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. Some remotes accept
a personal access token or OAuth access token as a password. 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:
-
If the
GIT_ASKPASSenvironment 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. -
Otherwise, if the
core.askPassconfiguration variable is set, its
value is used as above. -
Otherwise, if the
SSH_ASKPASSenvironment variable is set, its
value is used as above. -
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:
-
Static configuration of usernames for a given authentication context.
-
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. Alternatively, a
credential-generating helper might generate credentials for certain servers via
some API.
To use a helper, you must first select one to use (see below for a list).
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 by putting its name into the
credential.helper variable.
-
Find a helper.
$ git help -a | grep credential- credential-foo
-
Read its description.
$ git help credential-foo
-
Tell Git to use it.
$ git config --global credential.helper foo
Available helpers
Git currently includes the following helpers:
Popular helpers with secure persistent storage include:
-
git-credential-libsecret (Linux)
-
git-credential-osxkeychain (macOS)
-
git-credential-wincred (Windows)
-
Git Credential Manager (cross platform, included in Git for Windows)
OAuth
An alternative to inputting passwords or personal access tokens is to use an
OAuth credential helper. Initial authentication opens a browser window to the
host. Subsequent authentication happens in the background. Many popular Git
hosts support OAuth.
Popular helpers with OAuth support include:
-
Git Credential Manager (cross platform, included in Git for Windows)
-
git-credential-oauth (cross platform, included in many Linux distributions)
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. However, you may use wildcards in
the domain name and other pattern matching techniques as with the http.<URL>.*
options.
If the «pattern» URL does include a path component, then this too must match
exactly: the context https://example.com/bar/baz.git will match a config
entry for https://example.com/bar/baz.git (in addition to matching the config
entry for https://example.com) but will not match a config entry for
https://example.com/bar.
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 stringgitis prepended. The resulting string is executed by the
credential-
shell (so, for example, setting this tofoo --option=barwill execute
git credential-foo --option=barvia the shell. See the manual of
specific helpers for examples of their use.If there are multiple instances of the
credential.helperconfiguration
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
non-expired password, no more helpers will be tried.If
credential.helperis configured to the empty string, this resets
the helper list to empty (so you may override a helper set by a
lower-priority config file by configuring the empty-string helper,
followed by whatever set of helpers you would like). - 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 forhttps://example.com/foo.gitwill also be used for
https://example.com/bar.git. If you do want to distinguish these
cases, set this option totrue.
CUSTOM HELPERS
You can write your own custom helpers to interface with any system in
which you keep credentials.
Credential helpers are programs executed by Git to fetch or save
credentials from and to long-term storage (where «long-term» is simply
longer than a single Git process; e.g., credentials may be stored
in-memory for a few minutes, or indefinitely on disk).
Each helper is specified by a single string in the configuration
variable credential.helper (and others, see git-config[1]).
The string is transformed by Git into a command to be executed using
these rules:
-
If the helper string begins with «!», it is considered a shell
snippet, and everything after the «!» becomes the command. -
Otherwise, if the helper string begins with an absolute path, the
verbatim helper string becomes the command. -
Otherwise, the string «git credential-» is prepended to the helper
string, and the result becomes the command.
The resulting command then has an «operation» argument appended to it
(see below for details), and the result is executed by the shell.
Here are some example specifications:
# run "git credential-foo"
[credential]
helper = foo
# same as above, but pass an argument to the helper
[credential]
helper = "foo --bar=baz"
# the arguments are parsed by the shell, so use shell
# quoting if necessary
[credential]
helper = "foo --bar='whitespace arg'"
# store helper (discouraged) with custom location for the db file;
# use `--file ~/.git-secret.txt`, rather than `--file=~/.git-secret.txt`,
# to allow the shell to expand tilde to the home directory.
[credential]
helper = "store --file ~/.git-secret.txt"
# you can also use an absolute path, which will not use the git wrapper
[credential]
helper = "/path/to/my/helper --with-arguments"
# or you can specify your own shell snippet
[credential "https://example.com"]
username = your_user
helper = "!f() { test \"$1\" = get && echo \"password=$(cat $HOME/.secret)\"; }; f"
Generally speaking, rule (3) above is the simplest for users to specify.
Authors of credential helpers should make an effort to assist their
users by naming their program «git-credential-$NAME», and putting it in
the $PATH or $GIT_EXEC_PATH during installation, which will allow a
user to enable it with git config credential.helper $NAME.
When a helper is executed, it will have one «operation» argument
appended to its command line, which is one of:
-
get -
Return a matching credential, if any exists.
-
store -
Store the credential, if applicable to the helper.
-
erase -
Remove matching credentials, if any, from the helper’s storage.
The details of the credential will be provided on the helper’s stdin
stream. The exact format is the same as the input/output format of the
git credential plumbing command (see the section INPUT/OUTPUT in git-credential[1] for a detailed specification).
FORMAT
For a get operation, the helper should produce a list of attributes on
stdout in the same format (see git-credential[1] for common
attributes). A helper is free to produce a subset, or even no values at
all if it has nothing useful to provide. Any provided attributes will
overwrite those already known about by Git’s credential subsystem.
Unrecognised attributes are silently discarded.
While it is possible to override all attributes, well behaving helpers
should refrain from doing so for any attribute other than username and
password.
If a helper outputs a quit attribute with a value of true or 1,
no further helpers will be consulted, nor will the user be prompted
(if no credential has been provided, the operation will then fail).
Similarly, no more helpers will be consulted once both username and
password had been provided.
For a store or erase operation, the helper’s output is ignored.
If a helper fails to perform the requested operation or needs to notify
the user of a potential issue, it may write to stderr.
If it does not support the requested operation (e.g., a read-only store
or generator), it should silently ignore the request.
If a helper receives any other operation, it should silently ignore the
request. This leaves room for future operations to be added (older
helpers will just ignore the new requests).
Last Updated :
27 May, 2024
Managing Git credentials on Windows is important for seamless interaction with remote repositories. Whether you’re pushing code to GitHub, GitLab, or another Git service, storing your credentials securely can save you from repeatedly entering your username and password. This article will walk you through various methods to add and manage Git credentials on Windows effectively.
Steps to Setup GIT Credentials
Step 1: To add your credentials for a remote server (Github, Gitlab, etc…), enter the following in the terminal:
git config –global credential.helper manager-core
- credential-helper are git programs that help you save the credentials on your device.
- manager-core is a credential manager for GIT, It supports authentication to GitHub, Bitbucket, and Azure Repos.
To set your username, enter the following (Change <username> with the preferred username):
git config –global user.name <username>
Further, if you want to set your email, just change user.name to user.email (Change <email> with the preferred email),
git config –global user.email <email>
Note: If you want to set this config for a single repo, remove the ‘–global’ option as it changes the config for all the current repos and any other repos you make.
Step 2: The next time you will commit/push to the repo for which you added the credentials, GIT will ask you for the credentials for that particular remote server if it is unable to find the username and password already stored.
Introduction
Configuring your Git username and password is a fundamental step when working with Git repositories. It allows you to authenticate your actions, such as pushing changes to or pulling updates from a remote repository. This guide will show you how to set your Git username and password in Git Bash.
What Is Git Bash?
Git Bash is a command-line interface application for Windows that offers a Unix-like terminal environment. It enables users to execute Git commands and Unix shell utilities seamlessly, making it a preferred choice for developers accustomed to Unix-like systems who are working on Windows. With Git Bash, managing Git repositories and performing version control operations becomes efficient and user-friendly.
Steps to Set Git Username and Password in Git Bash
Step 1: Open Git Bash
After installing Git, navigate to the location where you want to open Git Bash. Right-click on the folder and select «Git Bash Here». This will launch the Git Bash terminal in the selected location.
Step 2: Set Your Username
Run the following command to configure your username globally:
git config --global user.name "YourUsername"
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For example:
git config --global user.name "Sospeter Mongare"
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Step 3: Set Your Email
Next, set your email address with the command:
git config --global user.email "YourEmail@example.com"
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For example:
git config --global user.email "sos@gmail.com"
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Step 4: Set Your Password
To set your password globally, use the command:
git config --global user.password "YourPassword"
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For example:
git config --global user.password "1234567890"
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Step 5: Store Credentials Permanently
To avoid repeatedly entering your credentials, store them using:
git config --global credential.helper store
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This saves your credentials securely for future use.
Step 6: Verify Your Configuration
To confirm your configurations, use the following command:
git config --list --show-origin
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This will display a list of all configured values, including their sources.
FAQs
How Do I Enter My Username and Password in Git Bash?
- Open Git Bash.
- Set your username:
git config --global user.name "YourUsername"
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- Set your email:
git config --global user.email "YourEmail@example.com"
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- Set your password:
git config --global user.password "YourPassword"
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How Do I Check My Username and Email in Git Bash?
- To check your username:
git config user.name
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- To check your email:
git config user.email
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Why Is Git Bash Asking for My Username and Password?
Git Bash prompts for your username and password to authenticate with a remote repository. This typically happens during actions like pushing or pulling changes.
Where Can I Find My Git Password?
Git passwords are stored securely and are not directly accessible. However, you can reset or configure your password using:
git config --global user.password "YourPassword"
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How Do I Configure Username and Password Globally in Git Bash?
- Open Git Bash.
- Set your username:
git config --global user.name "YourUsername"
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- Set your email:
git config --global user.email "YourEmail@example.com"
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- Set your password:
git config --global user.password "YourPassword"
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By following these steps, you can easily configure your Git username and password in Git Bash, ensuring a seamless experience while interacting with remote repositories.
In this article, we want to show how to save username and password for git under Windows, when we don’t want to type it each time during push / pull operations.
Quick solution (run command):
git config --global credential.helper manager
In the below sections we can see described two variants:
- built-in in operating system Windows Credential Manager,
- git credential store.
1. Windows Credential Manager example
This approach uses Windows Credential Manager that stores passwords in operating system safe storage.
Simple steps:
- run Git Bash,
- run following command:
git config --global credential.helper manager - run following command in the project directory:
git pullor any other git command that requires authentication,
- Windows Credential Manager will ask us for username and password,
- type username and password and click Ok or other confirmation action,
- all future git authentications for this git account will go from Windows Credential Manager.
Notes:
- now our password is saved with Windows Credential Manager — not as plain text
- Available from Git for Windows 2.7.3+ — github release
2. git credential store example
This approach uses git credential store that stores passwords in a simple text file.
Simple steps:
- run Git Bash,
- run following command:
git config credential.helper store - run following command in the project directory:
git pullor any other git command that requires authentication,
- we will be asked to provide username and password to our git account,
- type username and password and click Ok or other confirmation action,
- all future git authentications for this git account will go from
.git-credentialsfile.
Note: the password is stored as plain text in
C:\Users\my_user_name\.git-credentialswhat is not safe when our account is not encrypted.
References
- Git Credential Manager for Windows
- Windows Credential Manager
- Git config — docs
- How do I save git credential under windows?
- Git — save username and password with windows
- How to safely store git credential under windows?
- Windows and git — save username and password
BITBUCKET
Using Git on Windows is a common practice for developers, enabling version control and collaboration on projects. However, there are instances when you might be required to update your Git credentials, particularly when your credentials have expired. Unfortunately, failing to update your credentials can lead to frustrating authentication errors such as fatal: Authentication failed. This article will provide you with a step-by-step guide to effectively updating your Git credentials on Windows.
Understanding Git Credential Manager
Before delving into the steps, it’s crucial to understand the role of the Git Credential Manager. This tool helps manage access to remote Git repositories by caching credentials (like usernames and passwords) to make it easier to authenticate without typing them every time. However, when these credentials expire or when you change your passwords, you may face authentication errors.
Symptoms of Expired Credentials
You may encounter the following symptoms that indicate your Git credentials need updating:
-
Authentication prompt appears but fails to log in.
-
Error message:
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://your-repo-url'. -
Interrupted Git commands such as
git pull,git push, orgit fetch.
Step-by-Step Guide to Update Your Git Credentials on Windows
Method 1: Using Git Bash with Credential Manager
-
Open Git Bash: Launch Git Bash on your Windows machine.
-
Remove old credentials:
First, you need to remove the cached credentials from your system. Run the following command:git credential-manager uninstallThis removes the credential manager and the saved credentials.
-
Disable Credential Manager (if required):
If you want to avoid using the credential manager, you can disable it:git config --global --unset credential.helper -
Re-enable Credential Manager (Optional):
If you removed it earlier, you can re-enable it with:git credential-manager install -
Authenticate Again: Now, try to perform a Git operation that requires authentication:
You will be prompted to enter your username and password. Ensure you enter the correct credentials.
Method 2: Update Credentials in Windows Credential Manager
-
Access Windows Credential Manager:
-
Press
Windows + Rto open the Run dialog, typecontrol, and press Enter. -
Navigate to User Accounts and then click on Credential Manager.
-
-
Manage Windows Credentials:
-
In the Credential Manager, select Windows Credentials.
-
Look for any saved credentials that start with
git:or your Git service provider’s name (e.g., GitHub, Bitbucket).
-
-
Edit or Remove Credentials:
-
Click on the entry to edit it. Update the username and password fields to match your current Git service credentials, or remove the entry entirely, which will prompt you to re-enter your credentials the next time you try to access the Git repository.
-
-
Test Your Setup:
Open Git Bash and execute a command like:If successful, you will not see any authentication errors.
Method 3: Configuring Git to Use SSH Instead of HTTPS
Using SSH keys is a more secure method of authenticating with Git repositories than using HTTPS and passwords. Follow these steps to set up SSH keys:
-
Generate an SSH Key:
Open Git Bash and run:ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"Press
Enterto accept the default location and enter a passphrase if desired. -
Add SSH Key to the SSH Agent:
Start the SSH agent and add your SSH key:eval $(ssh-agent -s) ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa -
Add Your SSH Key to Your Git Service:
Copy the SSH key to your clipboard:Then, go to your Git hosting service (like GitHub or Bitbucket) and add the SSH key to your account settings.
-
Change Your Remote URL:
Change your remote Git repository URL from HTTPS to SSH:git remote set-url origin git@github.com:username/repository.git -
Test Your SSH Connection:
Check if the setup is correct:
Conclusion
Updating expired Git credentials on Windows can save you time and frustration, ensuring a smooth development workflow. Whether you choose to manage your credentials through the Git Credential Manager, the Windows Credential Manager, or switch to SSH authentication, following the steps outlined above will help you resolve authentication errors swiftly.
Additional Tips
-
Regularly update your credentials, especially if you frequently change your passwords.
-
Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Git hosting service for added security.
-
Consider using a password manager to generate and store complex passwords for your Git accounts.
By maintaining proper Git credential management, you not only enhance your productivity but also ensure secure access to your repositories.
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