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tutorials / solve-git-permission-denied-publickey

SOLVE GIT PERMISSION DENIED PUBLICKEY ON UBUNTU

Problem:

When trying to clone a repository or run Git commands via SSH on your server, you might encounter the following error:

root@your-server:/www/wwwroot/your-project# git clone [email protected]:username/repository.git
Cloning into 'repository'...
The authenticity of host 'github.com (20.205.243.166)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:+DiY3wvvV6TuJJhbpZisF/zLDA0zPMSvHdkr4UvCOqU.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'github.com' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
[email protected]: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

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

Steps:

  1. Open your terminal on your VPS.
  2. Generate a new SSH key with the following command (press Enter to accept all defaults when prompted): 
    ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"
  3. Start the SSH agent in the background: 
    eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
  4. Add your newly generated SSH private key to the SSH agent: 
    ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  5. View and copy the content of your public SSH key: 
    cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
  6. Register the SSH key in your GitHub account:
    • Login to GitHub and go to Settings -> SSH and GPG keys.
    • Click New SSH key.
    • Enter a title (e.g., "My VPS Production Server") and paste the public key content you copied in step 5 into the "Key" field.
    • Click Add SSH key.
  7. Test the SSH connection to GitHub to ensure it has been successfully authenticated: 
    ssh -T [email protected]
    If successful, you will see a message like this: 
    Hi username! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
  8. Go back to your project directory and run your git clone command again using SSH: 
    git clone [email protected]:username/repository.git

Note:

  • If you encounter the warning The authenticity of host 'github.com' can't be established, simply type yes and press Enter to save GitHub to your known hosts list.
  • Always make sure to copy the .pub file content (public key) for GitHub registration, NOT the private key file.
  • If you used a custom name or different file path for your keys during step 2, adjust the path in steps 4 and 5 accordingly.
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