| git-credential(1) |
| ================= |
| |
| NAME |
| ---- |
| git-credential - Retrieve and store user credentials |
| |
| SYNOPSIS |
| -------- |
| ------------------ |
| git credential <fill|approve|reject> |
| ------------------ |
| |
| DESCRIPTION |
| ----------- |
| |
| Git has an internal interface for storing and retrieving credentials |
| from system-specific helpers, as well as prompting the user for |
| usernames and passwords. The git-credential command exposes this |
| interface to scripts which may want to retrieve, store, or prompt for |
| credentials in the same manner as Git. The design of this scriptable |
| interface models the internal C API; see |
| link:technical/api-credentials.txt[the Git credential API] for more |
| background on the concepts. |
| |
| git-credential takes an "action" option on the command-line (one of |
| `fill`, `approve`, or `reject`) and reads a credential description |
| on stdin (see <<IOFMT,INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT>>). |
| |
| If the action is `fill`, git-credential will attempt to add "username" |
| and "password" attributes to the description by reading config files, |
| by contacting any configured credential helpers, or by prompting the |
| user. The username and password attributes of the credential |
| description are then printed to stdout together with the attributes |
| already provided. |
| |
| If the action is `approve`, git-credential will send the description |
| to any configured credential helpers, which may store the credential |
| for later use. |
| |
| If the action is `reject`, git-credential will send the description to |
| any configured credential helpers, which may erase any stored |
| credential matching the description. |
| |
| If the action is `approve` or `reject`, no output should be emitted. |
| |
| TYPICAL USE OF GIT CREDENTIAL |
| ----------------------------- |
| |
| An application using git-credential will typically use `git |
| credential` following these steps: |
| |
| 1. Generate a credential description based on the context. |
| + |
| For example, if we want a password for |
| `https://example.com/foo.git`, we might generate the following |
| credential description (don't forget the blank line at the end; it |
| tells `git credential` that the application finished feeding all the |
| information it has): |
| |
| protocol=https |
| host=example.com |
| path=foo.git |
| |
| 2. Ask git-credential to give us a username and password for this |
| description. This is done by running `git credential fill`, |
| feeding the description from step (1) to its standard input. The complete |
| credential description (including the credential per se, i.e. the |
| login and password) will be produced on standard output, like: |
| |
| protocol=https |
| host=example.com |
| username=bob |
| password=secr3t |
| + |
| In most cases, this means the attributes given in the input will be |
| repeated in the output, but Git may also modify the credential |
| description, for example by removing the `path` attribute when the |
| protocol is HTTP(s) and `credential.useHttpPath` is false. |
| + |
| If the `git credential` knew about the password, this step may |
| not have involved the user actually typing this password (the |
| user may have typed a password to unlock the keychain instead, |
| or no user interaction was done if the keychain was already |
| unlocked) before it returned `password=secr3t`. |
| |
| 3. Use the credential (e.g., access the URL with the username and |
| password from step (2)), and see if it's accepted. |
| |
| 4. Report on the success or failure of the password. If the |
| credential allowed the operation to complete successfully, then |
| it can be marked with an "approve" action to tell `git |
| credential` to reuse it in its next invocation. If the credential |
| was rejected during the operation, use the "reject" action so |
| that `git credential` will ask for a new password in its next |
| invocation. In either case, `git credential` should be fed with |
| the credential description obtained from step (2) (which also |
| contain the ones provided in step (1)). |
| |
| [[IOFMT]] |
| INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT |
| ------------------- |
| |
| `git credential` reads and/or writes (depending on the action used) |
| credential information in its standard input/output. This information |
| can correspond either to keys for which `git credential` will obtain |
| the login/password information (e.g. host, protocol, path), or to the |
| actual credential data to be obtained (login/password). |
| |
| The credential is split into a set of named attributes, with one |
| attribute per line. Each attribute is |
| specified by a key-value pair, separated by an `=` (equals) sign, |
| followed by a newline. The key may contain any bytes except `=`, |
| newline, or NUL. The value may contain any bytes except newline or NUL. |
| In both cases, all bytes are treated as-is (i.e., there is no quoting, |
| and one cannot transmit a value with newline or NUL in it). The list of |
| attributes is terminated by a blank line or end-of-file. |
| Git understands the following attributes: |
| |
| `protocol`:: |
| |
| The protocol over which the credential will be used (e.g., |
| `https`). |
| |
| `host`:: |
| |
| The remote hostname for a network credential. |
| |
| `path`:: |
| |
| The path with which the credential will be used. E.g., for |
| accessing a remote https repository, this will be the |
| repository's path on the server. |
| |
| `username`:: |
| |
| The credential's username, if we already have one (e.g., from a |
| URL, from the user, or from a previously run helper). |
| |
| `password`:: |
| |
| The credential's password, if we are asking it to be stored. |
| |
| `url`:: |
| |
| When this special attribute is read by `git credential`, the |
| value is parsed as a URL and treated as if its constituent parts |
| were read (e.g., `url=https://example.com` would behave as if |
| `protocol=https` and `host=example.com` had been provided). This |
| can help callers avoid parsing URLs themselves. Note that any |
| components which are missing from the URL (e.g., there is no |
| username in the example above) will be set to empty; if you want |
| to provide a URL and override some attributes, provide the URL |
| attribute first, followed by any overrides. |