How to clone Azure Repos?

Hello Everyone

Welcome to CloudAffaire and this is Debjeet.

You can clone an Azure repo using HTTPS (With password or personal access token) or SSH endpoints. In this blog post, we will discuss different ways of cloning an Azure repository in your local system.

How to clone Azure Repos?

Prerequisites:

Clone Azure Repo using HTTPS with Password:

Step 1: Login to your Azure DevOps account using below link

https://dev.azure.com/your_organization_name

Step 2: Navigate to Azure repo under your project.

Azure DevOps Organization => Project => Repos => Files

Select the HTTPS endpoint and click ‘Generate Git Credentials”.

Clone Azure Repo using HTTPS with Password

Step 3: Copy the generated credentials and store it in a safe place. Also copy the HTTPS clone URL.

Clone Azure Repo using HTTPS with Password

Step 4: Open your favorite terminal and type below git command to clone the repository.

## Clone an Azure DevOps repository
git clone https://dev.azure.com/<YOUR_ORGANIZATION_NAME>/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>/_git/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>

## Cloning into '<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>'...
## Password for 'https://<YOUR_ORGANIZATION_NAME>@dev.azure.com':
## warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.

## Create your 1st commit
cd <YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>
echo "hello world" > README.md
git add .
git commit -m "README.md added"

## Push your changes to Azure DevOps repos
git push

## Password for 'https://<YOUR_ORGANIZATION_NAME>@dev.azure.com':
## Enumerating objects: 3, done.
## Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
## Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 259 bytes | 259.00 KiB/s, done.
## Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
## remote: Analyzing objects... (3/3) (4 ms)
## remote: Storing packfile... done (130 ms)
## remote: Storing index... done (61 ms)
## To https://dev.azure.com/<YOUR_ORGANIZATION_NAME>/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>/_git/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>
## * [new branch] master -> master

## Clone an Azure DevOps repository

git clone https://dev.azure.com///_git/

## Cloning into ''...

## Password for 'https://@dev.azure.com':

## warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.

## Create your 1st commit

echo "hello world" > README.md

git add .

git commit -m "README.md added"

## Push your changes to Azure DevOps repos

git push

## Password for 'https://@dev.azure.com':

## Enumerating objects: 3, done.

## Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.

## Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 259 bytes | 259.00 KiB/s, done.

## Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0

## remote: Analyzing objects... (3/3) (4 ms)

## remote: Storing packfile... done (130 ms)

## remote: Storing index... done (61 ms)

## To https://dev.azure.com///_git/

## * [new branch] master -> master

If you refresh your Azure repo page, you will be able to see the file now that we just pushed.

Clone Azure Repo using HTTPS with Password

Clone Azure Repo using HTTPS with Personal Access Token:

Step 1: Generate a personal access token in your Azure DevOps account.

https://cloudaffaire.com/how-to-create-a-personal-access-token-pats-in-azure-devops/

Step 2: Clone Azure Repo using Personal Access Token (PAT).

MY_PAT=yourPAT # replace "yourPAT" with your actual PAT
B64_PAT=$(printf "%s"":$MY_PAT" | base64)
git -c http.extraHeader="Authorization: Basic ${B64_PAT}" clone https://dev.azure.com/<YOUR_ORGANIZATION_NAME>/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>/_git/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>

MY_PAT=yourPAT # replace "yourPAT" with your actual PAT

B64_PAT=$(printf "%s"":$MY_PAT" | base64)

git -c http.extraHeader="Authorization: Basic ${B64_PAT}" clone https://dev.azure.com///_git/

Clone Azure Repo using SSH:

Step 1: Generate SSH keys for Azure Repos using ssh-keygen.

## Open terminal and execute below command
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "cloudaffaire@gmail.com"

## Generating public/private rsa key pair.
## Enter file in which to save the key (/home/<user>/.ssh/id_rsa): /home/<user>/.ssh/azure_repo
## Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
## Enter same passphrase again:
## Your identification has been saved in azure_repo.
## Your public key has been saved in azure_repo.pub.
## The key fingerprint is:
## SHA256:9uK1kxXD9Us5JYWwAxZTB5sEDugx9vXIb8AH/7V7J2s cloudaffaire@gmail.com

## The key's randomart image is:
## +---[RSA 2048]----+
## |       .. %+=o.o.|
## |      =  +o+ =+ .|
## |     o+  +.*=. oo|
## |      . . = D. +o|
## |        M  + +..+|
## |       . .  + .o |
## |        . o+    .|
## |       . oo.  Z.o|
## |        . .. ..oo|
## +----[SHA256]-----+

## Add non default ssh key in the config file
cat << EOF >> ~/.ssh/config

# Account- azure - cloudaffaire
Host ssh.dev.azure.com
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/azure_repo
  IdentitiesOnly yes
EOF

## Open terminal and execute below command

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "cloudaffaire@gmail.com"

## Generating public/private rsa key pair.

## Enter file in which to save the key (/home//.ssh/id_rsa): /home//.ssh/azure_repo

## Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):

## Enter same passphrase again:

## Your identification has been saved in azure_repo.

## Your public key has been saved in azure_repo.pub.

## The key fingerprint is:

## SHA256:9uK1kxXD9Us5JYWwAxZTB5sEDugx9vXIb8AH/7V7J2s cloudaffaire@gmail.com

## The key's randomart image is:

## +---[RSA 2048]----+

## | .. %+=o.o.|

## | = +o+ =+ .|

## | o+ +.*=. oo|

## | . . = D. +o|

## | M + +..+|

## | . . + .o |

## | . o+ .|

## | . oo. Z.o|

## | . .. ..oo|

## +----[SHA256]-----+

## Add non default ssh key in the config file

cat << EOF >> ~/.ssh/config

# Account- azure - cloudaffaire

Host ssh.dev.azure.com

IdentityFile ~/.ssh/azure_repo

IdentitiesOnly yes

EOF

Step 2: Copy the content of the public key

## Copy the content of public key
cat /home/<user>/.ssh/azure_repo.pub

1 2	## Copy the content of public key cat /home//.ssh/azure_repo.pub

Step 3: Login to your Azure DevOps account using below link

https://dev.azure.com/your_organization_name

Step 4: Click on the user setting icon on the top right corner and then click on “SSH Public Key”.

Clone Azure Repo using SSH

Step 5: Click on the “New Key” button to add the public ssh key.

Clone Azure Repo using SSH

Step 6: Give a name to the public ssh key and copy the content of your public ssh key in the “Public Key Data” section (Copied in step 2) and click “Add”.

Clone Azure Repo using SSH

Step 7: Switch back to the terminal and execute below command to clone your Azure repo using SSH key.

## Clone the Azure repo using ssh
git clone git@ssh.dev.azure.com:v3/<YOUR_ORGANIZATION_NAME>/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>/<YOUR_PROJECT_NAME>

## Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

## Clone the Azure repo using ssh

git clone git@ssh.dev.azure.com:v3///

## Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

Note: You can get the SSH clone URL from your Azure repo inside your project.

Clone Azure Repo using SSH

Hope you have enjoyed this article. To know more about Azure DevOps, please refer below official documentation

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/?view=azure-devops