SSH is looking in the wrong place for the public/private key pair on Windows

Question

I\'m trying to configure GIT on my Windows XP machine, but SSH keeps creating and looking for the public/private key pair in non-sensical places, e.g. /.ssh/id_rsa

I

Answer 1

I was having a similar problem on Windows 7. The HOME environment variable seemed to be set correctly:

$ echo $HOME
C:\Users\craibuc

However, attempts to connect to test github's ssh access failed:

$ ssh -Tv git@github.com
OpenSSH_6.6.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1i 6 Aug 2014
debug1: Connecting to github.com [192.30.252.129] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
Could not create directory 'C/.ssh'.
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file C/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version libssh-0.6.0
debug1: no match: libssh-0.6.0
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: RSA 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48
The authenticity of host 'github.com (192.30.252.129)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is xx:xx:xx.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Failed to add the host to the list of known hosts (C/.ssh/known_hosts).
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_ecdsa
debug1: Trying private key: C/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

For some reason, ssh was attempting to access C/.ssh.

When I set the variable using setx HOME /c/users/craibuc and restarted the shell, I was able to connect:

$ ssh -T git@github.com
Warning: Permanently added the RSA host key for IP address '192.30.252.130' to the list of known hosts.
Hi craibuc! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.