In Docker, git-lfs giving error: credentials for https://github.... not found

Question

I am trying to pull large files into a Docker container from git using git-lfs. Unfortunately, I keep getting the error:

...

 ---> f07e7087dc5a
Step 13/16 : RUN git lfs pull
 ---> Running in a387e389eebd
batch response: Git credentials for https://github.XXXX.edu/XXXXX/XXXXXXXXX.git not found.
error: failed to fetch some objects from 'https://github.XXXX.edu/XXXXX/XXXXXXXXX.git/info/lfs'
The command '/bin/sh -c git lfs pull' returned a non-zero code: 2

Any idea how to fix this and get my files pulled correctly and error-free? I am running the following in Docker to try to get git-lfs to work:

# Get git-lfs and pull down the large files
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y apt-utils && apt-get install -y curl
RUN curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/github/git-lfs/script.deb.sh | bash
RUN apt-get install -y git-lfs
RUN git lfs install
RUN git lfs pull

I add my .gitattributes file and .git file to the Docker image as well.

EDIT: Can I maybe somehow use:

https://you:password@github.com/you/example.git

or

git config remote.origin.url https://you:password@github.com/you/example.git

Answer 1

May be I can use https://you:password@github.com/you/example.git:

That is a bad practice, as anyone doing a docker image history on your built image would get those credentials back.

It is better to do a multi-stage build, as described in "Access Private Repositories from Your Dockerfile Without Leaving Behind Your SSH Keys".

It uses an SSH key instead of username/password because:

• you can generate and register an SSH key dedicated for your docker build.
• you can revoke that key at any time, since it is used only for this docker build (as opposed to a credential password you cannot easily change without impacting possibly other scripts using said password)

Your Dockerfile would look like:

# this is our first build stage, it will not persist in the final image
FROM ubuntu as intermediate

# install git
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y git

# add credentials on build
ARG SSH_PRIVATE_KEY
RUN mkdir /root/.ssh/
RUN echo "${SSH_PRIVATE_KEY}" > /root/.ssh/id_rsa

# make sure your domain is accepted
RUN touch /root/.ssh/known_hosts
RUN ssh-keyscan bitbucket.org >> /root/.ssh/known_hosts

RUN git clone git@bitbucket.org:your-user/your-repo.git

FROM ubuntu
# copy the repository form the previous image
COPY --from=intermediate /your-repo /srv/your-repo
# ... actually use the repo :)

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Warning, March 2023, regarding github.com SSH access:

"GitHub has updated its RSA SSH host key"

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