Generating SSH Key Pairs on MacOS

So you need to generate an SSH key, eh? Let's walk you through the process of creating a new SSH key pair on MacOS.

  1. Let's begin by opening up a new Terminal window.

  2. To begin generating an SSH key pair, let's enter the following command into the Terminal window:

    ssh-keygen -t rsa

  3. First, the ssh-keygen command will ask where to store the file. By default, it will be saved to your user's .ssh directory as id_rsa. Unless there's already an existing key there, the default location will work just fine.

  4. Next, we'll be asked for a passphrase. To keep our new key as secure as possible, let's type in a new passphrase here.

    Note: Although it's possible create a key without a passphrase, we highly recommend against doing so. If your private key were to be compromised, your passphrase is the only thing standing in an attacker's way.

  5. Once a passphrase has been entered, our new SSH key pair has been generated!

    Since we'll need the contents of our public key when we add it to Atomic, let's use this command to copy the contents of our new public key to the clipboard:

    pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Now that our key pair is generated, all we need to do is add our new public key to Atomic.

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