GIT-CREDENTIAL-CACHE(1)

🌸 GIT-CREDENTIAL-CACHE(1) — the git manual, but make it cute 🌸

okay bestie, so this is a page from the Git Manual (yes, that git) and it's all about git-credential-cache, kthx. buckle up 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

git-credential-cache — a helper that temporarily stores your passwords in memory 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

git config credential.helper 'cache [<options>]'

that's it. that's the whole vibe check. 🫶

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so picture this: this command caches credentials for future Git programs to use. iconic behaviour, honestly. ✨

the stored credentials are kept in memory of the cache-daemon process (instead of being written to a file — yes bestie, no file, we love to see it) and they're forgotten after a configurable timeout. 🕐

and they get forgotten sooner if the cache-daemon dies — like, for example, if the system restarts. 💀 rip your credentials, gone too soon.

the cache is accessible over a Unix domain socket, and it's restricted to the current user by filesystem permissions. gatekeeping, but make it security. 🔥

ngl you probably don't want to invoke this command directly, bestie — it's meant to be used as a credential helper by other parts of Git. check gitcredentials(7) or the EXAMPLES below if you're curious 👀

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• --timeout <seconds> — how many seconds to cache your credentials for (default: 900). yes, a number. yes, in seconds. slay. ⏳
• --socket <path> — use <path> to contact a running cache daemon (or start a new cache daemon if one is not started). defaults to $XDG_CACHE_HOME/git/credential/socket unless ~/.git-credential-cache/ exists, in which case ~/.git-credential-cache/socket is used instead. and listen — if your home directory is on a network-mounted filesystem, you may need to change this to a local filesystem. also you must specify an absolute path, no cap. 📍

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🌈 CONTROLLING THE DAEMON 🌈

so if you want the daemon to exit early — like, forgetting all cached credentials before their timeout even hits — you can issue an exit action:

git credential-cache exit

boom. daemon's gone. main character exit. 👑

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⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

the whole point of this helper is to reduce the number of times you must type your username or password. literally the dream. 😭

for example:

$ git config credential.helper cache
$ git push http://example.com/repo.git
Username: <type your username>
Password: <type your password>

[work for 5 more minutes]
$ git push http://example.com/repo.git
[your credentials are used automatically]

see? five minutes later and you didn't have to type a single thing. we ate. 🍓

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you can also provide options via the credential.helper configuration variable — this example increases the cache time to 1 hour:

$ git config credential.helper 'cache --timeout=3600'

3600 seconds of pure convenience. obsessed. 💜

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🔐 PERSONAL ACCESS TOKENS 🔐

some remotes accept personal access tokens, which are randomly generated and hard to memorise. they typically have a lifetime of weeks or months. 🙈

⚠️ real talk: git-credential-cache is inherently unsuitable for persistent storage of personal access tokens. the credential will be forgotten after the cache timeout. and even if you configure a long timeout, credentials will still be forgotten if the daemon dies. 😭

to avoid frequently regenerating personal access tokens, configure a credential helper with persistent storage. alternatively, configure an OAuth credential helper to generate credentials automatically. see gitcredentials(7), sections "Available helpers" and "OAuth". 💅

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👑 GIT 👑

part of the git(1) suite. obviously. 🌟

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and that's the whole page bestie — brought to you by Git 2.56.0, dated 2026-09-27. mwah, go forth and cache responsibly 🧚‍♀️💖