Automatic GitHub authentication
Overview
You need to get Git to remember your GitHub username and password, so that every time you, e.g., push, you do NOT have to authenticate yourself interactively.
You only have to set this up once every couple of months or once per computer.
You will know you have truly succeeded once you have at least one successful push to GitHub in which you are NOT challenged for your user name and password.
Get yourself a test repository
Below you will need a functioning test Git repository. One that exists locally and remotely on GitHub, with the local repo tracking the remote.
If you have just completed a test drive of RStudio and Github, the helloGithub repo will do just fine. If have not and you don’t know how to create such a testbed for yourself, go take the test drive and come back.
You are ready to proceed when
- You have a test repo.
- You know where it lives on your local computer. Example:
/home/jenny/tmp/helloGithub
- You know where it lives on GitHub. Example:
https://github.com/jennybc/helloGithub
- You know local is tracking remote. In a shell with working directory set to the local Git repo, enter
git remote -v. You want to see the URL for the GitHub repo (it will probably have.gitadded to the end).
Verify that your Git is new enough to have a credential helper
In a shell, enter git --version and verify that you have 1.7.10 or newer. If you don’t, update Git.
Turn on the credential helper
Windows
In the shell, enter git config --global credential.helper wincred
Windows, plan B
If that doesn’t seem to work, install an external credential helper.
Download the git-credential-winstore.exe application.
Run it! It should work if Git is in your
PATHenvironment variable. If not, go to the directory where you downloaded the application and run the following:git-credential-winstore -i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\git.exe"
Mac
Find out if the credential helper is already installed. In the shell, enter git credential-osxkeychain. You should see something like this: Usage: git credential-osxkeychain <get|store|erase>. If you do not, follow steps 2 and 3 on the github help.
Once you’ve confirmed you have the credential helper, enter git config --global credential.helper osxkeychain.
Linux
In the shell, enter git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=10000000' to store your password for ten million seconds (that’s 16 weeks, enough for a full term).
Trigger a username / password challenge
In a shell with working directory set to the local test Git repo, enter git push -u origin master. One last time you will be asked for your username and password.
Enter git push -u origin master again. You should not be asked for your username and password, instead you should see “Everything up-to-date”.
Rejoice and close the shell. From now on your “Push” button in RStudio will just work.
More options
- Above we are connecting to GitHub via HTTPS. The (more complicated) alternative is SSH. Try to get HTTPS working, but you can resort to SSH if need be.