1git-credential(1) 2================= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-credential - Retrieve and store user credentials 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10------------------ 11git credential <fill|approve|reject> 12------------------ 13 14DESCRIPTION 15----------- 16 17Git has an internal interface for storing and retrieving credentials 18from system-specific helpers, as well as prompting the user for 19usernames and passwords. The git-credential command exposes this 20interface to scripts which may want to retrieve, store, or prompt for 21credentials in the same manner as git. The design of this scriptable 22interface models the internal C API; see 23link:technical/api-credentials.txt[the git credential API] for more 24background on the concepts. 25 26git-credential takes an "action" option on the command-line (one of 27`fill`, `approve`, or `reject`) and reads a credential description 28on stdin (see <<IOFMT,INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT>>). 29 30If the action is `fill`, git-credential will attempt to add "username" 31and "password" attributes to the description by reading config files, 32by contacting any configured credential helpers, or by prompting the 33user. The username and password attributes of the credential 34description are then printed to stdout together with the attributes 35already provided. 36 37If the action is `approve`, git-credential will send the description 38to any configured credential helpers, which may store the credential 39for later use. 40 41If the action is `reject`, git-credential will send the description to 42any configured credential helpers, which may erase any stored 43credential matching the description. 44 45If the action is `approve` or `reject`, no output should be emitted. 46 47TYPICAL USE OF GIT CREDENTIAL 48----------------------------- 49 50An application using git-credential will typically use `git 51credential` following these steps: 52 53 1. Generate a credential description based on the context. 54+ 55For example, if we want a password for 56`https://example.com/foo.git`, we might generate the following 57credential description (don't forget the blank line at the end; it 58tells `git credential` that the application finished feeding all the 59infomation it has): 60 61 protocol=https 62 host=example.com 63 path=foo.git 64 65 2. Ask git-credential to give us a username and password for this 66 description. This is done by running `git credential fill`, 67 feeding the description from step (1) to its standard input. The complete 68 credential description (including the credential per se, i.e. the 69 login and password) will be produced on standard output, like: 70 71 protocol=https 72 host=example.com 73 username=bob 74 password=secr3t 75+ 76In most cases, this means the attributes given in the input will be 77repeated in the output, but git may also modify the credential 78description, for example by removing the `path` attribute when the 79protocol is HTTP(s) and `credential.useHttpPath` is false. 80+ 81If the `git credential` knew about the password, this step may 82not have involved the user actually typing this password (the 83user may have typed a password to unlock the keychain instead, 84or no user interaction was done if the keychain was already 85unlocked) before it returned `password=secr3t`. 86 87 3. Use the credential (e.g., access the URL with the username and 88 password from step (2)), and see if it's accepted. 89 90 4. Report on the success or failure of the password. If the 91 credential allowed the operation to complete successfully, then 92 it can be marked with an "approve" action to tell `git 93 credential` to reuse it in its next invocation. If the credential 94 was rejected during the operation, use the "reject" action so 95 that `git credential` will ask for a new password in its next 96 invocation. In either case, `git credential` should be fed with 97 the credential description obtained from step (2) (which also 98 contain the ones provided in step (1)). 99 100[[IOFMT]] 101INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT 102------------------- 103 104`git credential` reads and/or writes (depending on the action used) 105credential information in its standard input/output. This information 106can correspond either to keys for which `git credential` will obtain 107the login/password information (e.g. host, protocol, path), or to the 108actual credential data to be obtained (login/password). 109 110The credential is split into a set of named attributes, with one 111attribute per line. Each attribute is 112specified by a key-value pair, separated by an `=` (equals) sign, 113followed by a newline. The key may contain any bytes except `=`, 114newline, or NUL. The value may contain any bytes except newline or NUL. 115In both cases, all bytes are treated as-is (i.e., there is no quoting, 116and one cannot transmit a value with newline or NUL in it). The list of 117attributes is terminated by a blank line or end-of-file. 118Git understands the following attributes: 119 120`protocol`:: 121 122 The protocol over which the credential will be used (e.g., 123 `https`). 124 125`host`:: 126 127 The remote hostname for a network credential. 128 129`path`:: 130 131 The path with which the credential will be used. E.g., for 132 accessing a remote https repository, this will be the 133 repository's path on the server. 134 135`username`:: 136 137 The credential's username, if we already have one (e.g., from a 138 URL, from the user, or from a previously run helper). 139 140`password`:: 141 142 The credential's password, if we are asking it to be stored. 143 144`url`:: 145 146 When this special attribute is read by `git credential`, the 147 value is parsed as a URL and treated as if its constituent parts 148 were read (e.g., `url=https://example.com` would behave as if 149 `protocol=https` and `host=example.com` had been provided). This 150 can help callers avoid parsing URLs themselves. Note that any 151 components which are missing from the URL (e.g., there is no 152 username in the example above) will be set to empty; if you want 153 to provide a URL and override some attributes, provide the URL 154 attribute first, followed by any overrides.