Support SSH Git URLs for authenticated connections to private repositories

[jnicholls]

Right now there is no way for cargo to connect to a private repository, whether or HTTPS or SSH. I believe if the git Cargo.toml dependency option would support a non-URL string such as git@github.com:user/repo then the Git client in cargo would likely successfully connect.

This is a major hole in cargo right now; I'm forced to submodule everything which is tedious.

Thanks in advance.

[alexcrichton]

This is actually supported, Cargo just doesn't prompt for a password (see #1306). You can use git credentials to store information (which Cargo reads).

[jnicholls]

I've tried this before only a few weeks ago and it was not working as
advertised, despite that issue having been closed and me running the latest
cargo. I'll try again.

On Tuesday, July 28, 2015, Alex Crichton notifications@github.com wrote:

This is actually supported, Cargo just doesn't prompt for a password (see
#1306 #1306). You can use git
credentials http://git-scm.com/docs/gitcredentials to store information
(which Cargo reads).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1851 (comment).

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[alexcrichton]

Ok, but if you run into any problems feel free to open an issue! It's a difficult code path to test and it's not exercised that much, so there may be a bug or two lurking.

[jnicholls]

This is in fact an issue. I have my osxkeychain git credential helper setup, and my credentials are cached. All fresh terminals authenticate seamlessly to HTTPS GitHub URLs of private repositories. However, cargo continues to report Unable to update https://github.com/blah/blah both on stable and nightly cargo. The credential helper is setup in the global config (~/.gitconfig)

[credential]
        helper = osxkeychain

Please advise. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I have also tried a file store helper, which also does not work.

[credential]
        helper = store

Do I need to setup credentials in some special way other than using a credential helper?

[alexcrichton]

Sounds like some investigation is warranted!

[jnicholls]

As stated in the OP, SSH URLs in the form of git@server.com:user/repo are not supported by Cargo. When parsing the .toml file, it does not understand that as being a legitimate URL (because it isn't).

This is a suggestion. Apparently one can use ssh://user@server.com/repo and Cargo is happy with that, since it is in fact a legitimate URL and libgit2 understands it just fine.

[alexcrichton]

Specifically, it sounds like you had a submodule which used a URL of the form git@example.com:user/repo and when Cargo tried to check that out it failed because it wasn't able to parse the URL and set the right credentials?

[jnicholls]

That's correct! Whether it is specified directly as the git argument of a [dependency] entry, or if it's present as a submodule url in .gitmodules, it will not work.

[simon-nicholls]

I actually thought this was working until I switched locations.

I set up a project with a git ssh://Si@blah.org:/repo/blah.git dependency whilst on OSX, and thought it was picking up my .ssh config just fine - certainly my id_rsa, but perhaps also a custom ssh port number.

Now that I'm on Linux, the same project ignores all .ssh config for git dependencies, though it does work when including the password, port number, and what I had for breakfast in the URL.

[jnicholls]

Are you running through vagrant or something? In either case, is ssh-agent
running?

I've had no problems on OS X or Linux on vagrant with ssh-agent enabled in
my Vagrantfile.

On Saturday, December 5, 2015, Si notifications@github.com wrote:

I actually thought this was working until I switched locations.

I set up a project with a git ssh://Si@blah.org:/repo/blah.git dependency
whilst on OSX, and thought it was picking up my .ssh config just fine -
certainly my id_rsa, but perhaps also a custom ssh port number.

Now that I'm on Linux, the same project ignores all .ssh config for git
dependencies, though it does work when including the password, port number,
and what I had for breakfast in the URL.

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[simon-nicholls]

Physical machines, unfortunately in different countries.

My best guess is that ssh-agent was running on the Mac without my realising it. As soon as I use ssh-agent here on Linux, it works as expected. I still need to be explicit about the port, but that may also have been the case on the Mac. The repo is just a personal one, so I was relying on ssh auth negotiation beforehand.

[alexcrichton]

@simon-nicholls you may also be running into #2078, right now Cargo doesn't take a look at .ssh/config

[simon-nicholls]

Thanks. That clears things up for me.

[Binero]

I would like to bump this issue. I am trying to connect to a remote, private ssh repository on Gitlab. I change the scp syntax git@gitlab.com:project/supercool.git into ssh://gitlab.com/project/supercool.git. When running cargo update it gives me an error saying it cannot authenticate. I do have the key inside my ~/.ssh, and it is registered using ssh-add. It is also part of my GNOME Keyring, which my git credential helper is set to.

I can clone the repository manually, as well as ssh into the server.

[jnicholls]

@Binero change your URL to ssh://git@gitlab.com/project/supercool.git (notice the git@ user addition) and try again?

[Binero]

@jnicholls Gold. Worked nicely.

[mkollaro]

I'm having a similar issue:

reponame = { git = "ssh://git@gitlab.com:22/mkollaro/reponame.git" }

but cargo fails with:

 $ cargo test --verbose
    Updating git repository `ssh://git@gitlab.com:22/mkollaro/reponame.git`
error: Unable to update ssh://git@gitlab.com:22/mkollaro/reponame.git

Caused by:
  failed to fetch into /home/mkollaro/.cargo/git/db/reponame-e51b056051cf84
Caused by:
  failed to authenticate when downloading repository
attempted ssh-agent authentication, but none of the usernames `git` succeeded

Caused by:
  [23/-1] error authenticating: no auth sock variable

Doing a git clone with the very same URL works fine. I'm using cargo 0.12.0-nightly (6b98d1f 2016-07-04).

Btw, I had to add an explicit port number because it's complaining about an invalid port number without it - maybe another bug?

[alexcrichton]

@mkollaro that actually looks like it's a different error perhaps?

I believe git clone will transitively invoke ssh itself which will read ~/.ssh/config for keys and such. Cargo, however, which uses libgit2 which uses libssh2, will not read ~/.ssh/config yet (not implemented). The only authentication method method supported by Cargo right now is connecting to the ssh-agent. Do you have the agent running with your keys added?

[Zteve]

On Mac OS X (Sierra) I had to create a .ssh/config file like this:

Host *
   UseKeychain yes
   AddKeysToAgent yes
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

with the (private) rsa file pointed to, and then issue the command:

ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa

which (finally!) allowed an entry like:

git = "ssh://git@github.com/skipjaq/loda.git"

to work perfectly. (Now I only have to cure the coding bugs.)

I do not know how often I will have to repeat the ssh-add command, but it appears this ought to hold at least until the next reboot, which (on MAC at least) is pretty rare.

This anomaly is apparently a feature of ssh-agent on Mac OS X Sierra.

[pronebird]

@Zteve I am seeing quite weird behavior when https://github.com/username/XXXX.git rejects to work, while switching prefix to ssh:// makes it work.

[Zteve]

@pronebird Yes, the scheme https: fails for me also. I can only get it to work if I use the ssh: scheme with the git@ prefix on the host part.

Have you tried it with https://git@github.com/username/XXXX.git? I haven't.

[pronebird]

@Zteve tried with https://git@... but unfortunately it doesn't work. Only ssh:// works for private repos.

[gibfahn]

I ended up writing down all the different ways to auth and the gotchas here: https://fahn.co/posts/cargo-auth-for-private-git-repos.html

It got a bit long 😅 . Not sure if any of it is worth adding to the Cargo docs.

[xuqingkuang]

It seems git changed the behavior of URL, all of upon solutions doesn't work anymore.

$ cargo install --git 'ssh://git.lab.com/rust/example-module.git'

    Updating git repository `ssh://git.lab.com/rust/example-module.git`
Enter passphrase for key '/home/xqkuang/.ssh/id_rsa': 
error: failed to fetch into: /home/xqkuang/.cargo/git/db/trpc-rust-ec60571bf845afd2

Caused by:
  process didn't exit successfully: `git fetch --force --update-head-ok 'ssh://git.lab.com/rust/example-module.git' 'refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master' 'HEAD:refs/remotes/origin/HEAD'` (exit code: 128)
  --- stderr
  fatal: remote error: Git:Project error, please check URL.

$ git fetch --force --update-head-ok 'ssh://git.lab.com/rust/example-module.git' 

'refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master' 'HEAD:refs/remotes/origin/HEAD'
Enter passphrase for key '/home/xqkuang/.ssh/id_rsa': 
fatal: remote error: Git:Project error, please check url.

But changing the url argument of git fetch to the correct URL git@git.lab.com:rust/example-module.git is working.

$ git fetch --force --update-head-ok 'git@git.lab.com:rust/example-module.git' 

'refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master' 'HEAD:refs/remotes/origin/HEAD'
Enter passphrase for key '/home/xqkuang/.ssh/id_rsa': 
remote: Finding sources: 100% (3124/3124)
remote: Total 3124 (delta 1718), reused 3055 (delta 1718)
Receiving objects: 100% (3124/3124), 567.77 KiB | 19.58 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1718/1718), done.
From git.lab.com:rust/example-module
 * [new branch]      master     -> origin/master
 * [new ref]                    -> origin/HEAD

Is it possible for the cargo to translate the URL to the correct one?

[mathstuf]

I think reporting to Git developers that something changed would be better here. Can you, perhaps, bisect where GIt changed this behavior?

[xuqingkuang]

I think reporting to Git developers that something changed would be better here. Can you, perhaps, bisect where GIt changed this behavior?

The problem is git fetch supports the URL schema like git@git.lab.com:rust/example-module.git, but not the cargo schema ssh://git.lab.com/rust/example-module.git

I just think cargo should adapt the URL resolve mechanism of git, and solve the problem.

[mathstuf]

Git supports ssh:// just fine; I use it all the time. Something else is up here.

[mathstuf]

I think I see the issue. You have ssh://host/ vs. user@host:. Try ssh://user@host/ instead.

[onatm]

Note to all other hipster fish users.

it doesn't seem cargo install --git ssh://git@github.com/org/crate command work on fish. You need to switch to bash, add your ssh key and then you'll be able to download the crate

[mathstuf]

It seems very odd that the shell would affect something like that. Are there any other symptoms?

[onatm]

It seems very odd that the shell would affect something like that. Are there any other symptoms?

There isn't much except the error output:

❯ cargo install --git ssh://git@github.com/xxx/xxxxx --branch main
    Updating git repository `ssh://git@github.com/xxx/xxxxx`
error: failed to fetch into: /Users/onat.mercan/.cargo/git/db/xxxxx-db26b348fdd70ca7

Caused by:
  failed to authenticate when downloading repository

  * attempted ssh-agent authentication, but no usernames succeeded: `git`

  if the git CLI succeeds then `net.git-fetch-with-cli` may help here
  https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#netgit-fetch-with-cli

Caused by:
  no authentication available

[mathstuf]

It seems like something is wrong with the libgit2 used internally. I'm not sure what it thinks using the remote url's username has to do with contacting the local ssh-agent.

The only thing fish could be doing is some magic on that argument, but it looks like it got through successfully. I would recommend some strace to see what is happening under the hood and whether any strings are being manip'd improperly.

[sfackler]

Your bash config is probably setting up an ssh-agent and your fish config is not.

[onatm]

Your bash config is probably setting up an ssh-agent and your fish config is not.

It's the other way around. My bash config is not setting up ssh-agent but fish does.

The only thing fish could be doing is some magic on that argument, but it looks like it got through successfully. I would recommend some strace to see what is happening under the hood and whether any strings are being manip'd improperly.

I am on Mac and I'll try to figure out if I could get any meaningful trace with dtruss. I tried verbose display option to get more info from cargo but the output is the same. I'll also try to debug a local cargo version.

[sfackler]

If one shell has an ssh-agent and the other doesn't, that is the difference. It is not related to fish or bash specifically.

[onatm]

I found out the reason for the failure. It is due to missing identity on ssh-agent. I am not sure how I managed to clone and work on private repos so far without having an identity on ssh-agent. Thank you @sfackler and @mathstuf

[evbo]

just curious to know is this issue technically resolved per?:
#1851 (comment)

[sagoez]

I'm getting this error not locally but in github actions, has anybody found any workaround for that case?

[kaimast]

I'm getting this error not locally but in github actions, has anybody found any workaround for that case?

Did you make the SSH key available to your GitHub action? If not, take a look at this and this.

Edit: Added second link

[Cypher1]

I now appear to have an https:// style git url failing to install because cargo attempts to use the SSH version of the repo's url. Not sure how this happens though, or if the SSH version of the url has been cached or stored somewhere without my knowledge.

[mathstuf]

I now appear to have an https:// style git url failing to install because cargo attempts to use the SSH version of the repo's url.

Check for insteadOf configurations in Git that can rewrite URLs.

[Cypher1]

Interesting, I didn't find that, but using the regular git client I was able to perform the update. I also found that the `branch="master"` setting I had seemed to be the cause of the problem, but I haven't spent much time on it as it was late and I got my build working again. Thanks for the help!

…

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