How to save and delete Git credentials (username and password) on Linux

I always forget how to save and delete Git credentials (username and password) on Linux, so here's a memo for myself.

How to save Git credentials

You can save Git credentials with the following command. Please note that the credentials will be saved in plain text in ~/.git-credentials.

git config --global credential.helper store

How to delete saved Git credentials

The credentials saved using the aforementioned command can be disabled with the following command.

git config --global --unset credential.helper

This command unsets the credential storage method (meaning it stops using saved credentials), so it doesn't strictly delete the credentials.

To completely delete credentials, you need to either delete the ~/.git-credentials file entirely or open it with a text editor and individually delete the entries.

The git credential reject command can be used to delete credentials that match certain conditions. For example, you can delete only GitHub credentials by running a command like this:

printf "protocol=https\nhost=github.com\n\n" | git credential reject

However, this command is long and hard to remember, so I think it's easier to just edit the `~/.git-credentials` file.

References

• Gitのパスワードを保存する方法 - Qiita
• linux - How to remove cached credentials from Git? - Stack Overflow
• Git - git-credential Documentation