Git: Clone in VS Code returns "Permission denied, please try again" - git clone in terminal works

Question

Git: Clone in Visual Studio Code on a mac returns Permission denied, please try again. From terminal within Visual Studio Code it works to perform git clone.

In Visual Studio Code on a Mac, I do the following:

I do Git: Clone
I input the ssh repository URL that is in the following format: ssh://<username>@<repository-host>/<path>/<rep>.git
I "Select Repository Location" folder, and get the following dialog:

This function never asks me for any password!

If I open the Git Log the output is this:

> git clone <ssh-repository-URL> <path>
Cloning into '<path>'...
Permission denied, please try again.
Permission denied, please try again.
Received disconnect from <IP> port 22:2: Too many authentication failures for <username>
Disconnected from <IP> port 22
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

In terminal it works:

mac:rep username$ git clone 
Cloning into '<repository>'… <ssh-repository-URL>
The authenticity of host ‘<repository-host> (<repository-ip>)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:<fingerprint>.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '<repository-host>,<repository-ip>' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
Password:
remote: ...
remote: ...
remote: …
Receiving objects: 100% (.../...), ... | ... MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (.../...), done.

Any clues on why Git: Clone Visual Studio Code never asks for the server password?

From what you have mentioned above, I think that the VS Code rejects the remote because of the authenticity issue mentioned in the terminal part. Can you try cloning the repo using `https` instead of `ssh`? — dstrants, Oct 11 '18 at 15:28
@dstrants Thank you. I will update the question, as Git: Clone does never ask for the password to the repository server. In Terminal I can type the password. About https, I do not think this is supported by our local repository server. — Joachim Bratteli, Oct 11 '18 at 15:49
@evolutionxbox Many thanks! This question actually led me to a way of solving the problem, as I was not aware that you could only use ssh URLs in the Git: Clone when a ssh key is set up correctly. — Joachim Bratteli, Oct 11 '18 at 16:46

Joachim Bratteli · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-12T14:14:18.167

Underlaying functionality in Git: Clone does not seem to have any interaction with the user after setting the repository URL and choosing the destination folder.

To get a ssh-repository to work with Visual Studio Code you need to do the following:

Open terminal
Run ssh-keygen to generate ssh key pair
Run ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa <username>@<repository-host>

Derived from this question and this answer.

VS Code User Guide on Version Control has the following question/answer under Common Questions:

Can I use SSH Git authentication with VS Code? Yes, though VS Code works most easily with SSH keys without a passphrase. If you have a SSH key with a passphrase, you'll need to launch VS Code from a Git Bash prompt to inherit its SSH environment.

I suffered 3hrs to figure that passphrase use is not direct in vs code git cloning. — surpavan, Jan 08 '21 at 17:41

Git: Clone in VS Code returns "Permission denied, please try again" - git clone in terminal works

1 Answers1