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Re: [PATCH] contrib: add a pair of credential helpers for Mac OS X's keychain

From
CMChris Mear <chrismear@gmail.com>
Date
Sep 29, 2011, 08:19 UTC
Message-ID
<53869134-BC37-4B71-AB90-E7F1AABC633B@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20110929075627.GB14022@sigill.intra.peff.net>
On 29 Sep 2011, at 08:56, Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
Show 14 quoted lines
>> Here's a C version that no longer links to git. I also kept the original
>> Python version as an example. I decided not to call out to
>> 'git credential-gitpass' as it was simple enough to manage /dev/tty
>> and there's no portability issues since this is OS X specific.
> 
> This was my first one. I kind of expected there to be some kind of
> graphical password dialog. Especially because keychain will pop up a
> dialog and ask you "is it OK for git to access this password?". So I
> sort of assumed that people would assume that credentials happened
> outside of the regular terminal session (I see the same thing on Linux,
> for example, with gpg-agent, which will open a new window and grab
> focus).
> 
> But I have no idea what's "normal" on OS X.
It's normal for applications on OS X to present their own UI when asking for credentials in order to save them to the keychain. For example, web passwords stored by Safari are captured via the normal web page form elements, but stored in the keychain.
That said, most terminal applications aren't aware of the Mac OS X keychain. So I suppose it may surprise users to come across the password prompt in the terminal UI, even though that is the same pattern that graphical programs follow.
But it's not without precedent: I'm pretty certain Subversion collects credentials directly in the terminal for storage in the keychain.
Chris
Previous: Jeff KingNext: John Szakmeister
Message 3 of 19 in “contrib: add a pair of credential helpers for Mac OS X's keychain”
  1. contrib: add a pair of credential helpers for Mac OS X's keychainJay Soffian, Sep 15, 2011
  2. Jeff KingSep 29, 2011
  3. Chris MearSep 29, 2011
  4. John SzakmeisterSep 29, 2011
  5. John SzakmeisterSep 30, 2011
  6. Jay SoffianSep 30, 2011
  7. Jeff KingSep 30, 2011
  8. John SzakmeisterOct 1, 2011
  9. Jay SoffianOct 3, 2011
  10. Jay SoffianSep 30, 2011
  11. Jeff KingSep 30, 2011
  12. Jay SoffianSep 30, 2011
  13. Jeff KingOct 3, 2011
  14. Jay SoffianOct 3, 2011
  15. Jeff KingOct 4, 2011
  16. Junio C HamanoOct 4, 2011
  17. Jeff KingOct 4, 2011
  18. Junio C HamanoOct 4, 2011
  19. Jay SoffianOct 4, 2011

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