How do I get git to default to ssh and not https for new repositories

259
votes

These days when I create a new repository on GitHub on the setup page I get:

git remote add origin https://github.com/nikhilbhardwaj/abc.git
git push -u origin master

And whenever I have to push a commit I need to enter my GitHub username and password.

I can manually change that to 

[email protected]:nikhilbhardwaj/abc.git

in the .git/config. I find this quite irritating - is there some way I can configure git to use SSH by default?

6
gitgithubssh
I think @MoOx's answer is probably most consistent with what you are seeking. The insteadOf trick has been around since at least 2012. Also see How to convert git: urls to http: urls. – jww

6 Answers

359
votes

Set up a repository's origin branch to be SSH

The GitHub repository setup page is just a suggested list of commands (and GitHub now suggests using the HTTPS protocol). Unless you have administrative access to GitHub's site, I don't know of any way to change their suggested commands.

If you'd rather use the SSH protocol, simply add a remote branch like so (i.e. use this command in place of GitHub's suggested command). To modify an existing branch, see the next section.

$ git remote add origin [email protected]:nikhilbhardwaj/abc.git

Modify a pre-existing repository

As you already know, to switch a pre-existing repository to use SSH instead of HTTPS, you can change the remote url within your .git/config file.

[remote "origin"]
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
    -url = https://github.com/nikhilbhardwaj/abc.git
    +url = [email protected]:nikhilbhardwaj/abc.git

A shortcut is to use the set-url command:

$ git remote set-url origin [email protected]:nikhilbhardwaj/abc.git

More information about the SSH-HTTPS switch

243
votes

  • GitHub 

    git config --global url.ssh://[email protected]/.insteadOf https://github.com/

  • BitBucket

    git config --global url.ssh://[email protected]/.insteadOf https://bitbucket.org/

That tells git to always use SSH instead of HTTPS when connecting to GitHub/BitBucket, so you'll authenticate by certificate by default, instead of being prompted for a password.

81
votes

The response provided by Trevor is correct.

But here is what you can directly add in your .gitconfig:

# Enforce SSH
[url "ssh://[email protected]/"]
  insteadOf = https://github.com/
[url "ssh://[email protected]/"]
  insteadOf = https://gitlab.com/
[url "ssh://[email protected]/"]
  insteadOf = https://bitbucket.org/
4
votes

You may have accidentally cloned the repository in https instead of ssh. I've made this mistake numerous times on github. Make sure that you copy the ssh link in the first place when cloning, instead of the https link.

3
votes

You need to clone in ssh not in https.

For that you need to set your ssh keys. I have prepared this little script that automates this:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
email="$1"
hostname="$2"
hostalias="$hostname"
keypath="$HOME/.ssh/${hostname}_rsa"
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C $email -f $keypath
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
cat >> ~/.ssh/config <<EOF
Host $hostalias
        Hostname $hostname *.$hostname
        User git
    IdentitiesOnly yes
        IdentityFile $keypath
EOF
fi

and run it like

bash script.sh [email protected] github.com

Change your remote url

git remote set-url origin [email protected]:user/foo.git

Add content of ~/.ssh/github.com_rsa.pub to your ssh keys on github.com

Check connection

ssh -T [email protected]
0
votes

SSH File

~/.ssh/config file
Host *
    StrictHostKeyChecking no
    UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
    LogLevel QUIET
    ConnectTimeout=10
Host github.com
        User git
        AddKeystoAgent yes
        UseKeychain yes
        Identityfile ~/github_rsa

Edit reponame/.git/config

[remote "origin"]
        url = [email protected]:username/repo.git