GIT-CREDENTIAL(1) Git Manual GIT-CREDENTIAL(1)
NAME
git-credential - Retrieve and store user credentials
SYNOPSIS
git credential <fill|approve|reject>
DESCRIPTION
Git has an internal interface for storing and retrieving credentials from system-specific helpers, as well as
prompting the user for usernames and passwords. The git-credential command exposes this interface to scripts
which may want to retrieve, store, or prompt for credentials in the same manner as Git. The design of this
scriptable interface models the internal C API; see the Git credential API[1] for more background on the
concepts.
git-credential takes an "action" option on the command-line (one of fill, approve, or reject) and reads a
credential description on stdin (see INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT).
If the action is fill, git-credential will attempt to add "username" and "password" attributes to the
description by reading config files, by contacting any configured credential helpers, or by prompting the
user. The username and password attributes of the credential description are then printed to stdout together
with the attributes already provided.
If the action is approve, git-credential will send the description to any configured credential helpers, which
may store the credential for later use.
If the action is reject, git-credential will send the description to any configured credential helpers, which
may erase any stored credential matching the description.
If the action is approve or reject, no output should be emitted.
TYPICAL USE OF GIT CREDENTIAL
An application using git-credential will typically use git credential following these steps:
1. Generate a credential description based on the context.
For example, if we want a password for https://example.com/foo.git, we might generate the following
credential description (don’t forget the blank line at the end; it tells git credential that the
application finished feeding all the information it has):
protocol=https
host=example.com
path=foo.git
2. Ask git-credential to give us a username and password for this description. This is done by running git
credential fill, feeding the description from step (1) to its standard input. The complete credential
description (including the credential per se, i.e. the login and password) will be produced on standard
output, like:
protocol=https
host=example.com
username=bob
password=secr3t
In most cases, this means the attributes given in the input will be repeated in the output, but Git may
also modify the credential description, for example by removing the path attribute when the protocol is
HTTP(s) and credential.useHttpPath is false.
fed with the credential description obtained from step (2) (which also contain the ones provided in step
(1)).
INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT
git credential reads and/or writes (depending on the action used) credential information in its standard
input/output. This information can correspond either to keys for which git credential will obtain the
login/password information (e.g. host, protocol, path), or to the actual credential data to be obtained
(login/password).
The credential is split into a set of named attributes, with one attribute per line. Each attribute is
specified by a key-value pair, separated by an = (equals) sign, followed by a newline. The key may contain any
bytes except =, newline, or NUL. The value may contain any bytes except newline or NUL. In both cases, all
bytes are treated as-is (i.e., there is no quoting, and one cannot transmit a value with newline or NUL in
it). The list of attributes is terminated by a blank line or end-of-file. Git understands the following
attributes:
protocol
The protocol over which the credential will be used (e.g., https).
host
The remote hostname for a network credential.
path
The path with which the credential will be used. E.g., for accessing a remote https repository, this will
be the repository’s path on the server.
username
The credential’s username, if we already have one (e.g., from a URL, from the user, or from a previously
run helper).
password
The credential’s password, if we are asking it to be stored.
url
When this special attribute is read by git credential, the value is parsed as a URL and treated as if its
constituent parts were read (e.g., url=https://example.com would behave as if protocol=https and
host=example.com had been provided). This can help callers avoid parsing URLs themselves. Note that any
components which are missing from the URL (e.g., there is no username in the example above) will be set to
empty; if you want to provide a URL and override some attributes, provide the URL attribute first,
followed by any overrides.
NOTES
1. the Git credential API
file:///usr/share/doc/git-1.8.3.1/technical/api-credentials.txt
Git 1.8.3.1 03/23/2016 GIT-CREDENTIAL(1)
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