MinGW MSYS ssh error: Could not create directory '/home/<username>/.ssh'
After some trial and error, I have found the solution(s) to the problem.
Automated solution (for the hasty)
- Go to (your-MinGW-installation-directory)\msys\1.0.
(in my case, which is also the default, that would be C:\MinGW\msys\1.0). - Run msys.bat.
This will start the MinGW Shell, which will create the path
(your-MinGW-installation-directory)\msys\1.0\home\(your-username)
automatically and ssh should now work just fine.
Manual solution (basically create the path required by hand):
- Go to (your-MinGW-installation-directory)\msys\1.0.
- Create a home directory.
- Inside the home directory create a directory with the same name as your username.
So, now the path
(your-MinGW-installation-directory)\msys\1.0\home\(your-username)
is available and ssh should work just fine.
Here is what you should get if everything went well:
C:\Users\myusername>ssh username@host
The authenticity of host 'host (host-ip)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is fingerprint.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'host,host-ip' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Note
Since the MinGW Shell could create the path needed (without Windows UAC nagging about a thing), I guess this has nothing to do with persmissions. It is probably an omission of the MinGW installation.
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import this
CS postgraduate student. I like Python. Right now, I'm messing with HTML5 game dev. Check my stuff on GitHub.
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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import this over 1 year
I have just installed a fresh MinGW installation on Windows 7 64bit using the Graphical User Interface Installer (the recommended approach) following the instructions given here and keeping the default options (i.e. installation in C:\MinGW) - hopefully without missing any steps or messing things up in any way.
However, when running the ssh command, I get the following error:
C:\Users\myusername>ssh username@host
Could not create directory '/home/myusername/.ssh'.
The authenticity of host 'host (host-ip)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is fingerprint.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Failed to add the host to the list of known hosts (/home/myusername/.ssh/known_hosts).So, I basically have to confirm the connection every time.
Why does this happen and how do I fix it? -
import this about 10 yearsThanks. However, I didn't really know where .ssh was supposed to be until I found my answer (which made adding the rsa key manually redundant).
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fixer1234 over 5 yearsWelcome to Super User. This is an old, self-answered question. You may have had a similar symptom, but there's no indication that the OP had included the env. Might you have encountered the symptom simply because you created an error by including it?