Git Password Cache

Every time I do a pull or push from a project cloned via HTTPS, Git asks for my password. Let’s face it, it’s annoying, isn’t it?

To work around this, you can use the credential helper to tell Git to remember your password for a certain amount of time.

Example

$ git config credential.helper cache

At this point Git asks for the password to remember it.

$ git push
Password:

Done, it remembered. Now your credentials will be used automatically.

$ git push

Counting objects: 26, done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
Total 6 (delta 3), reused 0 (delta 0)
To https://example.com/repo.git
   a577d95..5774c51  bla -> bla

Local vs Global

The first command will remember the password only for that repository. To make it work for all repositories, add the global parameter.

$ git config --global credential.helper cache

Memorization Time

Git will remember your password for 15 minutes. If you want to change this time, just add the timeout parameter.

$ git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=3600'

The timeout parameter receives a value in seconds, so in this case, it will be remembered for 60 minutes (1 hour).

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If you cloned the repository using SSH, you can authenticate using the SSH key instead of username and password. For more details, check out this guide.