Git credentials when npm has a git dependency

Question

I have a Jenkins job to build my JS application.

In my package.json I have a dependency that looks like this:

"devDependencies": {
  "my_private_package": "git+https://my-server/my-repo.git#1.0.0"
}

I use the Jenkins Git Plugin along with the Credentials Plugin to clone the repo, then a shell script to run npm install.

When Jenkins runs npm install, npm errors out with npm ERR! fatal: Authentication failed

Due to our self hosted git server and bureaucracy I'm unable to do anything with adding an oAuth token to the git url.

Is there a way for me to set my git credentials so that npm can install from my password protected git repo?

Answer 1

You can vend HTTPS credentials to git using the credential-helper config with a file. The file format is just an HTTPS URL with the user:password credentials part filled in. Something like:

CREDENTIALS_FILE_PATH="$HOME/.git/my-ci-credentials"
echo 'https://ci-user:[email protected]/' > "$CREDENTIALS_FILE_PATH"

Because npm clones the repo outside the context of your project folder, you'll need to specify this config at the user, rather than project, level:

git config --global credential.helper "store --file=$CREDENTIALS_FILE_PATH"

After this, npm should be able to clone the repo.

Answer 2

I solved this by using the git+ssh way of installing the dependency, like git+ssh://my-server/my-repo.git#1.0.0

Then on the Jenkins .ssh folder add a config file with the content:

Host github.com
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<rsa file>

Then Jenkins knows to use that ssh key for any github.com url. You need to have a Jenkins git user or deploy key associated with the project you are trying to import.