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

Question

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?

Delivery

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. – Louettalough

Answer 1

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

• "Why is Git always asking for my password?" - GitHub help page.
• GitHub's switch to Smart HTTP - relevant StackOverflow question
• Credential Caching for Wrist-Friendly Git Usage - GitHub blog post about HTTPS, and how to avoid re-entering your password

Candidate

Thanks, I didn't know about them making smart https the default. – Delivery

This may be good for Windows users, but on Linux it was quite a step backwards: ssh always worked, and the new password caching for Smart HTTPS works only on Windows. Theres a note on "Where's the Mac version?" but not a single word for linux users. – Sixteenth

I should add that, this method does not interfere with github's mac client at all. Change it and you can both use command line and gui version(github's client) of git without a problem. – Ferule

Now that GitHub is deprecating password access (see here), it seems like this answer needs to be part of their official documentation somewhere. Is it already there? – Radiative

For anyone whom this didn't work check your global git config at ~/.gitconfig. I had an insteadOf url command forcing https access. – Hyacinthie

Answer 2

• 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.

Matey

If anyone wants to look this up in the documentation, search for url.<base>.insteadOf. – Prudential

be wary this seems to break some things -- I've noticed some functionality of homebrew stopped working after I made this change (namely installing non-default versions / branches) – Helminth

For gitlab: git config --global url.ssh://[email protected]/.insteadOf gitlab.com – Pyrolysis

git config --global url.ssh://[email protected]/.insteadOf github.com - warning, i tried this, and it break all my connections with git – Berna

I think that it should be git config --global url.ssh://[email protected]:.insteadOf github.com, because github likes [email protected]:<USERNAME>/<REPO>.git. (EDIT git config --global [email protected]:.insteadOf https://github.com/ works in git 2.7.4 for sure.) – Richia

This is the correct answer if you are working cross platform and the other people want to use https because they're on windows. – Smail

Since a comment here mentioned homebrew problems it might be a good idea to remove --global and do this on a pr repo basis. – Smail

This doesn't work, at least for existing repositories. – Placet

@Smail if you're going to do it on a per-repo basis, why not just set the remote URL explicitly? This is only useful globally. – Delegate

@AndrewKoster seems to work here for pulling an existing git repository. – Moleskin

this is much better than the accepted. in the accepted, it only tells you how to do it for a new repository. this chnges it everywhere. – Helmut

This is life saver post by the way. Thanks after ~10 years. – Aspectual

Use pushInsteadOf instead of insteadOf to only redirect pushes. This way you don't have to enter SSH key passphrase on pull. – Slime

Answer 3

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/

Pyrolysis

Much simpler +1 – Kristoferkristoffer

＋1 for this trick. It is also recommended by the kernel folks. Also see git pull on the kernel newbies mailing list. – Louettalough

much cleaner solution - and great for golang projects where "go get" defaults to https and one want to individually set urls to ssh instead e.g. for private repos etc. – Cy

For Gitlab: [url "ssh://[email protected]/"] insteadOf = https://gitlab.com/ There is also pushInsteadOf if you want to affect push URL but not fetch. Can use git remote -v to inspect effective URLs git is going to use. – Softener

This doesn't work, at least for existing repositories. – Placet

To be specific, modify the file via: $> vi ~/.gitconfig – Banuelos

For GitHub Gists you may want to add [url "[email protected]:"] insteadOf = https://gist.github.com/<MY_USERNAME>/ – Pelican

Answer 4

You need to clone in ssh not in https.

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"

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

If you need to have separate keys for different hosts, you can use this script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
  echo "Provide email and hostname"
  exit 1
fi

email="$1"
hostname="$2"
keypath="$HOME/.ssh/${hostname}_rsa"
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C $email -f $keypath

if [ ! $? -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Error when running ssh-keygen"
  exit 1
fi

exit 0
cat >> $HOME/.ssh/config <<EOF
Host $hostname
        User git
        IdentitiesOnly yes
        IdentityFile $keypath
EOF

and run it like

bash generate_ssh.sh [email protected] github.com

Change your remote url

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

(or just edit .git/config)

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

Check connection

ssh -T [email protected]

Reciprocity

This was handy for me except I had to change Hostname $hostname *.$hostname to Hostname $hostname for it to work. – Nudibranch

Answer 5

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

Klina

Answer 6

FYI - I'm using this due to github no longer allowing ssh:

[url "[email protected]:"]
    insteadOf = https://github.com/
[url "[email protected]:"]
    insteadOf = https://gist.github.com/

Triley

Answer 7

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.

Chyme

Need to clone a new one with the ssh link – Sooksoon

You can also change the repo link from HTTP to SSH, see the other answers. – Chyme

why do they even make that the default way to clone? that's annoying – Hobbs

@Hobbs I'd imagine because asking for authentication every time is a more secure default, and also most users may not have SSH set up yet for github – Chyme

Answer 8

If you are using Gitlab

git remote -v

you might see something like

https://gitlab.king.com/knight/squire.git 

just replace king, knight , squire with your own thing. knight/squire is just the way our project has different directories then you can go

git remote set-url origin ssh://[email protected]/knight/squire.git

git pull, or whatever and enjoy your genius

Cowgill

Answer 9

While the other answers here directly answer the titular question (in a way that I didn't know was possible! TIL something new about git!) about automagically turning https based remotes into git+ssh ones, the "normal" way to do this "right" from the start is to not give git the https url.

GitHub (along with other popular git hosting services) always has a little button that lets you get the URL that git should clone. You just need to click the small "SSH" button:

Alternatively for a new project

Once you select the "SSH" option, GitHub (and others) will remember (as long as you're logged in) and make it the default in the future.

Knavery