Git command to checkout latest commit from develop branch

Question

Using groovy syntax in Jenkins pipeline, below is the syntax used for check out:

         git branch: branchName, 
                       credentialsId: credential, 
                       url: "${gitLabServer}/${projectName}/${repo}.git"

Where credential is jenkins credential(111111-222222-33333-44444) shown below:

jenkins does the following under the hood, for groovy syntax(above):

Cloning the remote Git repository
Cloning repository ssh://git@10.xx.xx.xx:2222/abc/def.git
 > git init /app/jenkins/workspace/../def # timeout=10
Fetching upstream changes from ssh://git@10.xx.xx.xx:2222/abc/def.git
 > git --version # timeout=10
using GIT_SSH to set credentials abcuser
 > git fetch --tags --progress ssh://git@10.xx.xx.xx:2222/abc/def.git +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
 > git config remote.origin.url ssh://git@10.xx.xx.xx:2222/abc/def.git # timeout=10
 > git config --add remote.origin.fetch +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* # timeout=10
 > git config remote.origin.url ssh://git@10.xx.xx.xx:2222/abc/def.git # timeout=10
Fetching upstream changes from ssh://git@10.xx.xx.xx:2222/abc/def.git
using GIT_SSH to set credentials abcuser
 > git fetch --tags --progress ssh://git@10.xx.xx.xx:2222/abc/def.git +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
Checking out Revision 5df59884ecb3aa1b55aabf99ab8bd0adcd4eb41b (refs/remotes/origin/develop)
Commit message: "new commit"

---

For the given groovy syntax, What is the equivalent git command suffice to run on shell? Does git clone -branch or git checkout would not suffice? Why Jenkins is running git fetch multiple times?

Answer 1

From what I see, following need to happen. Your credential in Jenkins need to be a private key.

Authentication phase:

# optional. check whether the gitLabServer is already trusted
ssh-keygen -F ${gitLabServer} 
# adds the gitLabServer into known_hosts. This stops interactive prompts during git clone.
ssh-keyscan ${gitLabServer} >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

# Add your existing private key (like id_rsa) into authentication agent
eval `ssh-agent -s`
ssh-add /path/to/key/credential

Git clone phase:

# Finally, clone the repo with branchName as a parameter
git clone -b ${branchName} git@${gitLabServer}:${projectName}/${repo}.git

Answer 2

The command you are looking for is

git checkout branchName

Answer 3

You can use a certificate as explained in this answer

If your repo provider support token based communication as github add token to repo url https://[token here]@github.com/[your name]/[your repo].git See the documentation to know how to provide token.

You also can use something as:

git remote set-url --push origin https://<username>:<password>@github.com/<repo>

But we understand that it's the unsecured way and strongly not recommended to use it.