How can I clone a private GitLab repository?

git github gitlab
maximusdooku picture maximusdooku · May 13, 2015 · Viewed 164.8k times · Source

When I do this:

git clone https://example.com/root/test.git

I am getting this error:

fatal: HTTP request failed

When I use SSH:

git clone username [email protected]:root/test.git

I am getting this error:

Initialized empty Git repository in /server/user/[email protected]:root/test.git/.git/
fatal: 'user' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

It's a private repository, and I have added my SSH keys.

Answer

Ulises Rosas-Puchuri picture Ulises Rosas-Puchuri · Apr 28, 2018

It looks like there's not a straightforward solution for HTTPS-based cloning regarding GitLab. Therefore if you want a SSH-based cloning, you should take account these three forthcoming steps:

  • Create properly an SSH key using your email used to sign up. I would use the default filename to key for Windows. Don't forget to introduce a password!

    $ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" -b 4096

Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key ($PWD/.ssh/id_rsa): [\n]
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):[your password]
Enter same passphrase again: [your password]
Your identification has been saved in $PWD/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in $PWD/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

  • Copy and paste all content from the recently id_rsa.pub generated into Setting>SSH keys>Key from your GitLab profile.

  • Get locally connected:

    $ ssh -i $PWD/.ssh/id_rsa [email protected]

Enter passphrase for key "$PWD/.ssh/id_rsa": [your password]
PTY allocation request failed on channel 0
Welcome to GitLab, you!
Connection to gitlab.com closed.

Finally, clone any private or internal GitLab repository!

$ git clone https://git.metabarcoding.org/obitools/ROBIBarcodes.git

Cloning into 'ROBIBarcodes'...
remote: Counting objects: 69, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (65/65), done.
remote: Total 69 (delta 14), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (69/69), done.

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