Git credential helper:
Git credential helper is used to save user credentials, so that user does not require to enter credentials on each git operation.
Git provides few default git credential helpers, see how to use them.
This blog will demonstrate on how to build custom git credential helper.
Simple python cli:
- Let's write a python cli called
auth_helper.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
import argparse
class Credential(object):
def get(self):
# logic to get username/password from auth file
pass
def store(self):
# logic to store username/password to auth file
# its better to encrypt password if its in plain text
pass
def erase(self):
# logic to delete auth file
pass
def main():
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('operation', action="store", type=str,
help="Git action to be performed (get|store|erase)")
# parser all arguments
arguments = parser.parse_args()
# get credentials
credentials = Credential()
if arguments.operation == "get":
creds = credentials.get()
print("username={0}".format(creds.get("username")))
print("password={0}".format(creds.get("password")))
elif arguments.operation == "store":
credentials.store()
# if credentials are already stored do not store again
elif arguments.operation == "erase":
credentials.erase()
else:
print "Invalid git operation"
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
- This cli takes three git operations as cli arguments
get,storeanderase. - These arguments are not coincident, they are used by git. Let's know more about them.
Git credentials store:
- Git credentials store looks for three arguments
-
get: called when triggered git pull, git fetch, git push etc. -
store: called when triggered git pull, git fetch, git push etc. -
erase: if our provided credentials fail, git will fallback to its own credentials prompt, if this fails as welleraseis called.
-
Git helper configuration:
- To configure our cli as git helper, trigger the below command
git config --global credential.https://git.company.com.helper "./path/to/cli/auth_helper.py"
- This will define
auth_helper.pyundercredentialsection of.gitconfigfile (user's home directory). -
https://git.company.comis the domain where git is hosted.
Done!! Next time we use git, our auth_helper.py should provide credentials for git authorization.
Top comments (2)
The most important (and hard to find) information is missing from this post, making it not very useful. Here is a hint should help to figure out the missing parts. It took me quite a while to figure it out so I hope it helps someone.
hi,
I've just tried to execute slightly modified code, but I always get error "fatal: Authentication failed for mydomain/git/myGitRepo.git/".
My environment:
Problem description
In the place of following
I've just hardcoded username and password which works when credential.helper is unset :
I've also tried another form of setting credential.helper (it is possible to check which is domain by using sys.stdin.read(), but for this example it is not so important ) :
I read git credential documentation thoroughly, take a look on 5-6 different examples on the net (good example is this link ), but could not get this simple case to work.