Could not open a connection to your authentication agent

git, ssh, ssh-agent

Solution

Did You Start `ssh-agent`?

You might need to start `ssh-agent` before you run the `ssh-add` command:

eval `ssh-agent -s`
ssh-add

Note that this will start the agent for msysgit Bash on Windows. If you're using a different shell or operating system, you might need to use a variant of the command, such as those listed in the other answers.

See the following answers:

- ssh-add complains: Could not open a connection to your authentication agent

- Git push requires username and password (contains detailed instructions on how to use ssh-agent)

- How to run (git/ssh) authentication agent?.

- Could not open a connection to your authentication agent

To automatically start ssh-agent and allow a single instance to work in multiple console windows, see Start ssh-agent on login.

Why do we need to use `eval` instead of just `ssh-agent`?

SSH needs two things in order to use ssh-agent: an ssh-agent instance running in the background, and an environment variable set that tells SSH which socket it should use to connect to the agent (SSH_AUTH_SOCK IIRC). If you just run ssh-agent then the agent will start, but SSH will have no idea where to find it.

from this comment.

Public vs Private Keys

Also, whenever I use `ssh-add`, I always add private keys to it. The file `~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub` looks like a public key, I'm not sure if that will work. Do you have a `~/.ssh/id_rsa` file? If you open it in a text editor, does it say it's a private key?

Problem

I am running into this error of: ``` $ git push heroku master Warning: Permanently added the RSA host key for IP address '50.19.85.132' to the list of known hosts. ! Your key with fingerprint b7:fd:15:25:02:8e:5f:06:4f:1c:af:f3:f0:c3:c2:65 is not authorized to access bitstarter. ``` I tried to add the keys and I get this error below: ``` $ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub Could not open a connection to your authentication agent. ```

Original source

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