GITCREDENTIALS(7) Git Manual GITCREDENTIALS(7)
NAME
gitcredentials - providing usernames and passwords to Git
SYNOPSIS
git config credential.https://example.com.username myusername
git config credential.helper "$helper $options"
DESCRIPTION
Git will sometimes need credentials from the user in order to perform operations; for example, it may need to
ask for a username and password in order to access a remote repository over HTTP. This manual describes the
mechanisms Git uses to request these credentials, as well as some features to avoid inputting these
credentials repeatedly.
REQUESTING CREDENTIALS
Without any credential helpers defined, Git will try the following strategies to ask the user for usernames
and passwords:
1. If the GIT_ASKPASS environment variable is set, the program specified by the variable is invoked. A
suitable prompt is provided to the program on the command line, and the user’s input is read from its
standard output.
2. Otherwise, if the core.askpass configuration variable is set, its value is used as above.
3. Otherwise, if the SSH_ASKPASS environment variable is set, its value is used as above.
4. Otherwise, the user is prompted on the terminal.
AVOIDING REPETITION
It can be cumbersome to input the same credentials over and over. Git provides two methods to reduce this
annoyance:
1. Static configuration of usernames for a given authentication context.
2. Credential helpers to cache or store passwords, or to interact with a system password wallet or keychain.
The first is simple and appropriate if you do not have secure storage available for a password. It is
generally configured by adding this to your config:
[credential "https://example.com"]
username = me
Credential helpers, on the other hand, are external programs from which Git can request both usernames and
passwords; they typically interface with secure storage provided by the OS or other programs.
To use a helper, you must first select one to use. Git currently includes the following helpers:
cache
Cache credentials in memory for a short period of time. See git-credential-cache(1) for details.
store
Store credentials indefinitely on disk. See git-credential-store(1) for details.
You may also have third-party helpers installed; search for credential-* in the output of git help -a, and
consult the documentation of individual helpers. Once you have selected a helper, you can tell Git to use it
3. Tell Git to use it.
$ git config --global credential.helper foo
If there are multiple instances of the credential.helper configuration variable, each helper will be tried in
turn, and may provide a username, password, or nothing. Once Git has acquired both a username and a password,
no more helpers will be tried.
CREDENTIAL CONTEXTS
Git considers each credential to have a context defined by a URL. This context is used to look up
context-specific configuration, and is passed to any helpers, which may use it as an index into secure
storage.
For instance, imagine we are accessing https://example.com/foo.git. When Git looks into a config file to see
if a section matches this context, it will consider the two a match if the context is a more-specific subset
of the pattern in the config file. For example, if you have this in your config file:
[credential "https://example.com"]
username = foo
then we will match: both protocols are the same, both hosts are the same, and the "pattern" URL does not care
about the path component at all. However, this context would not match:
[credential "https://kernel.org"]
username = foo
because the hostnames differ. Nor would it match foo.example.com; Git compares hostnames exactly, without
considering whether two hosts are part of the same domain. Likewise, a config entry for http://example.com
would not match: Git compares the protocols exactly.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
Options for a credential context can be configured either in credential.* (which applies to all credentials),
or credential.<url>.*, where <url> matches the context as described above.
The following options are available in either location:
helper
The name of an external credential helper, and any associated options. If the helper name is not an
absolute path, then the string git credential- is prepended. The resulting string is executed by the shell
(so, for example, setting this to foo --option=bar will execute git credential-foo --option=bar via the
shell. See the manual of specific helpers for examples of their use.
username
A default username, if one is not provided in the URL.
useHttpPath
By default, Git does not consider the "path" component of an http URL to be worth matching via external
helpers. This means that a credential stored for https://example.com/foo.git will also be used for
https://example.com/bar.git. If you do want to distinguish these cases, set this option to true.
Git 1.8.3.1 03/23/2016 GITCREDENTIALS(7)
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