git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Inconsistency in git credential helper docs

From
CCChris Chow <cchow@nianticlabs.com>
Date
Oct 11, 2021, 21:36 UTC
Message-ID
<CAH4DS54U-qN+NY2A50bBawbL1cwD74fdaZdQKdhXyZSzFS-Y+g@mail.gmail.com>
Hello,

There appears to be a small inconsistency / bug in the documentation located at https://git-scm.com/docs/gitcredentials.

Under the "Custom Helpers" subhead, there's a line that reads
> Generally speaking, rule (3) above is the simplest for users to specify. Authors of credential helpers should make an effort to assist their users by naming their program "git-credential-$NAME", and putting it in the $PATH or $GIT_EXEC_PATH during installation, which will allow a user to enable it with git config credential.helper $NAME.

Earlier in the document, under "Configuration Options > helper", there is a line that reads

> The name of an external credential helper, and any associated options. If the helper name is not an absolute path, then the string git credential- is prepended

I think the latter text is correct. The maintainers of the google cloud SDK followed the advice in the first part, naming their cred helper `git-credential-gcloud.sh`, which is not accessible if you set the custom credential helper to `gcloud.sh`. I had to make a symlink at `credential-gcloud.sh`, following the instructions in the latter block, to make it work. One could of course just specify the full path in .gitconfig, but I figured it might be good to have these parts be consistent anyways.

Best, Chris

Next: Jeff King
Message 1 of 2 in “Inconsistency in git credential helper docs”
  1. Chris ChowOct 11, 2021
  2. Jeff KingOct 12, 2021

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.