Generate an SSH key

Generating an SSH key

1. Open Terminal
2. Generate your key pair using your email address

   $ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your.email@example.com"
   Generating public/private ed25519 key pair

3. When prompted to "Enter a file in which to save the key," press Enter to accept the default file location

   $ Enter file in which to save the key (~/.ssh/id_ed25519): ~/.ssh/[id_keyfile]

4. At the prompt, simply press enter for an empty passphrase

   $ Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [press enter]
   $ Enter same passphrase again: [press enter again]

   Note: You can choose to enter a passphrase, but you will have to enter the password every time you run git commands

5. After creating the passphrase you'll see the following confirmation

   Your identification has been saved in ~/.ssh/[id_keyfile].
   Your public key has been saved in ~/.ssh/[id_keyfile].pub.

Remove the passphrase for and existing SSH key

1. Open Terminal
2. Change the passphrase to an empty one

   $ ssh-keygen -p -f ~/.ssh/[id_keyfile]

3. At the prompt, enter your old passphrase, then simply press enter for an empty passphrase

   Enter old passphrase: 
   Key has comment 'your.email@example.com'
   Enter new passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
   Enter same passphrase again: 
   Your identification has been saved with the new passphrase.

Change the comment for an existing SSH key

1. Open Terminal
2. Change the comment

   ssh-keygen -c -C "My new comment" -f ~/.ssh/[id_keyfile]

3. At the prompt, enter your new comment

   Old comment: Old comment
   Comment 'My new commment' applied