Question

Copy SSH key to clipboard

  • Posted on September 20, 2012
  • jtansleyAsked by jtansley

Hello,

I created an SSH key so that I can add it to Github. I am trying to copy the contents of /.ssh/id_rsa.pub to the clipboard but I am getting errors in both PuTTY and the browser console. I tried installing xclip but that did not work. Any suggestions? I’m currently running an Ubuntu server 12.04 droplet. This should hopefully be my last SSH question!

James

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Accepted Answer

If you don’t have pbcopy, xclip or vim just type:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

And copy terminal output

Hello again, <br> <br>I figured it out. Instead of nano, I should have used the vi text editor. Doh! Such a simple solution. Thanks again for all of your help! <br> <br>For anyone else that ran into this issue, follow these instructions: <br> <br>1. cd ~/.ssh <br>2. sudo vi id_rsa.pub <br>3. Click and hold down the left mouse button to highlight the entire SSH key but do not highlight any spaces after your email address at the end of the SSH key. <br>4. Paste into Github :) <br> <br>-James

If you’re running Windows, using Git Bash you can do this:

$ clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

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