### Problem Cloning non-existent repository asks for authentication. (Fail instead of asking for credentials) ```sh $ git clone https://gitlab.com/does-not-exist-group-f34f2/dne-123.git Cloning into 'dne-123'... Username for 'https://gitlab.com/': ``` I didn't realize the typo in the URL right away so I Googled whether I could clone a public repository without authentication and my [expectations were correct](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/26258) so I looked at the command closer :eyes: I got into this situation because I manually typed a repo URL into a virtual machine(VM) where I didn't have shared clipboard on to paste easily. ### Proposal Are we asking for authentication to not expose a 404 project that could potentially be a private project? In any case, I mis-typed the group name which is exposed anyway because you can go to the group creation page and try to create a group with the same name (returns "Path has already been taken" error) Ideally, we could return `fatal: repository 'dne-123' does not exist` (normal error for git, try `git clone asdf`) for this case. Not sure if we can add a message to that git command output, but if possible, we could add a message about the project not existing or needing authentication/permissions to see it. This would have clued me in on the URL being wrong instead of having to guess whether anonymous public clones are possible. --- Related issues - https://serverfault.com/questions/544156/git-clone-fail-instead-of-prompting-for-credentials - https://help.github.com/articles/error-repository-not-found/ - https://help.github.com/articles/https-cloning-errors/#check-your-permissions cc @jramsay