GitHub questions (github.mit.edu)

This page collects common questions and answers about GitHub.mit.edu. For an overview of the service, see GitHub.mit.edu Overview

What is github.mit.edu ?

GitHub.mit.edu is a MIT site running GitHub Enterprise, a hosted version of the GitHub software. It lets people upload and share programming code with others.

What's the difference between GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise ?

GitHub.com is a public site that allows people to create public repositories. You have to pay to create private repositories on GitHub.com.

GitHub Enterprise runs the same software as GitHub.com, but is hosted at MIT. You can sign in with your MIT account, your data is at MIT, and you can create private or public repositories as you desire.

What documentation is available?

This page will cover some common topics, particularly related to MIT's GitHub Enterprise service.

For topics not specific to MIT, general GitHub documentation is available at:

• General GitHub help: https://help.github.com/
• Getting started with Git and GitHub: https://help.github.com/categories/bootcamp/
• Topics specific to GitHub Enterprise: https://enterprise.github.com/help

Who can use it?

All MIT faculty, students, and staff may use the service via http://github.mit.edu/ (requires Touchstone login).

Can non-MIT people get accounts?

Yes, you can collaborate with anyone that has a Touchstone collaboration account. These are available to users who do not have MIT certificates. When logging into github.mit.edu, those users can choose to login with a collaboration account (as opposed to an MIT kerberos account).

• [What is a Touchstone Collaboration Account?]
• [Creating a Touchstone Collaboration Account]
• Log in using a Touchstone Collaboration Account

How can repositories be addressed using "git" commands?

Commands like git clone require you to provide an address of a repository.
You cannot use https URLs to access repositories on github.mit.edu, because git will mistakenly prompt you for a username and password. Github.mit.edu does not allow username/password login.

To use "git" commands remotely, use ssh-style access, connecting using the username "git", like in the following example. (Replace [owner] with your username and [repo-name] as appropriate.)

This ssh-style access requires that you add an SSH key to your account. GitHub.com has instructions for setting up SSH keys, but be aware that steps 3 and 4 connect to the public GitHub.com site. You will want to adapt those steps, to connect to MIT's github.mit.edu site.

Less Common issues

Email notifications of issues and comments say noreply@mit.edu

According to GitHub support, the GitHub Enterprise product does not support replying to issues and comments via email, although it's true that github.com does. The GitHub Enterprise product is currently only capable of sending email from the noreply@domain address, and users must visit the web interface to respond.

Sometimes there is no notification when users post issues

The most common cause of not receiving a notification is if an account is lacking an associated email address or if no address has been designated the "primary email address". To fix this, have the user go to their email settings page and enter a primary email address. Note that by default github.mit.edu does not attach an email address to your account - everyone starts with a blank primary email address.