fatal: unable to get credential storage lock: File exists

Question

I am using git-scm and tried to push to a repository. Upon doing so, I was greeted with the following message:

fatal: unable to get credential storage lock: File         


        

Answer 1

The error message comes from git credential-store (click for documentation page). It indicates that another instance of the credential storage program is currently running and has locked the file that (insecurely, in plain-text) stores your password.

If no other instance of git credential-store is actually running, the lock file is no doubt left over from a previous run, and you can simply remove it. Unfortunately the program fails to tell you the location of the specific credentials file (but see the documentation for likely locations).