Centos – aliasing “git” ssh login to “gitolite”

centosgitgitolitessh

I'm installing gitolite from CentOS packages for my client. The package creates a gitolite user, which will be visible explicitly during a "git clone" operations. The client wants to use "git" and not "gitolite", in case we change to something more fancy later. I'm not very familiar with CentOS, so I don't want to try to build the package myself from source. I'm wondering if there's a way to do one of the following:

Trick sshd into treating "git" as "gitolite".
Somehow "alias" a new git username to be the same in all ways as the existing gitolite username (perhaps through some complex combinations of useradd).
Rename the "gitolite" username to "git" without upsetting later yum update operations
Something else that I hadn't thought of

I'd appreciate detailed instructions or pointers.

Best Answer

To add an 'aliased' user git for gitolite, you can do something similar to the following

[ec2-user@ip-10-170-94-162 ~]$ sudo useradd -m foo
[ec2-user@ip-10-170-94-162 ~]$ getent passwd foo
 foo:x:500:502::/home/foo:/bin/bash
[ec2-user@ip-10-170-94-162 ~]$ sudo useradd -o -d/home/foo -u500 -g502 -s/bin/bash -M foo2
[ec2-user@ip-10-170-94-162 ~]$ getent passwd foo2
 foo2:x:500:502::/home/foo:/bin/bash

-o allows duplicate uids, -d sets the home directory, -u sets the uid, -g sets the gid, -s sets the shell, -M says don't create the home directory. I'm not sure how you would puppitize this, though.

For Git Bash

If you are running msysgit (I am assuming you are) and are looking to run Git Bash (I recommend it over TortoiseGit, but I lean to the CLI more than GUI now), you need to figure out what your home directory is for Git Bash by starting it then type pwd (On Windows 7, it will be something like C:\Users\phsr I think). While you're in Git Bash, you should mkdir .ssh.

After you have the home directory, and a .ssh folder under that, you want to open PuTTYgen and open the key (.ppk file) you have previously created. Once your key is open, you want to select Conversions -> Export OpenSSH key and save it to HOME\.ssh\id_rsa. After you have the key at that location, Git Bash will recognize the key and use it.

Note: Comments indicate that this doesn't work in all cases. You may need to copy the OpenSSH key to Program Files\Git\.ssh\id_rsa (or Program Files (x86)\Git\.ssh\id_rsa).

For TortoiseGit

When using TortoiseGit, you need to set the SSH key via pacey's directions. You need to do that for every repository you are using TortoiseGit with.

Ssh – How to automate SSH login with password

Don't use a password. Generate a passphrase-less SSH key and push it to your VM.

If you already have an SSH key, you can skip this step… Just hit Enter for the key and both passphrases:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

Copy your keys to the target server:

$ ssh-copy-id id@server
id@server's password:

Now try logging into the machine, with ssh 'id@server', and check-in:

.ssh/authorized_keys

Note: If you don't have .ssh dir and authorized_keys file, you need to create it first

to make sure we haven’t added extra keys that you weren’t expecting.

Finally, check to log in…

$ ssh id@server

id@server:~$

You may also want to look into using ssh-agent if you want to try keeping your keys protected with a passphrase.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Git for Windows – How to Tell Git Where to Find Private RSA Key

For Git Bash

For TortoiseGit

Ssh – How to automate SSH login with password

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