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I am working with a repo on GitHub and everytime I try to push something, it asks for my GitHub username and password. I don't want it doing that.

I tried the instructions on setting your email in Git, namely set up the Git variables github.user and github.token, but that didn't make any difference.

I don't understand why this is happening.

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13 Answers 13

Reset to default
34

You need to set-up an ssh-agent against which you only need to authenticate once. See this answer over at SO for a howto.

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  • 1
    But this solution is for ssh-family phrases. The problem is git uses "git push" which doesn't trigger the ssh-agent, I assume. (I've already done this, so I know it doesn't work.)
    – picardo
    Oct 14, 2010 at 18:27
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    @picardo: I've done this, and it does indeed work.
    – Daenyth
    Oct 14, 2010 at 19:44
218

Had a similar problem today: I messed things up in my working copy, so I decided to rename the directory and clone my project again from github. But after doing that, I had to enter my password to do any pull/push request, instead of entering the passphrase just once as I used to.

That was because today I used the https protocol to clone the project! To check what protocol you're using just run

git config -l

and look at the line starting with 'remote.origin.url'.

To switch protocols:

git config remote.origin.url git@github.com:the_repository_username/your_project.git

the_repository_username and your_project should be replaced with the appropriate repository name and the owner of that repository. The username will be yours if you own the repository, or the repository owner's username otherwise.

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    It worked for me. One thing is that the url does not my contain my username but the repo address as it appears on github: git@github.com:some-user/repo-name.git
    – B Seven
    Feb 15, 2012 at 7:04
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    Note: Google brought me here. I had the remote.origin.url set to the https method and didn't even notice there was https vs ssh methods. This URL helped me see the obvious: help.github.com/articles/…
    – Krista K
    Jun 17, 2012 at 3:31
  • Is there any way to pass password entering too?
    – zishe
    Jul 30, 2012 at 20:58
  • Q for those with git knowledge: Any difference (or preference) between git config remote.origin.url ... used above, vs. git remote set-url origin ...?
    – Daryn
    Jan 9, 2013 at 18:47
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    Instead of listing all settings with git config -l, you can use git remote -v to specifically view your remote repository URLs.
    – Stevoisiak
    Jun 25, 2018 at 15:09
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If you are using HTTPS instead of SSH , you can follow this :

  1. Find your remote URL (remote.origin.url) with

    git config -l

    thanks to Sergio Morstabilini

  2. Your remote URL will be like this : https://{USERNAME}@github.com/{USERNAME}/{REPONAME}.git

  3. Execute this command :

    git config remote.origin.url https://{USERNAME}:{PASSWORD}@github.com/{USERNAME}/{REPONAME}.git
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  • 3
    my username itself contains @, didn't worked for me.
    – coding_idiot
    Aug 20, 2014 at 4:08
  • But if it does not (you don't need to use your email) it works perfectly! Thanks.
    – Killah
    Oct 16, 2014 at 19:33
  • 5
    If your username includes an @, you need to URL-encode it. meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder
    – Tim Bodeit
    Oct 22, 2014 at 7:23
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    You should omit your password for security reasons.
    – zygimantus
    Dec 26, 2015 at 17:14
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    beware, password will be stored in plain text inside in the .git/config file!
    – Amro
    Jan 13, 2016 at 13:07
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I prefer to use HTTPS, I find it easier and more secure than setting up the ssh keys.

Using HTTPS, you can prevent git from asking your username for github remotes with the following:

git config --global url."https://yourusername@github.com".insteadOf "https://github.com"

And you can at least reduce the frequency git asks for your password with:

git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=28800'

Where 28800 are 8 hours. I use this setup to enter my password only once, when I start my working day.

After that you will have these entries inside your ~/.gitconfig

[url "https://yourusername@github.com"]
    insteadOf = https://github.com

[credential]
    helper = cache --timeout=28800

Source:

http://git-scm.com/docs/git-credential-cache

http://git-scm.com/docs/git-config

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8

Also, if you wish to be prompted for your password every-time, but just not your username, then you configure the remote as HTTPS with a username.. Like this..

git config remote.origin.url https://USERNAME@github.com/repo_owner/repo_name

After this, you will be prompted for your password every time, but not your username.

This is how I prefer it, since I like being forced to type my github password before sharing with the world.

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7

When you set up an ssh key for github, if it's not your default key, you will need to add a section to your ~/.ssh/config

Host *github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_id_rsa
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7

If you are on Windows using HTTPS, try the Git Credential Store - it uses the Windows Credential Store to hold your name and password.

Windows Credential Store for Git
This application is a small helper app designed to follow the 
git credentials API as defined by the Git Documentation.

Installation
1. Download the git-credential-winstore.exe application
2. Run it! If you have GIT in your PATH, it should just work.

Then the next time you enter your name and password it will remember them for you.

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3

use SSH

To prevent GitHub asking for the password while pushing, ideally you should use SSH (git@github.com:...) instead of HTTPS URL (https://github.com/...) and add your SSH key to your GitHub account. See: Which remote URL should I use?

GitHub - Clone with SSH

a credential helper

Otherwise if you really need to use HTTPS, to cache your GitHub password in Git, you should use a credential helper to tell Git to remember your GitHub username and password every time it talks to GitHub.

  • Mac: git config --global credential.helper osxkeychain (osxkeychain helper is required),
  • Windows: git config --global credential.helper wincred
  • Linux and other: git config --global credential.helper cache

.netrc

Another method is to use configure your user/password in ~/.netrc (_netrc on Windows), e.g.

machine github.com
login USERNAME
password PASSWORD

OAuth

Use OAuth token (Personal API token) to push the changes, e.g.

git push https://4UTHT0KEN@github.com/foo/bar

Related:

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Things are a little different if you're using 2-factor auth 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 2-factor auth, then specifying username/password won't event 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:

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. Worked on my mac.

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Also if you are using Windows, you can use:

$ git config --global credential.helper wincred

you just have to sign in one more time and then git will remember.

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Asking the username is annoying for me, but asking for a password is nice since it ensures you really want to go public with your changes...

So I just add this to my ".gitconfig"

[url "https://myusername@github.com"]
    insteadOf = https://github.com

This change has the benefit that it works for all repositories without having to change the remote URL of the repositories.

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0

Use Git Credential Manager for Windows, if you're on Windows.

This project includes:

  • Secure password storage in the Windows Credential Store
  • Multi-factor authentication support for Visual Studio Team Services
  • Two-factor authentication support for GitHub
  • Personal Access Token generation and usage support for Visual Studio Team Services and GitHub
  • Non-interactive mode support for Visual Studio Team Services backed by Azure Directory
  • Kerberos authentication for Team Foundation Server
  • Optional settings for build agent optimization

Simply download the latest version and install it.

How to use

You don't. It magically works when credentials are needed.

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This worked for me.

Execute the command with below syntax.

git config remote.origin.url https://<<username>>@<<.git url>>
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