

It is widely recommended (also by Github) that you use ed25519 encryption for your SSH keys. These represent the type of encryption algorithm used for the SSH key. You might have noticed the different keywords in the names of the SSH key files: e.g. as follows: id_rsa_github id_rsa_github.pub In such case, when you generate a new SSH key, you can name the new key to better identify its particular use, e.g. This also means that even if you already have an existing SSH key, you can generate a new one to use just for the purpose of connecting to your Github account.

The public key is the one you will be adding to your Github account.Īlso notice, that you can have more than one SSH key pair on your computer. The private key is the one you should never share with anyone but just keep in your local machine. Notice, that each SSH key is in pairs of private & public keys. like below: id_rsa id_rsa.pub id_ed25519 id_ed25519.pub If you do have one or more existing SSH keys, they will be stored inside the. To check if you have an existing SSH key, type in the following command in your terminal: ls -al ~/.ssh

Check for any existing SSH key & A brief refresher on SSH keys (skip this step if you want)
