Why does git:// works but git@ does not

Question

Why does git:// works

$ git clone git://github.com/schacon/grit.git
Cloning into 'grit'...
...
Checking connectivity... done.

but git@ does not

$ git clone git@github.com:schacon/grit.git mygrit
Cloning into 'mygrit'...
Warning: Permanently added the RSA host key for IP address '192.30.252.129' to t
he list of known hosts.
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

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

Any help is appreciated

Answer 1

This is because git@ uses ssh protocol. It is equivalent to ssh://git@.. So if you dont have correct ssh keys it will not work. Option git:// however uses git protocol which is similar to ssh but uses no authentication at all. See chapter on protocols for more information.

Answer 2

Your first clone method is using the git protocol, the second is using SSH.

You probably don't have your SSH token setup on github.com

https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys

Gives you the steps on how to setup your user account for SSH use.

You can see the differences between the protocols as they pertain to github here:

https://gist.github.com/grawity/4392747