Working from the Command Line Interface (CLI)

UCSF Instructions written by Robert Thombley, March 2019

On github.com

With github.com, cloning a repository to your local machine from the command line is straightforward:

Click "Clone or download"
Copy the URL
Open a terminal prompt & navigate to the desired destination folder.
Issue git clone <copied HTTPS repo URL>
Type in your GitHub username & password, if prompted (if not you've already done this and your authentication is done behind the scenes using the cached details, like mine is below)
Enjoy your new repo.

On git.ucsf.edu

At UCSF, the Enterprise GitHub server works a little differently because of the integration with Single Sign On. Your UCSF GitHub username is now your employee ID number and authorization doesn't use a password, it uses a token string that you have to generate before you can clone any repos to your local computer. The process:

Click your username icon in the top right corner of the screen and select "settings"
On the settings page that appears, click the "Developer Settings" button on the right hand side of the page
On the developer settings page, click the "Personal access tokens" button.
Here, click "Generate new token"
On this page, you will generate your personal access token and grant this token with specific privileges. The minimum you will need is the "repo" privilege to be ticked on. What else you select is up to you. Make sure to enter a meaningful token description as well and click "Generate token"
You will now be shown ONE TIME ONLY the plain text string that is your token. You MUST copy this token and save it in a secure location. Note: This token string is used exactly like a password, please treat it as such. Once this is used initially, the connection details are securely stored behind the scenes and you will no longer be asked to authenticate each time you push/pull any repos from UCSF Git. If for whatever reason you do need to re-authenticate (i.e. – reinstall of your OS) and you do not have a copy of this token string, you will need to delete this token (it cannot be used by you and represents a security risk keeping it open) and regenerate a new token using steps 1-5 above. The plaintext of this string cannot be re-displayed after you navigate away from this screen.
You can now clone your repo just as before using "git clone <HTTPS repo URL>". If this is your first time connecting to UCSF Git, you will be asked to enter your username (ie – your employee ID number, NOT your SSO UCSF username) and your password (ie – the token string you just copied). Subsequent connections will look like the screen below where you will not be asked to authenticate.

GitHub Enterprise Best Practices

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