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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13 Git will sometimes need credentials from the user in order to perform
14 operations; for example, it may need to ask for a username and password
15 in order to access a remote repository over HTTP. Some remotes accept a
16 personal access token or OAuth access token as a password. This manual
17 describes the mechanisms Git uses to request these credentials, as well
18 as some 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:
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24 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.
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29 2. Otherwise, if the core.askPass configuration variable is set, its
30 value is used as above.
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32 3. Otherwise, if the SSH_ASKPASS environment variable is set, its
33 value is used as above.
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35 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:
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41 1. Static configuration of usernames for a given authentication
42 context.
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44 2. Credential helpers to cache or store passwords, or to interact with
45 a system password wallet or keychain.
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47 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:
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51 [credential "https://example.com"]
52 username = me
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54 Credential helpers, on the other hand, are external programs from which
55 Git can request both usernames and passwords; they typically interface
56 with secure storage provided by the OS or other programs.
57 Alternatively, a credential-generating helper might generate
58 credentials for certain servers via some API.
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60 To use a helper, you must first select one to use. Git currently
61 includes the following helpers:
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63 cache
64 Cache credentials in memory for a short period of time. See git-
65 credential-cache(1) for details.
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67 store
68 Store credentials indefinitely on disk. See git-credential-store(1)
69 for details.
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71 You may also have third-party helpers installed; search for
72 credential-* in the output of git help -a, and consult the
73 documentation of individual helpers. Once you have selected a helper,
74 you can tell Git to use it by putting its name into the
75 credential.helper variable.
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77 1. Find a helper.
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79 $ git help -a | grep credential-
80 credential-foo
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82 2. Read its description.
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84 $ git help credential-foo
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86 3. Tell Git to use it.
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88 $ git config --global credential.helper foo
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91 Git considers each credential to have a context defined by a URL. This
92 context is used to look up context-specific configuration, and is
93 passed to any helpers, which may use it as an index into secure
94 storage.
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96 For instance, imagine we are accessing https://example.com/foo.git.
97 When Git looks into a config file to see if a section matches this
98 context, it will consider the two a match if the context is a
99 more-specific subset of the pattern in the config file. For example, if
100 you have this in your config file:
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102 [credential "https://example.com"]
103 username = foo
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105 then we will match: both protocols are the same, both hosts are the
106 same, and the "pattern" URL does not care about the path component at
107 all. However, this context would not match:
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109 [credential "https://kernel.org"]
110 username = foo
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112 because the hostnames differ. Nor would it match foo.example.com; Git
113 compares hostnames exactly, without considering whether two hosts are
114 part of the same domain. Likewise, a config entry for
115 http://example.com would not match: Git compares the protocols exactly.
116 However, you may use wildcards in the domain name and other pattern
117 matching techniques as with the http.<URL>.* options.
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119 If the "pattern" URL does include a path component, then this too must
120 match exactly: the context https://example.com/bar/baz.git will match a
121 config entry for https://example.com/bar/baz.git (in addition to
122 matching the config entry for https://example.com) but will not match a
123 config entry for https://example.com/bar.
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126 Options for a credential context can be configured either in
127 credential.* (which applies to all credentials), or credential.<URL>.*,
128 where <URL> matches the context as described above.
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130 The following options are available in either location:
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132 helper
133 The name of an external credential helper, and any associated
134 options. If the helper name is not an absolute path, then the
135 string git credential- is prepended. The resulting string is
136 executed by the shell (so, for example, setting this to foo
137 --option=bar will execute git credential-foo --option=bar via the
138 shell. See the manual of specific helpers for examples of their
139 use.
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141 If there are multiple instances of the credential.helper
142 configuration variable, each helper will be tried in turn, and may
143 provide a username, password, or nothing. Once Git has acquired
144 both a username and a password, no more helpers will be tried.
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146 If credential.helper is configured to the empty string, this resets
147 the helper list to empty (so you may override a helper set by a
148 lower-priority config file by configuring the empty-string helper,
149 followed by whatever set of helpers you would like).
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151 username
152 A default username, if one is not provided in the URL.
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154 useHttpPath
155 By default, Git does not consider the "path" component of an http
156 URL to be worth matching via external helpers. This means that a
157 credential stored for https://example.com/foo.git will also be used
158 for https://example.com/bar.git. If you do want to distinguish
159 these cases, set this option to true.
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162 You can write your own custom helpers to interface with any system in
163 which you keep credentials.
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165 Credential helpers are programs executed by Git to fetch or save
166 credentials from and to long-term storage (where "long-term" is simply
167 longer than a single Git process; e.g., credentials may be stored
168 in-memory for a few minutes, or indefinitely on disk).
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170 Each helper is specified by a single string in the configuration
171 variable credential.helper (and others, see git-config(1)). The string
172 is transformed by Git into a command to be executed using these rules:
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174 1. If the helper string begins with "!", it is considered a shell
175 snippet, and everything after the "!" becomes the command.
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177 2. Otherwise, if the helper string begins with an absolute path, the
178 verbatim helper string becomes the command.
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180 3. Otherwise, the string "git credential-" is prepended to the helper
181 string, and the result becomes the command.
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183 The resulting command then has an "operation" argument appended to it
184 (see below for details), and the result is executed by the shell.
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186 Here are some example specifications:
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188 # run "git credential-foo"
189 [credential]
190 helper = foo
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192 # same as above, but pass an argument to the helper
193 [credential]
194 helper = "foo --bar=baz"
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196 # the arguments are parsed by the shell, so use shell
197 # quoting if necessary
198 [credential]
199 helper = "foo --bar='whitespace arg'"
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201 # you can also use an absolute path, which will not use the git wrapper
202 [credential]
203 helper = "/path/to/my/helper --with-arguments"
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205 # or you can specify your own shell snippet
206 [credential "https://example.com"]
207 username = your_user
208 helper = "!f() { test \"$1\" = get && echo \"password=$(cat $HOME/.secret)\"; }; f"
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210 Generally speaking, rule (3) above is the simplest for users to
211 specify. Authors of credential helpers should make an effort to assist
212 their users by naming their program "git-credential-$NAME", and putting
213 it in the $PATH or $GIT_EXEC_PATH during installation, which will allow
214 a user to enable it with git config credential.helper $NAME.
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216 When a helper is executed, it will have one "operation" argument
217 appended to its command line, which is one of:
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219 get
220 Return a matching credential, if any exists.
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222 store
223 Store the credential, if applicable to the helper.
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225 erase
226 Remove a matching credential, if any, from the helper’s storage.
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228 The details of the credential will be provided on the helper’s stdin
229 stream. The exact format is the same as the input/output format of the
230 git credential plumbing command (see the section INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT in
231 git-credential(1) for a detailed specification).
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233 For a get operation, the helper should produce a list of attributes on
234 stdout in the same format (see git-credential(1) for common
235 attributes). A helper is free to produce a subset, or even no values at
236 all if it has nothing useful to provide. Any provided attributes will
237 overwrite those already known about by Git’s credential subsystem.
238 Unrecognised attributes are silently discarded.
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240 While it is possible to override all attributes, well behaving helpers
241 should refrain from doing so for any attribute other than username and
242 password.
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244 If a helper outputs a quit attribute with a value of true or 1, no
245 further helpers will be consulted, nor will the user be prompted (if no
246 credential has been provided, the operation will then fail).
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248 Similarly, no more helpers will be consulted once both username and
249 password had been provided.
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251 For a store or erase operation, the helper’s output is ignored.
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253 If a helper fails to perform the requested operation or needs to notify
254 the user of a potential issue, it may write to stderr.
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256 If it does not support the requested operation (e.g., a read-only store
257 or generator), it should silently ignore the request.
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259 If a helper receives any other operation, it should silently ignore the
260 request. This leaves room for future operations to be added (older
261 helpers will just ignore the new requests).
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264 Part of the git(1) suite
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268Git 2.39.1 2023-01-13 GITCREDENTIALS(7)