Running SSH Agent when starting Git Bash on Windows

Question

I am using git bash. I have to use

eval `ssh-agent.exe`
ssh-add /my/ssh/location/

every time when I start a new git bash.

Is there a way to set ssh agent permanently? Or does windows has a good way to manage the ssh keys?

I'm a new guy, please give me detailed tutorial, thanks!

Answer 1

In a git bash session, you can add a script to ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc (with ~ being usually set to %USERPROFILE%), in order for said session to launch automatically the ssh-agent. If the file doesn't exist, just create it.

This is what GitHub describes in "Working with SSH key passphrases".

The "Auto-launching ssh-agent on Git for Windows" section of that article has a robust script that checks if the agent is running or not. Below is just a snippet, see the GitHub article for the full solution.

# This is just a snippet. See the article above.
if ! agent_is_running; then
    agent_start
    ssh-add
elif ! agent_has_keys; then
    ssh-add
fi

Other Resources:

"Getting ssh-agent to work with git run from windows command shell" has a similar script, but I'd refer to the GitHub article above primarily, which is more robust and up to date.