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I have the following error when I tried to push:

Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists

I know what it means. However, id_rsa.pub does exist locally and it's copied to bitbucker as well, they are both identical. The repository exists also.

What could the cause?

Incerteza
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  • what os are you using? – m79lkm Apr 19 '14 at 15:05
  • do you have a bitbucket entry in your ~/.ssh/config? – m79lkm Apr 19 '14 at 15:11
  • @m79lkm, I don't have this path. However, I was able to push to this repository successfully on my previous system. On this system I have the same ~/.ssh directory with the same content because I copied it from the previous system (Mint). – Incerteza Apr 19 '14 at 15:13
  • If you used `cp` in moving the files, you are especially likely to have garbled up file permissions on the new system. `rsync` is best suited to move files and preserve permissions. – taddy hoops Apr 19 '14 at 15:20
  • @GuyHughes, what permissions should be there? On my new system all of the them have root root permissions. – Incerteza Apr 19 '14 at 15:27
  • @GuyHughes, you're genius! Where did you get this idea? – Incerteza Apr 19 '14 at 15:30

1 Answers1

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Public Key issues

  1. Check that you're putting in the correct remote repository path (i.e. git@github.com:username/reponame).

  2. Debug the connection with ssh git@somehostname.com -T -vv to get verbose mode. Check the output. It will tell you what's going on. If you're still stuck, post it here and we can have a look.

  3. ssh will often complain if your private key or its parent directories leading to the private key have higher permissions set than they ought to.

    1. The key itself should be set with chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa, and the ~/.ssh directory to 0700 at most.
    2. The ~ and ~/.. (parent directory, often /home on Linux and /Users on Mac OS X) should be set to 744 at most.

    3. Also check that the group and user permissions are set correctly on the key and its parent directories:

      $ id -un && id -ug   # check output of this command before using!
username
groupname
$ chown --recursive $(id -un):$(id -gn) ~

      This will reset all permissions on your home directory so your current user and group own all files. This may not be what you want. See man chown.

  4. You may also want to check the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote host if you're still having trouble. Its permissions are also a point of failure.

Repairing OSX directory permissions

@AlexanderSupertramp, I said the permissions should be 744 'at most,' yes, referring to the requirements for SSH only. But I did not suggest that you should chmod the /home directory to that number. Each operating system has its own requirements for directory permissions, and I could only provide generic instructions since you didn't provide much information about your system. In any case, I am terribly sorry that my answer was not clear.

It is possible that your mac is failing to boot because 744 is too liberal. But I cannot be sure. To resolve this you may want to pay a visit to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store or contact an authorized repair technician. You may also be able to fix the directory permissions automatically using built-in tools as follow:

  1. Boot into single-user mode by pressing Command+S at the same time as the power button to turn on your mac, as explained in this article.
  2. Launch the OSX Disk Utility from the menu bar, and then use the repair permissions tool as described in this Apple KB
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taddy hoops
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  • what's the somehostname in `ssh git@somehostname.com -T -vv`? – Incerteza Jun 06 '14 at 06:39
  • It could be anything depending on where you want to connect to. If you are using github.com, it would be `ssh git@github.com`, whereas the first part before the `@` symbol is the ssh 'username' (`git`) but that is different from your username on github.com. If you are using bitbucket.org, it would be `git@bitbucket.org`. – taddy hoops Jun 06 '14 at 13:28
  • your second advice says `The ~ and ~/.. (parent directory, often /home on Linux and /Users on Mac OS X) should be set to 744 at most.`. So I did `sudo chmod 744 ~/..` and I can't boot my mac anymore. – Incerteza Jun 12 '14 at 14:15
  • @AlexanderSupertramp, I've updated my answer. I never suggested you should set your `/home` directory permissions to 744. I am sorry for the confusion. – taddy hoops Jun 12 '14 at 18:58
  • Hi.I have been running into the exact same problem but on Windows OS.It works for few days after I add the SSH key and I get the same error after that.Any suggestions ? – code4fun Dec 19 '17 at 23:48