Setup Jenkins for working with a private Github repository

This post has been published more than 12 years ago, it may be obsolete by now.

As I’ve just lost an hour and some hairs dealing with trying to setup a Jenkins project connected to a private repository hosted on Github, I thought it’s worth a quick blog post. I’m using Ubuntu.

So first su as the jenkins user to create some SSH keypair:

$ ssh-keygen -p

Notice the -p option; this will allow to avoid asking for a passphrase (which Jenkins cannot so running as a daemon).

Try to ssh on github:

$ ssh -T git@github.com
The authenticity of host 'github.com (207.97.227.239)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Hi username/reponame! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Notice that you’re asked to allow github’s hostname to be added to your known_hosts file: without completing this step, you’re doomed.

Now, in the Jenkins project configuration interface, set the private repository url using the git protocol, eg. git@github.com:username/reponame.git.

That’s it, Jenkins will be able to clone and use your private repo.

If you know a better way, I’m all ears.