# Accesing a Registry on Private Github

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** package, github, ssh\
**Created:** [January 23, 2019, 5:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997 "2019-01-23T17:41:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 18\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 5:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/1 "2019-01-23T17:41:18Z")

</div>

I’ve just made myself a private registry for my work packages, following the nice instructions [here](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/creating-a-registry/12094). My organisation uses private github for most of our code, so I’ve put it there. When I try to do a package update, Pkg tells me it “failed to fetch from repo”. But I can successfully fetch if I navigate to the directory in ~/.julia/registries and do `git fetch`.  
Is Pkg not using my ssh credentials? Should I expect this to work?

From looking at the discussions around this topic, it seems like a user guide would be extremely useful for private registries, and some common edge cases. I would volunteer to do all the requisite learning and writing except I’m already at least two levels deep into “I probably shouldn’t spend time on this but it’s interesting” work.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/2 "2019-01-23T18:25:54Z")

</div>

> [@Andrew\_Gibb](#):
>
> Is Pkg not using my ssh credentials? Should I expect this to work?

AFAIK Pkg uses HTTPS access, and for Github/ssh you want the `git@...` protocol. Just change the remote for `origin`.

> **[Managing remote repositories - GitHub Docs](https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/getting-started-with-git/managing-remote-repositories)**
>
> Learn to work with your local repositories on your computer and remote repositories hosted on GitHub.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/3 "2019-01-23T19:33:18Z")

</div>

I see. That’s going to a problem, as our security set up doesn’t allow for anonymous access to our private repos. I guess I should raise an issue against Pkg.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 6:54am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/4 "2019-01-24T06:54:54Z")

</div>

I don’t see what “anonymous” means in this context. How do you usually authenticate to Github for your own repos (regardless of Julia)?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 9:53am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/5 "2019-01-24T09:53:30Z")

</div>

We authenticate git commands using ssh keys only. This appears to be what happens when you insist on 2fa for all accounts in your organisation. https always fails, even if you enter username and password correctly. And Pkg never prompts for username and password.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 10:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/6 "2019-01-24T10:49:16Z")

</div>

If you use ssh keys, why should it need a password?

In any case, I have private repos on Github working fine with Pkg, but perhaps organizational setups are different. My `~/.gitconfig` has

```nohighlight
[github]
        user = my_github_username
[credential]
        helper = store

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 11:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/7 "2019-01-24T11:26:11Z")

</div>

> [@Tamas\_Papp](#):
>
> Pkg uses HTTPS access

I had read this to mean “Pkg always uses HTTPS access”, implying that ssh wasn’t possible. That’s why I was expecting Pkg to prompt for a username/password.

Your suggestion to use `helper = store` works for when I’m off-network, but not when I’m on-network. It seems that Pkg isn’t using my ssh config. Whilst I’m on the network, I am able to fetch the registry from the command line whilst in ~/.julia/registries/my-registry/  
Do you know if that’s the expected behaviour?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/8 "2019-01-24T11:36:44Z")

</div>

I am an not an expert on Pkg internals, but first I would make sure everything works as it should just using the `git` command line.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/9 "2019-01-24T13:34:59Z")

</div>

OK, thanks Tamas. Seems like `git` is working just fine. Hopefully someone who knows more about Pkg and Registries will have a look!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fredrikekre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/fredrikekre/32/1688_2.png) [@fredrikekre](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/fredrikekre)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 1:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/10 "2019-01-24T13:47:16Z")

</div>

Whats the remote origin url of the registry? Is it `https` or `git@`? Have you tried `Pkg.setprotocol!("ssh")`?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/11 "2019-01-24T15:05:16Z")

</div>

> [@fredrikekre](#):
>
> Whats the remote origin url of the registry? Is it `https` or `git@` ? Have you tried `Pkg.setprotocol!("ssh")` ?

The remote origin, using `git remote -v` is `git@`. However, in `Pkg.Registry.status()` it’s `https`.

`Pkg.setprotocol!` doesn’t seem to make a difference to the result of `Pkg.update()`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 10:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/12 "2019-01-25T10:11:27Z")

</div>

So, I went digging around in the source for Pkg, and followed things all the way down into the libgit2 C library. At this stage, I couldn’t figure out which calls did what, and ran out of time to investigate further.

A bit more detail about the on-network case which is the problem: We use a socks proxy for ssh traffic leaving our network. This is wrapped in a call to netcat, specified in one’s ssh config file. It seems that libgit2, and be extension Pkg, does not look at ssh config by default. A StackOverflow answer, [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51541968/using-ssh-authentification-with-libgit2), says:

> Reading config settings from your OpenSSH config file at ~/.ssh/config isn’t supported by libgit2 because it isn’t support by libssh2. If you want to read settings from there, you have to do it yourself.

If this is accurate, then someone will need to add support for ssh config files into Pkg, or maybe LibGit2.jl.

I’d be happy to hear any more ideas about how to achieve this, but it seems likely that the answer is to raise an issue to request this feature, and probably implement it myself if I want it quickly.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GunnarFarneback](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gunnarfarneback/32/1827_2.png) [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 10:30am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/13 "2019-01-25T10:30:05Z")

</div>

Is this earlier discussion helpful? [How to specify the SSH key for Pkg to use](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-specify-the-ssh-key-for-pkg-to-use/14784)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Gibb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Andrew\_Gibb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Andrew_Gibb)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 11:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/14 "2019-01-25T11:40:06Z")

</div>

In addition to the SSH key, I need to read a `ProxyCommand` from the ssh config. So that earlier discussion doesn’t quite do enough.

Your suggestion prompted me to look up the specific issue of doing `ProxyCommand`-type things when using programs which use libssh2. I haven’t found a solution yet, but it might be useful.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![felipenoris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/felipenoris/32/553_2.png) [@felipenoris](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/felipenoris)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/15 "2020-02-05T16:13:43Z")

</div>

I’m also hitting this issue. Building a Docker image with a julia project with reference to private repos. The SSH\_KEY\_PATH/SSH\_PUB\_KEY\_PATH workaround does not work.

The error message is:

```julia
error: GitError(Code:EUSER, Class:Callback, Aborting, user cancelled credential request.)

```

on

```julia
[1] pkgerror(::String) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.2/Pkg/src/Types.jl:112
 [2] #clone#4(::Nothing, ::Base.Iterators.Pairs{Symbol,Any,Tuple{Symbol,Symbol},NamedTuple{(:isbare, :credentials),Tuple{Bool,LibGit2.CachedCredentials}}}, ::typeof(Pkg.GitTools.clone), ::String, ::String) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.2/Pkg/src/GitTools.jl:128
 [3] shred!(::getfield(Pkg.Types, Symbol("##79#81")){String,String}, ::LibGit2.CachedCredentials) at ./none:0

```

using Julia v1.2.

This error occurs only when building a Docker image. On a running server with Jupyter, registering the ssh key with `ssh-add` makes `Pkg.add` work adding private repos without asking for user password.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GunnarFarneback](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gunnarfarneback/32/1827_2.png) [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 10:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/16 "2020-02-05T22:48:36Z")

</div>

If this happens in docker there should be good chances to reproduce it elsewhere. Do you get the same problem (works outside docker but not inside) if you try to access one of your github repositories with an ssh url? Can you make a minimal Dockerfile that reproduces the problem?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![felipenoris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/felipenoris/32/553_2.png) [@felipenoris](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/felipenoris)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 10:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/17 "2020-02-05T22:49:25Z")

</div>

Yes, I was working on that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![felipenoris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/felipenoris/32/553_2.png) [@felipenoris](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/felipenoris)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 12:17am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accesing-a-registry-on-private-github/19997/18 "2020-02-06T00:17:03Z")

</div>

I was able to solve the issue. In this template, `PrivateSource.jl` is the main project and `PrivateDep.jl` is a dependency. Both are cloned from a private repo. In this case I used [gitlab.com](http://gitlab.com) .

The file `id_rsa_gitlab` was generated by the following command (without password):

```julia
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "felipenoris@gmail.com"

```

The following is the template Dockerfile.

```nohighlight

FROM centos:7

MAINTAINER Felipe Noronha <felipenoris@gmail.com>

WORKDIR /root

RUN yum update -y && yum install -y epel-release && yum clean all
RUN yum update -y && yum install -y \
    curl-devel \
    libcurl \
    libcurl-devel \
    openssl \
    openssl098e \
    openssl-devel \
    git \
    wget \
    && yum clean all \
    && rm -rf /var/cache/yum/*

ENV PATH /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/lib:/usr/local/lib64

# Julia - https://julialang.org/downloads/
ENV JULIA_VER_MAJ 1.2
ENV JULIA_VER_MIN .0
ENV JULIA_VER $JULIA_VER_MAJ$JULIA_VER_MIN

RUN wget https://julialang-s3.julialang.org/bin/linux/x64/$JULIA_VER_MAJ/julia-$JULIA_VER-linux-x86_64.tar.gz \
        && mkdir /usr/local/julia \
        && tar xf julia-$JULIA_VER-linux-x86_64.tar.gz --directory /usr/local/julia --strip-components=1 \
        && ln -s /usr/local/julia/bin/julia /usr/local/bin/julia \
        && rm -f julia-$JULIA_VER-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

ENV TERM xterm

COPY id_rsa_gitlab /root/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab

RUN chmod 600 /root/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab

RUN eval $(ssh-agent -s) && \
    ssh-add /root/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab && \
    ssh-keyscan gitlab.com >> /root/.ssh/known_hosts && \
    git clone --depth=1 --single-branch --branch master git@gitlab.com:felipenoris/PrivateSource.jl.git && \
    julia --project=PrivateSource.jl -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.instantiate(); using PrivateSource'

CMD julia --project=PrivateSource.jl -e 'import PrivateSource; PrivateSource.greet()'

```

To build the image, I used a AWS server running centos7 with docker (ami-02e5c6d9065871fb7).

The following are the final steps of the build process (`docker build -t julia-docker`):

```julia
Step 12/16 : ENV TERM xterm
 ---> Running in 587facc1249e
Removing intermediate container 587facc1249e
 ---> 72c5491f2e55
Step 13/16 : COPY id_rsa_gitlab /root/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab
 ---> 30e5d67049c0
Step 14/16 : RUN chmod 600 /root/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab
 ---> Running in 55e3608f8bc4
Removing intermediate container 55e3608f8bc4
 ---> db1f0943878a
Step 15/16 : RUN eval $(ssh-agent -s) && ssh-add /root/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab && ssh-keyscan gitlab.com >> /root/.ssh/known_hosts && git clone --depth=1 --single-branch --branch master git@gitlab.com:felipenoris/PrivateSource.jl.git && julia --project=PrivateSource.jl -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.instantiate(); using PrivateSource'
 ---> Running in 308d8b59e2f7
Agent pid 8
Identity added: /root/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab (felipenoris@gmail.com)
# gitlab.com:22 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.2p2 Ubuntu-4ubuntu2.8
# gitlab.com:22 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.2p2 Ubuntu-4ubuntu2.8
# gitlab.com:22 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.2p2 Ubuntu-4ubuntu2.8
Cloning into 'PrivateSource.jl'...
Warning: Permanently added the ECDSA host key for IP address '35.231.145.151' to the list of known hosts.
   Cloning git-repo `git@gitlab.com:felipenoris/PrivateDep.jl.git`
  Updating git-repo `git@gitlab.com:felipenoris/PrivateDep.jl.git`
Removing intermediate container 308d8b59e2f7
 ---> c5d5ea9adc12
Step 16/16 : CMD julia --project=PrivateSource.jl -e 'import PrivateSource; PrivateSource.greet()'
 ---> Running in 2b90aa2372bd
Removing intermediate container 2b90aa2372bd
 ---> a63915d18507
Successfully built a63915d18507
Successfully tagged julia-docker:latest

```