Why can't I create a .ssh directory on macOS 10.15.4?
I'm running into a strange problem trying to set up ssh. I'm more used to Linux than macOS. Can someone explain to me what's going on here?
user@nothing ~ % mkdir ~/.ssh
mkdir: /Users/user: No such file or directory
user@nothing ~ % ls -ld ~
drwxr-xr-x+ 27 user staff 864 Apr 1 13:49 /Users/user
user@nothing ~ % ls -ld ~/.ssh
ls: /Users/user/.ssh: No such file or directory
The ACLs are defined as:
nnyby@nothing ~ % ls -ael ~
total 96
drwxr-xr-x+ 26 nnyby staff 832 Apr 2 09:47 .
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 192 Oct 23 20:37 ..
-r-------- 1 nnyby staff 7 Mar 28 11:24 .CFUserTextEncoding
-rw-r--r--@ 1 nnyby staff 6148 Apr 1 13:44 .DS_Store
drwx------ 10 nnyby staff 320 Apr 1 13:44 .Trash
-rw------- 1 nnyby staff 751 Apr 1 13:43 .bash_history
drwx------ 41 nnyby staff 1312 Nov 7 14:29 .bash_sessions
drwx------ 3 nnyby staff 96 Nov 15 11:40 .config
drwxr-xr-x 4 nnyby staff 128 Nov 1 11:27 .emacs.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 nnyby staff 53 Nov 13 12:28 .gitconfig
drwx------ 3 nnyby staff 96 Nov 15 11:40 .local
-rw------- 1 nnyby staff 118 Mar 22 09:59 .python_history
-rw------- 1 nnyby staff 12554 Apr 1 19:37 .viminfo
-rw------- 1 nnyby staff 5271 Apr 2 09:21 .zsh_history
drwx------@ 3 nnyby staff 96 Apr 1 09:53 Applications
drwx------+ 14 nnyby staff 448 Apr 1 22:56 Desktop
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 10 nnyby staff 320 Apr 2 09:47 Documents
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------@ 25 nnyby staff 800 Apr 1 22:39 Downloads
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------@ 66 nnyby staff 2112 Apr 1 09:52 Library
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 4 nnyby staff 128 Nov 25 14:23 Movies
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 4 nnyby staff 128 Mar 17 20:50 Music
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 30 nnyby staff 960 Apr 1 22:39 Pictures
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwxr-xr-x+ 4 nnyby staff 128 Oct 24 14:34 Public
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwxr-xr-x 4 nnyby staff 128 Mar 20 10:40 dist
drwxr-xr-x 9 nnyby staff 288 Apr 1 14:12 src
nnyby@nothing ~ % ls -ael ~/..
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 192 Oct 23 20:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root admin 704 Mar 28 11:54 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 Oct 17 18:40 .localized
drwxrwxrwt 5 root wheel 160 Oct 17 18:40 Shared
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 ctladmin staff 352 Oct 24 14:34 ctladmin
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwxr-xr-x+ 26 nnyby staff 832 Apr 2 09:47 nnyby
0: group:everyone deny delete
Similarly, I can't generate public and private keys:
user@nothing ~ % ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/user/.ssh/id_rsa):
Could not create directory '/Users/user/.ssh': No such file or directory
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Saving key "/Users/user/.ssh/id_rsa" failed: No such file or directory
I can create a dot-prefixed directory with another name, no problem:
user@nothing ~ % mkdir ~/.abc
user@nothing ~ %
If I do mkdir /tmp/.ssh; mv /tmp/.ssh ~/, the mv process hangs, and uses all my CPU until I restart!
So, how do I make my .ssh directory?
I booted into recovery mode, and ran First Aid on my disk. First the Macintosh HD volume, which returned without error.
Then, when I ran First Aid on the "Macintosh HD - Data" volume, the operation failed, with these errors:
I ran this operation twice, with the same errors. I didn't know what else to do, so I just restarted back into the normal environment.
When I log in, I see that there is a .ssh directory after all, created last October 25!
nnyby@nothing ~ % ls -lae .ssh
total 24
drwx------ 5 nnyby staff 160 Oct 25 11:36 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 26 nnyby staff 832 Apr 2 12:43 ..
0: group:everyone deny delete
-rw------- 1 nnyby staff 1856 Oct 25 11:36 id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 nnyby staff 423 Oct 25 11:36 id_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r-- 1 nnyby staff 3192 Apr 2 12:46 known_hosts
I had restarted this laptop plenty of times over the past few weeks, always with this .ssh problem, so maybe the disk repair did something to fix it? Either way, thank you macOS for being completely not frustrating at all to work with! I can't imagine why anyone would prefer to use Linux!