Is an SSH key required to clone a public github account?

Question

Does github need to use the SSH public key to clone both public and private repositories? Maybe the best question is whether git can clone github repo without the ssh key at all.

Answer 1

You can use the https protocol as described in " GitHub - Https access ".
Then you should use your GitHub username / password in the ~/.netrc (which may be a security issue ).
Note: on Windows, this will be the _netrc file .

Since GitHub supports the smart http protocol (as more detailed here ), you can use it to clone / pull and click.

Answer 2

An SSH key is used for more secure communications. Not necessary, although using an SSH key is useful because the encryption of communications also does not require a password.

Answer 3

Not. The SSH key is only necessary for switching to a public repo on github, and not in order to get it out of one (although the easiest way to get a clone that you can click later uses the same key as for pressing, this is not the only way work).