1GITCREDENTIALS(7) Git Manual GITCREDENTIALS(7)
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6 gitcredentials - providing usernames and passwords to Git
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9 git config credential.https://example.com.username myusername
10 git config credential.helper "$helper $options"
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14 Git will sometimes need credentials from the user in order to perform
15 operations; for example, it may need to ask for a username and password
16 in order to access a remote repository over HTTP. This manual describes
17 the mechanisms Git uses to request these credentials, as well as some
18 features to avoid inputting these credentials repeatedly.
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21 Without any credential helpers defined, Git will try the following
22 strategies to ask the user for usernames and passwords:
23 1. If the GIT_ASKPASS environment variable is set, the program
25 specified by the variable is invoked. A suitable prompt is provided
26 to the program on the command line, and the user’s input is read
27 from its standard output.
28 2. Otherwise, if the core.askpass configuration variable is set, its
30 value is used as above.
31 3. Otherwise, if the SSH_ASKPASS environment variable is set, its
33 value is used as above.
34 4. Otherwise, the user is prompted on the terminal.
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38 It can be cumbersome to input the same credentials over and over. Git
39 provides two methods to reduce this annoyance:
40 1. Static configuration of usernames for a given authentication
42 context.
43 2. Credential helpers to cache or store passwords, or to interact with
45 a system password wallet or keychain.
46 The first is simple and appropriate if you do not have secure storage
48 available for a password. It is generally configured by adding this to
49 your config:
50 [credential "https://example.com"]
52 username = me
53 Credential helpers, on the other hand, are external programs from which
56 Git can request both usernames and passwords; they typically interface
57 with secure storage provided by the OS or other programs.
58 To use a helper, you must first select one to use. Git currently
60 includes the following helpers:
61 cache
63 Cache credentials in memory for a short period of time. See git-
64 credential-cache(1) for details.
65 store
67 Store credentials indefinitely on disk. See git-credential-store(1)
68 for details.
69 You may also have third-party helpers installed; search for
71 credential-* in the output of git help -a, and consult the
72 documentation of individual helpers. Once you have selected a helper,
73 you can tell Git to use it by putting its name into the
74 credential.helper variable.
75 1. Find a helper.
77 $ git help -a | grep credential-
79 credential-foo
80 2. Read its description.
83 $ git help credential-foo
85 3. Tell Git to use it.
88 $ git config --global credential.helper foo
90 If there are multiple instances of the credential.helper configuration
93 variable, each helper will be tried in turn, and may provide a
94 username, password, or nothing. Once Git has acquired both a username
95 and a password, no more helpers will be tried.
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98 Git considers each credential to have a context defined by a URL. This
99 context is used to look up context-specific configuration, and is
100 passed to any helpers, which may use it as an index into secure
101 storage.
102 For instance, imagine we are accessing https://example.com/foo.git.
104 When Git looks into a config file to see if a section matches this
105 context, it will consider the two a match if the context is a
106 more-specific subset of the pattern in the config file. For example, if
107 you have this in your config file:
108 [credential "https://example.com"]
110 username = foo
111 then we will match: both protocols are the same, both hosts are the
114 same, and the "pattern" URL does not care about the path component at
115 all. However, this context would not match:
116 [credential "https://kernel.org"]
118 username = foo
119 because the hostnames differ. Nor would it match foo.example.com; Git
122 compares hostnames exactly, without considering whether two hosts are
123 part of the same domain. Likewise, a config entry for
124 http://example.com would not match: Git compares the protocols exactly.
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127 Options for a credential context can be configured either in
128 credential.* (which applies to all credentials), or credential.<url>.*,
129 where <url> matches the context as described above.
130 The following options are available in either location:
132 helper
134 The name of an external credential helper, and any associated
135 options. If the helper name is not an absolute path, then the
136 string git credential- is prepended. The resulting string is
137 executed by the shell (so, for example, setting this to foo
138 --option=bar will execute git credential-foo --option=bar via the
139 shell. See the manual of specific helpers for examples of their
140 use.
141 username
143 A default username, if one is not provided in the URL.
144 useHttpPath
146 By default, Git does not consider the "path" component of an http
147 URL to be worth matching via external helpers. This means that a
148 credential stored for https://example.com/foo.git will also be used
149 for https://example.com/bar.git. If you do want to distinguish
150 these cases, set this option to true.
151
153 You can write your own custom helpers to interface with any system in
154 which you keep credentials. See the documentation for Git’s credentials
155 API[1] for details.
156
158 Part of the git(1) suite
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161 1. credentials API
162 file:///usr/share/doc/git-1.8.3.1/technical/api-credentials.html
163Git 1.8.3.1 11/19/2018 GITCREDENTIALS(7)