Testing your SSH connection

After you’ve set up your SSH key and added it to your GitHub account, you can test your connection.

When you test your connection, you’ll need to authenticate this action using your password, which is the SSH key passphrase you created earlier. For more information on working with SSH key passphrases, see “Working with SSH key passphrases”.

1. Open Git Bash.
   

2. Enter the following:

   $ ssh -T git@github.com
   # Attempts to ssh to GitHub

3. You may see a warning like this:

   > The authenticity of host 'github.com (IP ADDRESS)' can't be established.
   > RSA key fingerprint is 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48.
   > Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

4. or like this:

   > The authenticity of host 'github.com (IP ADDRESS)' can't be established.
   > RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:nThbg6kXUpJWGl7E1IGOCspRomTxdCARLviKw6E5SY8.
   > Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

5. Verify that the fingerprint in the message you see matches one of the messages in step 2, then type yes:

   > Hi username! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not
   > provide shell access.

6. Verify that the resulting message contains your username. If you receive a “permission denied” message, see “Error: Permission denied (publickey)”.