How to use Go with a private GitLab repo

GitLab is a free, open-source way to host private .git repositories but it does not seem to work with Go. When you create a project it generates a URL of the form:

git@1.2.3.4:private-developers/project.git

where:

• 1.2.3.4 is the IP address of the gitlab server
• private-developers is a user group which has access to the private repo

Golang 1.2.1 doesn't seem to understand this syntax.

go get git@1.2.3.4:private-developers/project.git

results in:

package git@23.251.148.129/project.git: unrecognized import path "[email protected]/project.git"

Is there a way to get this to work?

Run this command:

git config --global url."[email protected]:".insteadOf "https://1.2.3.4/"

Assuming you have the correct privileges to git clone the repository, this will make go get work for all repos on server 1.2.3.4.

I tested this with go version 1.6.2, 1.8, and 1.9.1.

This issue is now resolved in Gitlab 8.* but is still unintuitive. The most difficult challenge indeed is go get and the following steps will allow you to overcome those:

1. Create an SSH key pair. Be sure to not overwrite an existing pair that is by default saved in ~/.ssh/.

    ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
   

2. Create a new Secret Variable in your Gitlab project. Use SSH_PRIVATE_KEY as Key and the content of your private key as Value.

3. Modify your .gitlab-ci.yml with a before_script.

    before_script:
      # install ssh-agent if not already installed
      - 'which ssh-agent || ( apt-get update -y && apt-get install openssh-client -y )'
      # run ssh-agent
      - eval $(ssh-agent -s)
      # add the SSH key stored in SSH_PRIVATE_KEY
      - ssh-add <(echo "$SSH_PRIVATE_KEY")
      # for Docker builds disable host key checking
      - mkdir -p ~/.ssh
      - '[[ -f /.dockerenv ]] && echo -e "Host *\n\tStrictHostKeyChecking no\n\n" > ~/.ssh/config'
   

4. Add the public key from the key pair created in step 1 as a Deploy Key in the project that you need to go get.

Easiest way with Gitlab

before_script:
  - git config --global url."https://gitlab-ci-token:${CI_JOB_TOKEN}@gitlab.com/".insteadOf https://gitlab.com/
  - go env -w GOPRIVATE=gitlab.com/${CI_PROJECT_NAMESPACE}

See more details here: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/new_ci_build_permissions_model.html#dependent-repositories

If go get can't fetch the repo, you can always do the initial clone with git directly:

git clone git@gitlab:private-developers/project.git $GOPATH/src/gitlab/private-developers/project

The tools will then work normally, expect for go get -u which will require the -f flag because the git remote doesn't match the canonical import path.

GitLab version 11.8+ and Go version 1.13+ will work with BASIC auth by using your GitLab personal token. Go to Settings -> Access Tokens in your Gitlab, add a personal access token or use your existing one. In your ~/.netrc file, add following lines:

machine <your GitLab domain> (e.g. gitlab.com)
login <your GitLab id>
password <your GitLab personal access token>

Then you should be able to do go get locally.

If you need to build it in CI, then add following line in your .gitlab-ci.yml file:

before_script:
    - echo -e "machine <your GitLab domain>\nlogin gitlab-ci-token\npassword ${CI_JOB_TOKEN}" > ~/.netrc

Gitlab does support go get natively.

go get will issue an http request to the url you provide and look for meta tags that point to the exact source control path.

For my gitlab installation this is mygitlabdomain.com/myProject/myRepo. For you I assume this would be 1.2.3.4/private-developers/project.

Unfortunately it only appears to give the http scm path, not the ssh path, so I had to enter my credentials to clone. You can easily fiddle with the remote in your local repository after it clones if you want to update to the ssh url.

You can test the url by poking http://1.2.3.4:private-developers/project?go-get=1 and viewing source and looking for the meta tag.

From dep version 5.2, dep supports private repositories for Gitlab private repositories.

On .netrc file, you can provide your Gitlab username and access token for accessing private repositories.

1. Create .netrc file in your $HOME directory

$ touch $HOME/.netrc

2. Edit your .netrc with your Gitlab credentials

machine gitlab.<private>.com
login <gitlab-username>
password <gitlab-access-token>

... (more private repositories if needed)

3. In your Go repository, run the dep command to resolve private packages. In this case,

$ dep ensure -v

The way I usually do it is:

Ensure you are using SSH.

once that's done you can configure your git to use ssh instead https

If you are using Mac OX. you can run vim ~/.gitconfig and add

[url "[email protected]:"]
insteadOf = https://gitlab.com/

once configured you can run

GOPRIVATE="gitlab.com/your_username_or_group" go get gitlab.com/name_or_group/repo_name

I hope that helps.

For HTTPS private gitlab repo, @Rick Smith's answer is enough. Here's a compensation for HTTP repo, first run the command:

git config --global url."git@mygitlab.com:".insteadOf "http://mygitlab.com/"

then use below go get command to get the golang project:

go get -v  -insecure  mygitlab.com/user/repo

For the record, this works outside of go using gitlab 7.3.2 and, as JimB has observed, can be used as a workaround. I find that i do get prompted for username/password, even though an SSH key is registered with gitlab:

git clone http://1.2.3.4/private-developers/project.git

Alternatively i can use the SSH equivalent which, since i have an SSH key registered with gitlab, avoids the prompts:

git clone git@1.2.3.4:private-developers/project.git

Neither works with go currently. A fix may be in 7.9 but i haven't had a chance to test it: upcoming bugfix

You can setup your git credentials and Go will use them:

1. generate a unique password on your github (somewhere in settings).
2. git config credential.helper store
3. echo https://your-github-username:[email protected] >> ~/.git-credentials
4. profit.