How can I set up a github Machine User on Coldfusion (on Windows)?

Question

I am writing a Coldfusion web app (for internal use) that allows our project managers to begin the deployment of a new project. A key component of that app requires it to clone a repository on github. I am stuck on communicating the credentials when I execute the git clone.

I think the canonical solution to this would be to set up a Machine User with a set of ssh keys, but I don't know how to associate the key with the server in a way that it would be available to the application.

I can have whatever access to the server I need in order to accomplish this.

I don't know if it's relevant, but here is the example code in question:

     cfexecute(
            variable = "output",
            name = "c:\progra~2\git\bin\git.exe",
            arguments = "clone ssh://[github path] d:\inetpub\wwwroot\[file path]",
            timeout = 240
        );

Answer 1

I don't know how to associate the key with the server in a way that it would be available to the application.

You need to see which user is going to run the application (I assume that your webserver has a particular user), and then as that user generate a keypair and upload the key to GitHub.

You can also try this answer, which basically states:

I faced the same problem today and used Process Monitor to see what was going on and found that for some reasons sh.exe looked for the keys in C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\config\\systemprofile\\.ssh . So I copied everything in C:\\Users\\Administrator\\.ssh to that folder and it worked perfectly.

Basically have your keys in the C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\config\\systemprofile\\.ssh folder.