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Ruban Selvarajah

No More Password Prompts: Simpler Git Authentication

/ 2 min read

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I ran into this problem while working on a Frappe app using frappe-docker. The built-in bench command didn’t like it when my app’s repo URL pointed to the SSH endpoint, so I had no choice but to use HTTPS. This meant frequent password prompts, which got old quickly.

Here’s a simple solution to store your Git credentials securely on Linux, using GNOME’s keyring or other secret services. I used git-credential-libsecret with my Elementary OS 7.1 (based on Ubuntu 22.04) but it should available for most popular distributions.

Let’s 🚀

Setup

Install the credential helper

Terminal window
sudo apt install git libsecret-1-0 libsecret-1-dev
sudo make --directory=/usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret

Create a Personal Access Token

And keep it handy for Step 3

Configure Git to use the credential helper

Use the PAT from before when prompted. Username doesn’t matter. You can use something simple like foo.

Terminal window
git config --global credential.helper /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret/git-credential-libsecret

Updating Stored Passwords

Terminal window
git credential fill

Paste these line by line

protocol=https
host=github.com
<empty line>

You’ll be prompted for the new PAT

Pro Tips

  • Global Credential Helper: Setting the global credential helper means using a single PAT for all your repositories, which might not be ideal.

    • For better security and organization, store the PAT you use most frequently (e.g., for personal repos) in the global config.

    • For other repos (like organizational ones), set up a separate credential helper per repo.

    Terminal window
    git config --local credential.helper /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret/git-credential-libsecret

  • To list the secrets stored, you can use Seahorse (Passwords and Key)

Wrapping Up

Personally, I’m not sure if this is better than using SSH keys, but it’s a solid solution when SSH isn’t an option. Keep your PATs organized, and you’ll have a smoother, more efficient workflow.

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