Setup ssh with gitlab

Step 1: Generate ssh key pair

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "nitinsharmacs@gitlab.com"

-t can be any encryption you want to use. -C is for comment that goes at the key end.

Step 2: Copy and paste the public key in user’s gitlab settings

tr -d '\n' < ~/.ssh/gitlab-access.pub | pbcopy

This removes the leading new line character from the key.

Paste the public key in the given input element.

Step 3: Config ssh config

We can config ssh for different hosts.

Add following in ~/.ssh/config

Host gitlab.com
  PreferredAuthentications publickey
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gitlab-access

Step 4: Setup ssh agent

To avoid entering key passphrase again and again, we can set up ssh agent.

eval `ssh-agent -s`

Now, let’s add the key to the agent.

ssh-add ~/.ssh/gitlab-access

Listing all the keys added to the agent.

ssh-add -l

This agent specific to the shell. For the different shell, you have config it again.