project Directory and do git clone ssh://@/.git