Knowledge Base: Generating and Adding SSH keys on Mac OS X

To authenticate with Beanstalk for Git, you will need to generate an SSH key pair. This process only requires a few steps on Mac OS X. First, open up Terminal to access the command line.

Generating a key pair

Make sure you are in the home directory by entering:

$ cd ~/

To generate a key pair, run the command:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

It will ask for location, just accept the default location (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) by pressing return. When it asks for a pass phrase, don't leave it empty. Make sure to set a strong pass phrase for the key. The output should look something like this:

your-mac:~ home$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/Users/username/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
13:c0:7c:13:75:15:4c:21:50:97:f7:20:8f:80:bb:5b
username@your-mac
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
|     ...  o*+=*o.|
|      ... = -+++ |
|        .. + ..+.|
|         ..     .|
|        P  .     |
|         .. Y    |
|           x     |
|          .      |
|                 |
+-----------------+

Now that the keys are generated, copy it to your clipboard for the next step. This can be done by running the command:

$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy

Adding your public key to Beanstalk

Once your key pair is generated, you can add it to Beanstalk. Login to Beanstalk and click on My Profile > Keys. Once there, you will see a textarea where you can paste your public key. Paste the public key into the box, click Save changes and your done.