Git Hosting Service Ping

Check if Your SSH Keys are Working

A Git ping is just a quick way to tell if your SSH keys are working with a Git hosting provider like GitLab.

There is no actual git ping command, nor is the ICMP ping protocol or command involved at all.

First you will have to have completed the following:

  1. Created and account with the Git hosting provider
  2. Created your secure shell keys
  3. Added your public key to your account with provider

If you have not done any of those correctly then the following will fail.

ssh git@gitlab.com

If prompted to trust and continue go ahead and answer yes (if you don’t think someone is hacking you).

The authenticity of host 'gitlab.com (172.65.251.78)' can't be established.
  ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:HbW3g8zUjNSksFbqTiUWPWg2Bq1x8xdGUrliXFzSnUw.
  Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
  Warning: Permanently added 'gitlab.com,172.65.251.78' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.

You should then see something like “Welcome! Now go away” then you have successfully added your SSH public key to the hosting provider.

PTY allocation request failed on channel 0
  Welcome to GitLab,[@rwxyou](https://twitch.tv/rwxyou)!
  Connection to gitlab.com closed.

Remember that you still need to configure git in addition to adding the public key to the hosting provider.

If you failed the configuration test you’ll see something like this.

Warning: Permanently added 'gitlab.com,2606:4700:90:0:f22e:fbec:5bed:a9b9' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
  git@gitlab.com: Permission denied (publickey).