# Using GIT & SSH in Windows 10/11

## Enabling SSH on Windows

(From Stack overflow)

OpenSSH is available as part of Windows 10 which makes using SSH from cmd/powershell much easier. It also doesn't rely on having git installed.

Open Manage optional features from the start menu and make sure you have Open SSH Client in the list. If not, you should be able to add it.

Open Services from the start Menu

Scroll down to OpenSSH Authentication Agent > right click > properties

Change the Startup type from Disabled to any of the other 3 options. I have mine set to Automatic (Delayed Start)

Open cmd and type where ssh to confirm that the top listed path is in System32. Mine is installed at C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe. If it's not in the list you may need to close and reopen cmd.

Once you've followed these steps, ssh-agent, ssh-add and all other ssh commands should now work from cmd. To start the agent you can simply type ssh-agent.

You can also start the agent from the Services application

## Generating an SSH Key

General usage: (from cmd or powershell)

ssh-keygen -t #keytype# -f #filename#

You generally want everything in your #homedir#\.ssh directory - if it doesn't exist run

mkdir .ssh 

from your homedir (the default dir for powershell & cmd in non admin mode)

So from your homedir run

cd .ssh

then run say

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 

It will ask for you to create a passphrase for this key & to confirm it

for the above type of key the following files will have been created:

-a----        31/07/2023     21:01            464 id_ed25519

-a----        31/07/2023     21:01             99 id_ed25519.pub

The .pub is the public key you upload to the Gogs/Github/Gitlab site, the other file is the secret part of the key you keep to yourself

## Adding the created key to your keyring

from your home dir run:

ssh-add

it will ask for your passphrase

you can check what is in the agent/keyring by running

ssh-add -l
 
or 

ssh-add -L

Any keys you add should still be there after a reboot

Github Desktop & VSCode will automatically use your keys once in the agent, Github Desktop will ask for the passphrase for a key once & cache it, while VSCode will ask for the passphrase each time.

## Getting git to use Windows OpenSSH

Git uses the environment variable GIT_SSH

You can find the path to ssh with:

C:\> where ssh
C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe

This is the windows ssh, which is the one that can use the windows ssh agent service

You set the GIT_SSH environment variable with

C:\> set GIT_SSH=C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe

And check it with 

C:\> set GIT_SSH

GIT_SSH=C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe

Now git will be able to use the keys that you generated earlier.

This fix is so far only for the current window. To fix it completely you need to change your environment variable.

(WIN10 - should be similar to WIN11)

Select the Menu, search for Environment -> select Edit the system environment variables

Select Environment Variables...

In the User variables section create a new GIT_SSH variable and set to the desired path as above

press OK to set the variable value.

Press OK to close all windows

Now any future command windows you open will have the correct settings.