Git - How to use .netrc file on Windows to save user and password

Question

Is it possible to use a .netrc file on Windows when I'm using Git to clone a remote repository with HTTP and user - password?

Answer 1

Is it possible to use a .netrc file on Windows?

Yes: You must:

• define environment variable %HOME% (pre-Git 2.0, no longer needed with Git 2.0+)
• put a _netrc file in %HOME%

If you are using Windows 7/10, in a CMD session, type:

setx HOME %USERPROFILE%

and the %HOME% will be set to 'C:\Users\"username"'.
Go that that folder (cd %HOME%) and make a file called '_netrc'

Note: Again, for Windows, you need a '_netrc' file, not a '.netrc' file.

Its content is quite standard (Replace the <examples> with your values):

machine <hostname1>
login <login1>
password <password1>
machine <hostname2>
login <login2>
password <password2>

---

Luke mentions in the comments:

Using the latest version of msysgit on Windows 7, I did not need to set the HOME environment variable. The _netrc file alone did the trick.

This is indeed what I mentioned in "Trying to “install” github, .ssh dir not there":
git-cmd.bat included in msysgit does set the %HOME% environment variable:

@if not exist "%HOME%" @set HOME=%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%
@if not exist "%HOME%" @set HOME=%USERPROFILE%

---

爱国者 believes in the comments that "it seems that it won't work for http protocol"

However, I answered that netrc is used by curl, and works for HTTP protocol, as shown in this example (look for 'netrc' in the page): . Also used with HTTP protocol here: "_netrc/.netrc alternative to cURL".

---

A common trap with with netrc support on Windows is that git will bypass using it if an origin https url specifies a user name.

For example, if your .git/config file contains:

[remote "origin"]
     fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
     url = https://bob@code.google.com/p/my-project/

Git will not resolve your credentials via _netrc, to fix this remove your username, like so:

[remote "origin"]
     fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
     url = https://code.google.com/p/my-project/

---

Alternative solution: With git version 1.7.9+ (January 2012): This answer from Mark Longair details the credential cache mechanism which also allows you to not store your password in plain text as shown below.

---

With Git 1.8.3 (April 2013):

You now can use an encrypted .netrc (with gpg).
On Windows: %HOME%/_netrc (_, not '.')

A new read-only credential helper (in contrib/) to interact with the .netrc/.authinfo files has been added.

That script would allow you to use gpg-encrypted netrc files, avoiding the issue of having your credentials stored in a plain text file.

Files with the .gpg extension will be decrypted by GPG before parsing.
Multiple -f arguments are OK. They are processed in order, and the first matching entry found is returned via the credential helper protocol.

When no -f option is given, .authinfo.gpg, .netrc.gpg, .authinfo, and .netrc files in your home directory are used in this order.

To enable this credential helper:

git config credential.helper '$shortname -f AUTHFILE1 -f AUTHFILE2'

(Note that Git will prepend "git-credential-" to the helper name and look for it in the path.)

# and if you want lots of debugging info:
git config credential.helper '$shortname -f AUTHFILE -d'

#or to see the files opened and data found:
git config credential.helper '$shortname -f AUTHFILE -v'

See a full example at "Is there a way to skip password typing when using https:// github"

---

With Git 2.18+ (June 2018), you now can customize the GPG program used to decrypt the encrypted .netrc file.

See commit 786ef50, commit f07eeed (12 May 2018) by Luis Marsano (``).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 017b7c5, 30 May 2018)}

git-credential-netrc: accept gpg option

git-credential-netrc was hardcoded to decrypt with 'gpg' regardless of the gpg.program option.
This is a problem on distributions like Debian that call modern GnuPG something else, like 'gpg2'

Answer 2

You can also install Git Credential Manager for Windows to save Git passwords in Windows credentials manager instead of _netrc. This is a more secure way to store passwords.

Answer 3

This will let Git authenticate on HTTPS using .netrc:

• The file should be named _netrc and located in c:\Users\<username>.
• You will need to set an environment variable called HOME=%USERPROFILE% (set system-wide environment variables using the System option in the control panel. Depending on the version of Windows, you may need to select "Advanced Options".).
• The password stored in the _netrc file cannot contain spaces (quoting the password will not work).

Answer 4

I am posting a way to use _netrc to download materials from the site www.course.com.

If someone is going to use the coursera-dl to download the open-class materials on www.coursera.com, and on the Windows OS someone wants to use a file like ".netrc" which is in like-Unix OS to add the option -n instead of -U <username> -P <password> for convenience. He/she can do it like this:

1. Check the home path on Windows OS: setx HOME %USERPROFILE%(refer to VonC's answer). It will save the HOME environment variable as C:\Users\"username".

2. Locate into the directory C:\Users\"username" and create a file name _netrc.NOTE: there is NOT any suffix. the content is like: machine coursera-dl login <user> password <pass>

3. Use a command like coursera-dl -n --path PATH <course name> to download the class materials. More coursera-dl options details for this page.