From: M Hickford Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 22:54:37 +0000 (+0000) Subject: docs: discuss caching personal access tokens X-Git-Tag: v2.49.0-rc0~86^2 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=a90ff409f0490aef6266f17656fa626154af9715;p=thirdparty%2Fgit.git docs: discuss caching personal access tokens Describe problems storing personal access tokens in git-credential-cache and suggest alternatives. Research suggests that many users are confused about this: > the point of passwords is that (ideally) you memorise them [so] > they're never stored anywhere in plain text. Yet GitHub's personal > access token system seems to basically force you to store the token in > plain text? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46645843/where-to-store-my-git-personal-access-token#comment89963004_46645843 Signed-off-by: M Hickford Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- diff --git a/Documentation/git-credential-cache.txt b/Documentation/git-credential-cache.txt index 487cc557a8..54fa7a27e1 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-credential-cache.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-credential-cache.txt @@ -78,6 +78,23 @@ variable (this example increases the cache time to 1 hour): $ git config credential.helper 'cache --timeout=3600' ------------------------------------------------------- +PERSONAL ACCESS TOKENS +---------------------- + +Some remotes accept personal access tokens, which are randomly +generated and hard to memorise. They typically have a lifetime of weeks +or months. + +git-credential-cache is inherently unsuitable for persistent storage of +personal access tokens. The credential will be forgotten after the cache +timeout. Even if you configure a long timeout, credentials will be +forgotten if the daemon dies. + +To avoid frequently regenerating personal access tokens, configure a +credential helper with persistent storage. Alternatively, configure an +OAuth credential helper to generate credentials automatically. See +linkgit:gitcredentials[7], sections "Available helpers" and "OAuth". + GIT --- Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite