Is there a way to cache GitHub credentials for pushing commits?

Question

I recently switched to synchronizing my repositories to https:// on GitHub (due to firewall issues), and it asks for a password every time.

Is there a way to cache t

Answer 1

If you don't want to store your password in plaintext like Mark said, you can use a different GitHub URL for fetching than you do for pushing. In your configuration file, under [remote "origin"]:

url = git://github.com/you/projectName.git
pushurl = git@github.com:you/projectName.git

It will still ask for a password when you push, but not when you fetch, at least for open source projects.

Answer 2

Things are a little different if you're using two-factor authentication as I am. Since I didn't find a good answer elsewhere, I'll stick one here so that maybe I can find it later.

If you're using two-factor authentication, then specifying username/password won't even work - you get access denied. But you can use an application access token and use Git's credential helper to cache that for you. Here are the pertinent links:

• Setting up the command-line to work with 2-factor auth (search for section titled "How does it work for command-line Git?")
• Credential caching

And I don't remember where I saw this, but when you're asked for your username - that's where you stick the application access token. Then leave the password blank. It worked on my Mac.

Answer 3

There's an easy, old-fashioned way to store user credentials in an HTTPS URL:

https://user:password@github.com/...

You can change the URL with git remote set-url <remote-repo> <URL>

The obvious downside to that approach is that you have to store the password in plain text. You can still just enter the user name (https://user@github.com/...) which will at least save you half the hassle.

You might prefer to switch to SSH or to use the GitHub client software.

Answer 4

Usually you have a remote URL, something like this,

git remote -v

origin    https://gitlab.com/username/Repo.git (fetch)
origin    https://gitlab.com/username/Repo.git (push)

If you want to skip username and password while using git push, try this:

 git remote set-url origin https://username:password@gitlab.com/username/Repo.git

I've just added the same URL (with user details including password) to origin.

NOTE: It doesn't work if username is an email Id.

git remote -v

origin    https://username:password@gitlab.com/username/Repo.git (fetch)
origin    https://username:password@gitlab.com/username/Repo.git (push)

Answer 5

You also edit the bashrc file and add a script in it.

This would ask for your password once when you start Git and then remembers it until you log off.

SSH_ENV=$HOME/.ssh/environment
  
# Start the ssh-agent
function start_agent {
    echo "Initializing new SSH agent..."

    # Spawn ssh-agent
    /usr/bin/ssh-agent | sed 's/^echo/#echo/' > "${SSH_ENV}"
    echo succeeded
    chmod 600 "${SSH_ENV}"
    . "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
    /usr/bin/ssh-add
}
  
if [ -f "${SSH_ENV}" ]; then
     . "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
   ps -ef | grep ${SSH_AGENT_PID} | grep ssh-agent$ > /dev/null || {
      start_agent;
  }
else
    start_agent;
fi

Answer 6

On a GNU/Linux setup, a ~/.netrc works quite well too:

$ cat ~/.netrc
machine github.com login lot105 password howsyafather

It might depend on which network libraries Git is using for HTTPS transport.