git-credential-store - Man Page

• Store Git credentials in a specific file: git config credential.helper 'store --file=path/to/file'

tldr.sh

git config credential.helper 'store [<options>]'

This command stores credentials indefinitely on disk for use by future Git programs.

You probably don’t want to invoke this command directly; it is meant to be used as a credential helper by other parts of git. See gitcredentials(7) or Examples below.

--file=<path>

Use <path> to lookup and store credentials. The file will have its filesystem permissions set to prevent other users on the system from reading it, but it will not be encrypted or otherwise protected. If not specified, credentials will be searched for from ~/.git-credentials and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/credentials, and credentials will be written to ~/.git-credentials if it exists, or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/credentials if it exists and the former does not. See also the section called “Files”.

If not set explicitly with --file, there are two files where git-credential-store will search for credentials in order of precedence:

~/.git-credentials

User-specific credentials file.

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/credentials

Second user-specific credentials file. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set or empty, $HOME/.config/git/credentials will be used. Any credentials stored in this file will not be used if ~/.git-credentials has a matching credential as well. It is a good idea not to create this file if you sometimes use older versions of Git that do not support it.

For credential lookups, the files are read in the order given above, with the first matching credential found taking precedence over credentials found in files further down the list.

Credential storage will by default write to the first existing file in the list. If none of these files exist, ~/.git-credentials will be created and written to.

When erasing credentials, matching credentials will be erased from all files.

The point of this helper is to reduce the number of times you must type your username or password. For example:

$ git config credential.helper store
$ git push http://example.com/repo.git
Username: <type your username>
Password: <type your password>

[several days later]
$ git push http://example.com/repo.git
[your credentials are used automatically]

The .git-credentials file is stored in plaintext. Each credential is stored on its own line as a URL like:

https://user:pass@example.com

No other kinds of lines (e.g. empty lines or comment lines) are allowed in the file, even though some may be silently ignored. Do not view or edit the file with editors.

When Git needs authentication for a particular URL context, credential-store will consider that context a pattern to match against each entry in the credentials file. If the protocol, hostname, and username (if we already have one) match, then the password is returned to Git. See the discussion of configuration in gitcredentials(7) for more information.

Part of the git(1) suite

git(1), gitcredentials(7).