How to clone private git repository in node.js

Question

The idea is the following:

node.js in the application should be able to clone private github repositories using ssh. After User send his/her ssh key, the application could be able to clone his repository.

I think about using GIT_SSH variable to use multiple ssh keys. Can any one tell me how this could be implemented?

Answer 1

You may want to reconsider the idea of users sending you their private SSH keys. I would be very surprised if anyone would do that.

What you can do instead is to use the GitHub API and deploy keys, that can be made read only. See:

• https://developer.github.com/v3/repos/keys/
• https://github.com/blog/2024-read-only-deploy-keys
• https://developer.github.com/v3/oauth/

For a good introduction on how you can access Git repos fron Node, see:

• Manipulating git repositories with Node.js by Radek Pazdera

Examples in that article use NodeGit. It has excellent documentation on:

• http://www.nodegit.org/api/