Cannot push to Git repository on Bitbucket

by

Writing this for those just getting started with Git and BitBucket on Windows & who are not as familiar with Bash (since this is both a common issue and a high ranking Google result when searching for the error message within the question).

For those who don’t mind HTTPS and who are looking for a quick fix, scroll to the bottom of this answer for instructions under FOR THE LAZY

For those looking to solve the actual problem, follow the instructions below:

Fixing the SSH issue as fast as possible

This is a set of instructions derived from the URL linked to by VonC. It was modified to be as resilient and succinct as possible.

  • Don’t type the $ or any lines that do not begin with $ (the $ means this is something you type into GitBash).

  • Open GitBash

Set your global info if you haven’t already:

$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
$ git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Check for OpenSSH:

$ ssh -v localhost
OpenSSH_4.6p1, OpenSSL...

See something like that?

  • Yes: Continue.
  • No: Skip to the FOR THE LAZY section or follow the linked article from VonC.

See if you have generated the keys already:

$ ls -a ~/.ssh/id_*

If there are two files, you can skip the next step.

$ ssh-keygen

Leave everything as the defaults, enter a passphrase. You should now see results with this command:

$ ls -a ~/.ssh/id_*

Check for an existing config file:

$ ls -a ~/.ssh/config

If you get a result, check this file for erroneous information. If no file exists, do the following:

$ echo "Host bitbucket.org" >> ~/.ssh/config
$ echo " IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa" >> ~/.ssh/config

Confirm the contents:

$ cat ~/.ssh/config

Host bitbucket.org
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  • The single space before “IdentityFile” is required.

Check you are starting the SSH agent every time you run GitBash:

$ cat ~/.bashrc
  • If you see a function called start_agent, this step has already been completed.
  • If no file, continue.
  • If there is a file that does not contain this function, you’re in a sticky situation. It’s probably safe to append to it (using the instructions below) but it may not be! If unsure, make a backup of your .bashrc before following the instructions below or skip ahead to FOR THE LAZY section.

Enter the following into GitBash to create your .bashrc file:

$ echo "SSH_ENV=$HOME/.ssh/environment" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "# start the ssh-agent" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "function start_agent {" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    echo \"Initializing new SSH agent...\"" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    # spawn ssh-agent" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    /usr/bin/ssh-agent | sed 's/^echo/#echo/' > \"\${SSH_ENV}\"" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    echo succeeded" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    chmod 600 \"\${SSH_ENV}\"" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    . \"\${SSH_ENV}\" > /dev/null" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    /usr/bin/ssh-add" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "}" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "if [ -f \"\${SSH_ENV}\" ]; then" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "     . \"\${SSH_ENV}\" > /dev/null" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "     ps -ef | grep \${SSH_AGENT_PID} | grep ssh-agent$ > /dev/null || {" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "        start_agent;" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    }" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "else" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "    start_agent;" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "fi" >> ~/.bashrc

Verify the file was created successfully (yours should only differ where “yourusername” appears):

$ cat ~/.bashrc
SSH_ENV=/c/Users/yourusername/.ssh/environment

# start the ssh-agent
function start_agent {
    echo "Initializing new SSH agent..."
    # spawn ssh-agent
    /usr/bin/ssh-agent | sed 's/^echo/#echo/' > "${SSH_ENV}"
    echo succeeded
    chmod 600 "${SSH_ENV}"
    . "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
    /usr/bin/ssh-add
}

if [ -f "${SSH_ENV}" ]; then
     . "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
     ps -ef | grep ${SSH_AGENT_PID} | grep ssh-agent$ > /dev/null || {
        start_agent;
    }
else
    start_agent;
fi
  • Close GitBash and re-open it.
  • You should be asked for your passphrase (for the SSH file you generated earlier).
  • If no prompt, you either did not set a passphrase or GitBash isn’t running the .bashrc script (which would be odd so consider reviewing the contents of it!). If you are running this on a Mac(OS X), .bashrc isn’t executed by default – .bash_profile is. To fix this, put this snippet in your .bash_profile: [[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc

If you didn’t enter a passphrase, you would have seen something like this when starting GitBash:

Initializing new SSH agent...
succeeded
Identity added: /c/Users/yourusername/.ssh/id_rsa (/c/Users/yourusername/.ssh/id_rsa)

And the following should return results:

$ ssh-add -l

However, if you get the following from ssh-add -l:

Could not open a connection to your authentication agent.

It didn’t spawn the SSH agent and your .bashrc is likely the cause.

If, when starting GitBash, you see this:

Initializing new SSH agent...
sh.exe": : No such file or directory

That means you forgot to escape the $ with a \ when echoing to the file (ie. the variables were expanded). Re-create your .bashrc to resolve this.

Verify the agent is running and your keys have been added:

$ ssh-add -l

Should return something similar to this:

2048 0f:37:21:af:1b:31:d5:cd:65:58:b2:68:4a:ba:a2:46 /Users/yourusername/.ssh/id_rsa (RSA)

Run the following command to get your public key:

$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

(it should return something starting with “ssh-rsa ……”

  • Click the GitBash window icon
  • Click Edit
  • Click Mark
  • Highlight the public key using your mouse (including the leading ssh-rsa bit and the trailing == [email protected] bit)
  • Right-click the window (performs a copy)
  • Paste your public key into Notepad.
  • Delete all the newlines such that it is only a single line.
  • Press CTRL+A then CTRL+C to copy the public key again to your clipboard.

Configure your private key with BitBucket by performing the following steps:

  • Open your browser and navigate to the BitBucket.org site
  • Login to BitBucket.org
  • Click your avatar (top-right)
  • Click Manage Account
  • Click SSH Keys (under Security on the left-hand menu)
  • Click Add Key
  • Enter Global Public Key for the Label
  • Paste the public key you copied from Notepad

A Global Public Key entry should now be visible in your list of keys.

  • Return to GitBash
  • cd into the directory containing your project
  • Change your origin to the SSH variation (it will not be if you ran the FOR THE LAZY steps)

Check your remotes:

$ git remote -v

Switch to the SSH url:

$ git remote set-url origin [email protected]:youraccount/yourproject.git

Check things are in working order:

$ git remote show origin

You should see something like this:

Warning: Permanently added the RSA host key for IP address '...' to the list of known hosts.
* remote origin
  Fetch URL: [email protected]:youruser/yourproject.git
  Push  URL: [email protected]:youruser/yourproject.git
  HEAD branch: master
  Remote branch:
    master tracked
  Local ref configured for 'git push':
    master pushes to master (fast-forwardable)

DONE!

You can opt to use HTTPS instead of SSH. It will require you to type your password during remote operations (it’s cached temporarily after you type it once). Here is how you can configure HTTPS:

FOR THE LAZY

You should fix the SSH issue as described by VonC; however, if you’re in a rush to commit and don’t have the tools/time/knowledge to generate a new public key right now, set your origin to the HTTPS alternative:

> https://[email protected]/accountname/reponame.git

Using a GUI tool such as TortoiseGit or command line tools.

Here is the documentation of this alternative origin URL.

Command line to add an origin if one does not exist:

git remote add origin https://[email protected]/accountname/reponame.git

Command line to change an existing origin:

git remote set-url origin https://[email protected]/accountname/reponame.git

NOTE: your account name is not your email.

You may also want to set your global info:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Then try your push again (no need to commit again)

git push origin master

More Related Contents:

  1. How to remove a directory from git repository?
  2. New to GitHub, how to run the commands on Windows?
  3. After $git push -u origin main command, Git bash is not requesting any authentication literally does nothing
  4. Jenkins: what is the correct format for private key in Credentials
  5. Best practice – Git + Build automation – Keeping configs separate
  6. Atlassian “logo” after pushing to bitbucket
  7. How to iterate through all git branches using bash script
  8. Git Init in home directory – now unable to commit changes
  9. How to maintain multiple bitbucket accounts with multiple ssh keys in the same system
  10. How to restrict access to the master branch in Git
  11. Various ways to remove local Git changes
  12. Using GIT_SSH_COMMAND in Git for Windows
  13. How do I change the default location for Git Bash on Windows?
  14. Unknown SSL protocol error in connection
  15. Repository access denied. access via a deployment key is read-only
  16. BitBucket – download source as ZIP
  17. How to avoid merge-commit hell on GitHub/BitBucket
  18. How to cleanup garbage in remote git repo
  19. GitHub – fatal: could not read Username for ‘https://github.com’: No such file or directory
  20. Unable to Connect to GitHub.com For Cloning
  21. Deleting remote master branch, refused due to being the current branch
  22. difference between origin/branch_name and branch_name?
  23. Getting ssh-agent to work with git run from windows command shell
  24. git push hangs after Total line
  25. Git on Bitbucket: Always asked for password, even after uploading my public SSH key
  26. Set an environment variable in git bash
  27. VS Code / Bitbucket / SSH – Permission denied (publickey)
  28. How to reduce git repo size on Bitbucket?
  29. Whats the Proper usage of .gitattributes with merge=ours
  30. How to manage multiple ssh keys in the ~/.ssh directory

Leave a Comment