Documentation/gitcredentials.txt

   1 gitcredentials(7)
   2 =================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 gitcredentials - providing usernames and passwords to Git
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 ------------------
  11 git config credential.https://example.com.username myusername
  12 git config credential.helper "$helper $options"
  13 ------------------
  14
  15 DESCRIPTION
  16 -----------
  17
  18 Git will sometimes need credentials from the user in order to perform
  19 operations; for example, it may need to ask for a username and password
  20 in order to access a remote repository over HTTP. This manual describes
  21 the mechanisms Git uses to request these credentials, as well as some
  22 features to avoid inputting these credentials repeatedly.
  23
  24 REQUESTING CREDENTIALS
  25 ----------------------
  26
  27 Without any credential helpers defined, Git will try the following
  28 strategies to ask the user for usernames and passwords:
  29
  30 1. If the `GIT_ASKPASS` environment variable is set, the program
  31    specified by the variable is invoked. A suitable prompt is provided
  32    to the program on the command line, and the user's input is read
  33    from its standard output.
  34
  35 2. Otherwise, if the `core.askPass` configuration variable is set, its
  36    value is used as above.
  37
  38 3. Otherwise, if the `SSH_ASKPASS` environment variable is set, its
  39    value is used as above.
  40
  41 4. Otherwise, the user is prompted on the terminal.
  42
  43 AVOIDING REPETITION
  44 -------------------
  45
  46 It can be cumbersome to input the same credentials over and over.  Git
  47 provides two methods to reduce this annoyance:
  48
  49 1. Static configuration of usernames for a given authentication context.
  50
  51 2. Credential helpers to cache or store passwords, or to interact with
  52    a system password wallet or keychain.
  53
  54 The first is simple and appropriate if you do not have secure storage available
  55 for a password. It is generally configured by adding this to your config:
  56
  57 ---------------------------------------
  58 [credential "https://example.com"]
  59         username = me
  60 ---------------------------------------
  61
  62 Credential helpers, on the other hand, are external programs from which Git can
  63 request both usernames and passwords; they typically interface with secure
  64 storage provided by the OS or other programs.
  65
  66 To use a helper, you must first select one to use. Git currently
  67 includes the following helpers:
  68
  69 cache::
  70
  71         Cache credentials in memory for a short period of time. See
  72         linkgit:git-credential-cache[1] for details.
  73
  74 store::
  75
  76         Store credentials indefinitely on disk. See
  77         linkgit:git-credential-store[1] for details.
  78
  79 You may also have third-party helpers installed; search for
  80 `credential-*` in the output of `git help -a`, and consult the
  81 documentation of individual helpers.  Once you have selected a helper,
  82 you can tell Git to use it by putting its name into the
  83 credential.helper variable.
  84
  85 1. Find a helper.
  86 +
  87 -------------------------------------------
  88 $ git help -a | grep credential-
  89 credential-foo
  90 -------------------------------------------
  91
  92 2. Read its description.
  93 +
  94 -------------------------------------------
  95 $ git help credential-foo
  96 -------------------------------------------
  97
  98 3. Tell Git to use it.
  99 +
 100 -------------------------------------------
 101 $ git config --global credential.helper foo
 102 -------------------------------------------
 103
 104
 105 CREDENTIAL CONTEXTS
 106 -------------------
 107
 108 Git considers each credential to have a context defined by a URL. This context
 109 is used to look up context-specific configuration, and is passed to any
 110 helpers, which may use it as an index into secure storage.
 111
 112 For instance, imagine we are accessing `https://example.com/foo.git`. When Git
 113 looks into a config file to see if a section matches this context, it will
 114 consider the two a match if the context is a more-specific subset of the
 115 pattern in the config file. For example, if you have this in your config file:
 116
 117 --------------------------------------
 118 [credential "https://example.com"]
 119         username = foo
 120 --------------------------------------
 121
 122 then we will match: both protocols are the same, both hosts are the same, and
 123 the "pattern" URL does not care about the path component at all. However, this
 124 context would not match:
 125
 126 --------------------------------------
 127 [credential "https://kernel.org"]
 128         username = foo
 129 --------------------------------------
 130
 131 because the hostnames differ. Nor would it match `foo.example.com`; Git
 132 compares hostnames exactly, without considering whether two hosts are part of
 133 the same domain. Likewise, a config entry for `http://example.com` would not
 134 match: Git compares the protocols exactly.
 135
 136 If the "pattern" URL does include a path component, then this too must match
 137 exactly: the context `https://example.com/bar/baz.git` will match a config
 138 entry for `https://example.com/bar/baz.git` (in addition to matching the config
 139 entry for `https://example.com`) but will not match a config entry for
 140 `https://example.com/bar`.
 141
 142
 143 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
 144 ---------------------
 145
 146 Options for a credential context can be configured either in
 147 `credential.*` (which applies to all credentials), or
 148 `credential.<url>.*`, where <url> matches the context as described
 149 above.
 150
 151 The following options are available in either location:
 152
 153 helper::
 154
 155         The name of an external credential helper, and any associated options.
 156         If the helper name is not an absolute path, then the string `git
 157         credential-` is prepended. The resulting string is executed by the
 158         shell (so, for example, setting this to `foo --option=bar` will execute
 159         `git credential-foo --option=bar` via the shell. See the manual of
 160         specific helpers for examples of their use.
 161 +
 162 If there are multiple instances of the `credential.helper` configuration
 163 variable, each helper will be tried in turn, and may provide a username,
 164 password, or nothing. Once Git has acquired both a username and a
 165 password, no more helpers will be tried.
 166 +
 167 If `credential.helper` is configured to the empty string, this resets
 168 the helper list to empty (so you may override a helper set by a
 169 lower-priority config file by configuring the empty-string helper,
 170 followed by whatever set of helpers you would like).
 171
 172 username::
 173
 174         A default username, if one is not provided in the URL.
 175
 176 useHttpPath::
 177
 178         By default, Git does not consider the "path" component of an http URL
 179         to be worth matching via external helpers. This means that a credential
 180         stored for `https://example.com/foo.git` will also be used for
 181         `https://example.com/bar.git`. If you do want to distinguish these
 182         cases, set this option to `true`.
 183
 184
 185 CUSTOM HELPERS
 186 --------------
 187
 188 You can write your own custom helpers to interface with any system in
 189 which you keep credentials. See the documentation for Git's
 190 link:technical/api-credentials.html[credentials API] for details.
 191
 192 GIT
 193 ---
 194 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite