'ssh-keygen' is not recognized as an internal or external command

Question

I run git push -u origin master

It tells me that "Permission denied (public key) fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly"

Then I looked up on the internet and found that I had to generate an ssh key for my account on GitHub. However, upon doing so, when I tried to do ssh-keygen -t rsa "[email protected]" it simply said ssh-keygen is not recognized. I tried doing mkdir C:\ssh but that didn't work. If it helps I'm using Ruby Rails and I'm on a Windows computer. Could anyone help me?

Epicedium

Answer 1

2012:
ssh-keygen.exe is part of msysgit:

 C:\path\to\msysgit1.7.11\bin\ssh-keygen.exe

if your %PATH% includes C:\path\to\msysgit1.7.11\bin\, you will have ssh-keygen.

---

Update 2015:
ssh-keygen.exe is part of Git For Windows, whose releases include PortableGit-2.4.3.1-2nd-release-candidate-64-bit.7z

c:\path\to\PortableGit-2.4.3.1-2nd-release-candidate-64-bit\usr\bin\ssh-keygen.exe

That means the %PATH% must include c:\path\to\PortableGit-2.4.3.1-2nd-release-candidate-64-bit\usr\bin (without the ssh-keygen.exe)

As I explained before, Git for Windows will soon phase out msysgit.
I detailed in "Why is it that if you download Git 2.0 from the net, you always get a 1.9.4 installer package?" how this new version is based on the more recent msys2 project.

Ghyll

Is it safe to have ssh-keygen.exe in the PATH on Windows? Do I need to remove its location after that? – Knickknack

@Knickknack actually, it is part of the Windows PATH only during your session with git, since you are launching a special DOS session with git-cmd.bat: github.com/msysgit/msysgit/blob/master/git-cmd.bat. It will complete the PATH and set HOME. – Ghyll

Acutally, the path should be without ssh-keygen.exe. I mean, it works only in this way for me. – Torrlow

@Torrlow I agree, and I have edited the answer to make that more visible. – Ghyll

for me, path was C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\usr\bin – Cobble

@rupinderjeet47 Yes, it is <wherever git is installed\usr\bin>. I prefer using the archives unzipped where I want rather than the msi setup which installs by default in C:\Program files\Git. – Ghyll

Answer 2

I just had this issue and thought I'd share what I thought was an easier way around this.

Open git-bash and run the same command with the addition of -C since you're commenting in your email address: ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" command. That's it.

git-bash should have been installed when you installed git. If you can't find it you can check C:\Program Files\Git\Git Bash

The first time I did this it failed to create the .ssh folder for me so I had to open a standard Command Prompt and mkdir C:\Users\yourusername\.ssh

Triquetrous

+1 for not suggesting installation of another software package – Octahedral

+1 this is a better solution becuase do not need other installation – Angara

My key didn't saved in .ssh folder. It was saved in the same directory as Git Bash exists. – Disruption

In my case neither ssh-keygen nor ssh is found in powershell. Sessions before however it worked. – Chalcocite

Answer 3

I followed below in windows (With Git for Windows installed)

1. Run "Git Gui" (Start --> Git --> Git Gui)
2. Click Help and then Show SSH Key
3. Click Generate Key if you do not have one already

Note:- this creates the key files under your personal profile folder C:\Users\YourUserID\.ssh\

Micropathology

Great answer - a nice easy way to create a new SSH-key - TY :) – Hypogastrium

Answer 4

No need to add anything to environmental variables! Just open up git bash and perform command the ssh-keygen in there.

Link to download git bash here

Whistle

Answer 5

I found an easy solution to fix this :

In the command prompt, go to your git\bin directory, and then execute your commands from here

Barnabas

On my system, Windows 10, ssh-keygen.exe was found in 'git\usr\bin'. – Agouti

Answer 6

If you have installed Git, and is installed at C:\Program Files, follow as below

1. Go to "C:\Program Files\Git"
2. Run git-bash.exe, this opens a new window
3. In the new bash window, run "ssh-keygen -t rsa -C""
4. It prompts for file in which to save key, dont input any value - just press enter
5. Same for passphrase (twice), just press enter
6. id_rsa and id_rsa.pub will be generated in your home folder under .ssh

Gilud

Answer 7

Just go to heroku.bat and add:

@SET PATH="D:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin";%PATH% after @SET PATH=%HEROKU_RUBY%;%PATH%

in my case it's in D:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin, change it to the path you've installed Git to. (i just left it with my path so it will be clearer on how to write this)

Valance

Answer 8

I think you can add the location of the file ssh-keygen.exe in the PATH environment variable. Follow the steps: Go to My Computer->Right click->Properties->Advanced System Settings->Click Environmental Variables. Now click PATH and then click EDIT. In the variable value field, go to the end and append ';C:\path\to\msysgit1.7.11\bin\ssh-keygen.exe' (without quotes)

Jeconiah

Answer 9

don't do anything just type in your command prompt

C:\> sh

then you got like this

sh-4.4$ 
# type here 
ssh-4.4$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"

this should must work.

Soong

Answer 10

For windows you can add this:

SET PATH="C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin";%PATH%

Ceraceous

Answer 11

You probably should check this. Windows doesn't have that command built in.

Seigneur

Answer 12

I got it fixed by just adding ssh-keygen to my environment variables.

Belldas

What exactly did you do? – Tweeze

Answer 13

for those who does not choose BASH HERE option. type sh in cmd then they should have ssh-keygen.exe accessible

Lesser

Answer 14

In my machine, ssh-keygen was available from powershell.

Isolde