Set up an SSH key: Circular logic

[kwanbo]

Platform: Windows 10

I am working my way through the article Set Up An SSH Key. I got to the point where the user is advised to enter

ssh -T git@bitbucket.org

I get Permission Denied. The article then advises:

If you get an error message with Permission denied (publickey), check the Set up an SSH key page for help.

In other words, the article refers you to itself! To put it mildly, this is NOT HELPFUL. Can anyone advise on what to do at this point, other than enter an infinite loop.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, that is pretty rubbish, as the article doesn't tell you how to fix it.

The error usually means the server doesn't like your key, although it can sometimes mean the file the key is in is not secured properly and ssh doesn't like that either.

It's hard to tell what might be wrong with this, so we'd like more info.   Could you try

ssh -v -T git@bitbucket.org

That should be more wordy, most of which you don't need, but when it fails it should tell you why near the point of failure.

[kwanbo]

I actually fixed the  problem by re-generating the keys and accepting all the defaults.  This generates keys named id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. I also named my Bitbucket key id_rsa. Of course, this is computing by trail-and-error in that it is unclear why providing a non-default name caused a failure and why accepting the default name worked. If only the default name works then the user should not be provided the opportunity to supply a non-default name.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It works with non-defaults as well, but the default for bitbucket is to work with the default settings for keys.