119

I want to run a command like:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

My understanding is that ssh-keygen outputs to the home directory. I'm working on a networked computer using Git Bash (Windows, MYSS MINGW64) where the home directory is one I don't have access to. I change the home directory like so:

export HOME=C:/Users/myusername

so now when I enter:

echo $HOME

it says:

C:/Users/myusername

but when I again try to run the ssh-keygen command it runs in the directory that I don't have access to. I've looked through the profile file for some hard coded path but can't find anything. How do I change it to point to a directory that I do have access to?

Phlox Midas
  • 1,293

3 Answers3

192

You should be able to do this by specifying the name of the output file with the -f option, e.g.,

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com" -f $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa

Of course, it really helps if the output directory has already been created.

For further reading:

Community
  • 1
Thomas Dickey
  • 9,100
2

For me you should use this option -f like this :

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f /home/user/project/ssh-keys/id_rsa

And finally sh-keygen generate two file private and public into this directory

/home/user/project/ssh-keys/id_rsa
/home/user/project/ssh-keys/id_rsa.pub
Lucas Bodin
  • 103
Zakariae BEN ALLAL
  • 21
1

On Windows 10:

From the accepted answer, $HOME did not work for me for the path, but %userprofile% does:

ssh-keygen -f %userprofile%/.ssh/id_rsa
tzg
  • 111