Alex Rivera | Logout

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

Asked 2011-03-17T17:47:44.053
2134

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 the credentials, instead of authenticating every time that git push?

Edit
Report

1 Answer

2676

Since Git 1.7.9 (released 2012), there is a neat mechanism in Git to avoid having to type your password all the time for HTTP / HTTPS, called credential helpers.

You can just use one of the following credential helpers:

git config --global credential.helper cache

The credential.helper cache value tells Git to keep your password cached in memory for a particular amount of minutes. The default is 15 minutes, you can set a longer timeout with:

# Cache for 1 hour
git config --global credential.helper "cache --timeout=3600"

# Cache for 1 day
git config --global credential.helper "cache --timeout=86400"

# Cache for 1 week
git config --global credential.helper "cache --timeout=604800"

You can also store your credentials permanently if so desired, see the other answers below.

GitHub's help also suggests that if you're on Mac OS X and used Homebrew to install Git, you can use the native Mac OS X keystore with:

git config --global credential.helper osxkeychain

For Windows, there is a helper called Git Credential Manager for Windows or wincred in msysgit.

git config --global credential.helper wincred # obsolete

With Git fo

answered 2011-03-17T17:54:13.077

Your Answer