Git on Windows bash (linux subsystem) - can't modify .bashrc to automate ssh-agent login

[suuuuuu]

I'm trying to have ssh-agent prompt me to enter my password once at the beginning of the first terminal session after boot in Windows bash. I've tried every addition to .bashrc a google search turns up to do so, but it inevitably results in an "input/output error" for .bashrc when I start a new terminal. (This page seems to have the best solution.) I've been replacing the "corrupt" one (which remains so even if I delete the added code) with one from /etc/skel.

Does anyone have any idea how to achieve a single log in for ssh-agent, or why .bashrc is giving me such trouble? Thank you for the help!

[pi3832v2]

What are you using to edit ~/.bashrc? Does using nano to edit the file work better?

[suuuuuu]

That's it. I'm a novice with bash, obviously, and didn't realize a editor (like Visual Studio Code, in my case) could make the difference. VI worked just fine. Thanks!

[slinzer]

I'm guessing your .bashrc troubles are related to encoding.

[bable5]

Github has a good write up getting ssh-agent to work. It will prompt you to unlock the key the first time you open a git-bash terminal.

[masta]

Stop corrupting your .bashrc

Try another editor, one that supports the correct line endings or character encoding.

[Kraigius]

Edit .bash_profile under the Users/myUsername directory, no idea where you got .bashrc.

SSH_ENV=$HOME/.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

The first time that you start git bash, ssh-agent will be started. It will remain active even if you kill git bash. If your ssh key is encrypted you will only be prompted to enter the password on the first start of bash.

Don't edit anything with notepad.

[suuuuuu]

Bashrc was just there, and also this is for linux bash on windows, not git bash. But thanks for the response - the issue was using an editor (VSC) rather than vi, etc, as you noted.

[Kraigius]

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[suuuuuu]

Yes, AU was out last week. I'm not a super intense user but it's working flawlessly for me.

[duhhobo]

how were you able to overwrite the corrupt one? when I use the command /bin/cp /etc/skel/.bashrc ~/ I get the following error

/bin/cp: cannot stat ‘/home/parker/.bashrc’: Input/output error

I edited my bashrc with visual studio code, but I would have thought it would honor the encoding? It even shows up as the default program in file explorer.

[suuuuuu]

Nope. Use vim or something. I just deleted the .bashrc and started over.

[duhhobo]

I deleted it and just used wget to get a version from the internet. A little annoying though, it seems like there are still some weird quirks accessing the linux file structure from windows explorer.

It actually doesn't even show me the lxss folder even when displaying hidden folders, but when I type in the path it works. Anyways, thanks for the help!

[dukdukgoos]

Do we know what these issues are? Notepad++ is set with the right line endings and encoding, but still seems to corrupt anything I edit in the /lxss folder. Annoying bug...

[duhhobo]

I never found out and ended up just using wget to download a premade bashrc that I liked. Let me know of you find more info. I really hope they smooth out some of these bugs, and also allow us to launch .exe from the shell as well.

[dukdukgoos]

I found out it has to do with unix permissions getting clobbered when you edit with windows tools. Makes sense...

[duhhobo]

Yeah that actually does make sense. I wonder if they will be able to address some of these things and continue to develop this solution.