How to check whether the username and password can access the git repository

[BrentHuang]

f"https://{GIT_USERNAME}:{GIT_PASSWORD}@gitee.com/guang11cheng/all_docs.git"

How to use gitpython to check whether the configured username and password can access the git repository?

I just wanted to test the connectivity.

[Byron]

You can do that with git ls-remote <URL> or the equivalent GitPython command. Probably GitPython isn't necessary for this at all.

[BrentHuang]

My scenario is like this: when user configures a git repo_url with username and password, clicking on the 'Test' button tests if the git repository exists and if the access permissions are ok. it's the same as a connection test for a database. Note that the repository has not yet been cloned locally. And the user may not have the git command line installed on their computer.

[DaveLak]

@Byron is suggesting something like this:

With GitPython

Note: The Repo.init(tmpdirname, bare=True) line initializes a bare repository in temporary directory (e.g., /tmp/. This is necessary because git ls-remote needs a repository to operate on, but it won't need to actually clone the remote repository to the filesystem.

import tempfile
from git import Repo

def check_git_access(repo_url, username, password):
    try:
        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdirname:
            repo_url_with_creds = f"https://{username}:{password}@{repo_url.split('://')[-1]}"
            
            repo = Repo.init(tmpdirname, bare=True)
            
            # Add a remote named 'origin' with the URL that includes the username and password
            # to the repo initialized in the temp dir. This is only used to check access to
            # the remote repository.
            origin = repo.create_remote('origin', url=repo_url_with_creds)
            
            # Attempt to list the references from the remote repository
            # If this succeeds, it means the credentials are correct and access is granted.
            refs = origin.ls()
            
            print("Access granted")
            return True
    except Exception as e:
        # If there is any exception, it indicates that access was denied
        print(f"Access denied: {e}")
        return False

# Example usage
repo_url = "gitee.com/guang11cheng/all_docs.git"
username = "your_username"
password = "your_password"

check_git_access(repo_url, username, password)

HTTP Request Only Without Git Command Execution

You might be able to use something like Basic Authentication and avoid Git commands entirely though, e.g.

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

def test_git_access(repo_url, username, password):
    try:
        response = requests.get(repo_url, auth=HTTPBasicAuth(username, password))
        if response.status_code == 200:
            return "Access granted: Repository is reachable."
        elif response.status_code == 401:
            return "Access denied: Invalid credentials."
        else:
            return f"Error: Unexpected status code {response.status_code}."
    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
        return f"Error: {str(e)}"

# Example usage
repo_url = "https://gitee.com/guang11cheng/all_docs.git"
username = "your_username"
password = "your_password"
output = test_git_access(repo_url, username, password)
print(output)

That could probably be done in client-side JavaScript too

[BrentHuang]

After I verified it, neither way works.

The first way, I randomly change the username, password and repo_url, all display 'Access granted'
The second way, always returns 403

[BrentHuang]

origin.ls()
Access denied: 'Remote' object has no attribute 'ls'