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

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/

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

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
        Hostname $hostname *.$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]

  • 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.

Tags:

Git

Ssh

Github

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