Inconsistency in git credential helper docs
From: Chris Chow <hidden>
Date: 2021-10-11 21:36:26
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