Clone Git repository in windows using ssh

Straight-to-point blog!

1. open cmd and type ssh-keygen it will generate a pair of private and public keys, by default keys take the name id_rsa , you can use any name you wish. Press enter! Keys generated and stored in c:/Users/computerName/id_rsa
2. Now create a new folder with name .ssh in c:/Users/computerName and copy those generated keys into this folder
3. create a new file in this .ssh folder with name config make sure it has no other extension and copy following content into it (will explain below)

# if your repo is on gitlab
Host gitlab.com
  Hostname gitlab.com
  PreferredAuthentications publickey
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<private key file name, = id_rsa>

# if your repo is on github
Host github.com
  Hostname github.com
  PreferredAuthentications publickey
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<private key file name, = id_rsa>

suppose your repo ssh clone URL is `git@github.com:coderOne/docs.git` that means your hostname will be the string after @ and till :, in this case github.com

4. Uptil now you have configured your windows system, to use the private keys when ssh clone is attempted. Now only thing remaining is you should add the public keys to your repo server!

in this case id_rsa.pub, copy its contents and add new ssh key in either github or gitlab, wherever your repo is hosted

With these 4 points, you should be able to clone the git repo to your windows system, using cmd only.

Let me know if your use case is not covered!