Error connecting to agent: no such file or directory - adding key to ssh agent

Question

I am trying to add key that I have generated to the ssh agent. Below are my steps

C:\repo>ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (C:\Users\mante1/.ssh/id_rsa):C:\repo\key

After the key is generated, I am starting the ssh agent and adding it

C:\repo>start-ssh-agent
Found ssh-agent at 13460
Found ssh-agent socket at /tmp/ssh-vKzdrs37QYVK/agent.821
C:\repo>ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Error connecting to agent: No such file or directory

Solution 1

VonC is probably right, in that you need to fix your path, but I was facing the same problem despite using the correct one. In my case, I needed to start ssh-agent for the command to work.

Running the sample commands from GitHub was not working, but, since I had installed OpenSSH, I simply started the pre-installed "OpenSSH Authentication Agent" service, on the Services app, as described in this answer.

Solution 2

If you have generated your key at C:\repo\key, then the key you need to ssh-add is... C:\repo\key, not ~/.ssh/id_rsa

C:\repo>ssh-add C:\repo\key

That would work.

Solution 3

This problem is maybe because you have two types of ssh-agent.exe , you can see them in task-manager , one ssh-agent will be from git and other one would be from OpenSSH.

Fix

1. End all ssh task from task-manager
2. Go to the directory where the key is in your case C:\repo\key this should be your working directory and then run start-ssh-agent will automatically add your private key to the ssh and you won't need the ssh-add command .

Imp

1. start-ssh-agent will use the ssh from git
2. start ssh-agent will use the ssh from OpenSSH

So there can be inconsistencies between the version of ssh you're using and your keys are added/generated with

Solution 4

Try to type:

ssh-agent bash

and then execute:

ssh-add...

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Comments

[Onat Korucu]

They actually do not have to be id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. For instance I have a corporate ssh key with that name, but my personal keys are named id_rsa_personal and id_rsa_personal.pub