I’ve been sitting on an under-used VPS for too long. Time to backup all my git repos that I don’t feel like hosting on GitHub!

  1. Create ssh keys on host
  2. Setup git user on vps
  3. Add ssh key to access list
    • log in to VPS as git user
    • create ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file
    • add public ssh key of user that wants to push to the git repo

    • from that user, run the following command replacing git@vps_domain with the git user we created and the VPS address

        cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh git@vps_domain "cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
    • back in your git user’s ssh session, verify that the key of your local user is there with cat ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  4. Optional: create user folders in your git user’s home directory
  5. Create bare git repo on the vps
    • either in the git user’s home directory: /home/git/

    • or in the separate user directories: /home/git/user_folder/

        git init --bare repo_name.git

  6. Point the local git repo at the new remote

     git remote set-url origin git@vps_domain:user_folder/repo_name.git

  7. Double check your work!

     git remote -v

Now you can push and pull like usual, except the code is no longer on GitHub for all the world to grab your precious secrets.

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