A in depth tutorial on Cloning Private Repositories on GitHub
For those not accustomed to diversifying their authentication methods through Git, cloning a resource from someone else’s private repository can be tricky. The following guide is a better effort to clarify the order of operations and potential points of failure when trying to clone any private repository.
Personal Access Tokens (PATs) Explained
You need to be authenticated for a private repository when you clone it. Using a Personal Access Token as one of the methods This token is more or less a password and users with two-factor authentication enabled will need this token so keep it private.
How to Create a Personal Access Token
Access Your GitHub Account:
Log into your GitHub account.
Go to Settings >
Developer settings > Personal access tokens.
Create the Token:
Click on Generate new token.GitHub (ad)
Give your token a meaningful name
Make sure you check the appropriate scopes, which are repo in case of cloning repositories.
Click Generate token and you need to copy it as, this will not be displayed again.
Cloning the Repository
You can then go ahead to clone your private repo once you have PAT. Here’s how:
Using HTTPS with PAT
In your terminal, clone using HTTPS:
bashgit clone https://:@github.com//.git
Replace with your github username.
Replace with the generated PAT.
Replace and with name of your account and repository respectively.
Common Issues
Repository not found error : It occurs mostly if you do not have required permissions or the repository name is wrong. Make sure that you are logged in to the right account which has access to this repository.
Credential Manager Conflicts: It may cause conflicts if you are using the Windows system, as there will be stored credentials which can also conflict. You could use the Git Credential Manager or even delete current credentials from Windows Credentials Managers.
Alternative Methods
Using a PAT is simple, but there are alternatives like SSH keys:
Using SSH Keys
Creating An SSH Key Pair Locally
When you go to your Github account click on SSH and GPG keys under settings Add the public keyisEmpty
Clone using SSH:
bashgit clone [email protected]:/ git
It is a good method for bypassing putting parity sensitive information in the command line outside localnet and chain, but requires setting up extra configurations.
Conclusion
Private repositories and authentication types (PATs vs SSH keys) as described by authenticating when cloning a private GitHub repository. Developers can effectively maintain their private repositories, provided they follow the steps listed above and know of common problems.
