For those who are trying out Heroku for the first time, and have not set up their Mac for keypair authentication, here is what you need to do in order to generate ssh public keys.
If you keep seeing this:
$ heroku create Enter your Heroku credentials. Email: Password: No ssh public key found in /Users/mike/.ssh/id_[rd]sa.pub. You may want to specify the full path to the keyfile.
1. Generate RSA key:
$ ssh-keygen Generating public/private rsa key pair. Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/mike/.ssh/id_rsa): Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): Your identification has been saved in /Users/mike/.ssh/id_rsa. Your public key has been saved in /Users/mike/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. The key fingerprint is: The key's randomart image is:
2. Generate DSA key:
$ ssh-keygen -t dsa Generating public/private dsa key pair. Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/mike/.ssh/id_dsa): Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): Your identification has been saved in /Users/mike/.ssh/id_dsa. Your public key has been saved in /Users/mike/.ssh/id_dsa.pub. The key fingerprint is: The key's randomart image is:
3. Create your Heroku app:
$ heroku create Enter your Heroku credentials. Email: Password: Uploading ssh public key /Users/mike/.ssh/id_rsa.pub Created http://myapp.heroku.com/ | git@heroku.com:myapp.git Git remote heroku added
Viola! This applies for any situation requiring ssh keys – sftp access, capistrano deployment, etc.



{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
worked great, thx for taking the time.
Thanks a lot!!!!
(Windows 7, not Mac, though…)
Hi, I am trying to install this plugin in my windows machine. I am not sure on which command prompt, I should be generating these rsa and dsa keys.. Currently, I get an error that ssh is not recognized as internal or external command. operable program or batch file. Please suggest.
Hey Laz, it’s been a while since I had to do this on a Windows box. I always used Putty as my preferred shell client – try the directions here: http://www.panix.com/help/sw.ssh-win.html#5. Good luck!
Thank you so much, Mike. Your post helped me to fix the issue.
Thanks Mike !
Very helpful.
thx a lot!
Thanks it heps me a lot.
thanks dude!
Sweet! Thanks.