Testing your SSH connection

Before testing your SSH connection, you should have:

• Checked for existing SSH keys
• Generated a new SSH key
• Added a new SSH key to your GitHub account

When you test your connection, you'll need to authenticate this action using your password, which is the SSH key passphrase you created earlier. For more information on working with SSH key passphrases, see "Working with SSH key passphrases".

1. Open TerminalTerminalGit Bash.

2. Enter the following:

   $ ssh -T [email protected]
   # Attempts to ssh to GitHub

   You may see a warning like this:

   > The authenticity of host 'github.com (IP ADDRESS)' can't be established.
   > RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:nThbg6kXUpJWGl7E1IGOCspRomTxdCARLviKw6E5SY8.
   > Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

3. Verify that the fingerprint in the message you see matches GitHub's RSA public key fingerprint. If it does, then type yes:

   > Hi username! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not
   > provide shell access.

   You may see this error message:

   ...
   Agent admitted failure to sign using the key.
   debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
   Permission denied (publickey).

   This is a known problem with certain Linux distributions. For more information, see "Error: Agent admitted failure to sign".

4. Verify that the resulting message contains your username. If you receive a "permission denied" message, see "Error: Permission denied (publickey)".