* git credential cache timeout questions
@ 2021-02-19 15:46 John Ratliff
2021-02-19 17:04 ` Jeff King
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: John Ratliff @ 2021-02-19 15:46 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: git
I have configured my git to cache my credentials for 12 hours using
this section in my .gitconfig
[credential "https://mygithub.example.edu"]
username = myuser
helper = cache --timeout 43200
However, the credentials don’t always seem to expire after 12 hours.
Sometimes I come back the next morning and the credentials still work.
This is generally after leaving at 5:00 PM and coming back in the next
day at 9:00 AM, well past the 12 hour timeout.
Is there any way to see the current timeout value? Is it a rolling
timeout (i.e. any git action resets the timeout)?
If it happened once or twice, I would assume I just forgot that I did
something with git later than I thought. But this happens frequently
enough that it’s difficult to accept that as a possibility. It’s not a
daily occurrence. My credentials do expire…I just have no idea when
they will.
Have I setup my gitconfig section wrong?
CentOS 7. Git 2.24.3.
Thanks.
--John
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: git credential cache timeout questions
2021-02-19 15:46 git credential cache timeout questions John Ratliff
@ 2021-02-19 17:04 ` Jeff King
2021-03-10 15:41 ` John Ratliff
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Jeff King @ 2021-02-19 17:04 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: John Ratliff; +Cc: git
On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 10:46:48AM -0500, John Ratliff wrote:
> I have configured my git to cache my credentials for 12 hours using
> this section in my .gitconfig
>
> [credential "https://mygithub.example.edu"]
> username = myuser
> helper = cache --timeout 43200
>
> However, the credentials don’t always seem to expire after 12 hours.
> Sometimes I come back the next morning and the credentials still work.
> This is generally after leaving at 5:00 PM and coming back in the next
> day at 9:00 AM, well past the 12 hour timeout.
>
> Is there any way to see the current timeout value? Is it a rolling
> timeout (i.e. any git action resets the timeout)?
It's the "rolling" thing, though the source is a bit subtle. The
credential-cache helper sets an absolute expiration when the value is
stored, and it doesn't update it on a "get" request.
However, Git's interaction with the helpers is generally:
- when we need a credential ask for one
- when a credential is rejected by a server, tell helpers to erase it
- when a credential is accepted by a server, tell helpers to store it
And it's that last one that provides the rolling timeout, because we do
it even if the credential came from a helper in the first place!
I actually wrote a patch long ago to switch this behavior:
https://lore.kernel.org/git/20120407033417.GA13914@sigill.intra.peff.net/
But it turned out some people actually rely on it. :)
There's some discussion in that thread about paths forward, and I think
I even played around with it back then. But then it sat on my todo list,
and now it has been 9 years, so I don't remember if there were good
reasons not to push it forward, or if I simply never got around to it (I
suspect the latter; nobody had a pressing use case that was solved by
avoiding the rolling timeouts, it just seemed to me to be a bit less
surprising). I'd be happy if somebody wanted to revisit the topic.
(To your other question, "is there a way to see the timeout value", the
answer is "not really, without running it under gdb". I wouldn't be
opposed to adding more diagnostic output to the daemon. But you can also
see some of what's going on by setting GIT_TRACE=1 in the environment,
which will show the extra "store" operation being done by Git).
-Peff
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: git credential cache timeout questions
2021-02-19 17:04 ` Jeff King
@ 2021-03-10 15:41 ` John Ratliff
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: John Ratliff @ 2021-03-10 15:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Jeff King; +Cc: git
Thanks. Now that I know it is a rolling timeout, I was able to narrow
my search for anything that might be causing the timer to extend.
There is a git helper program I use that has a background refresh that
I think I must leave open overnight sometimes. I think this was
causing my timeout to be extended. I disabled the background refresh
task and the timeout seems to be expiring like I expect now.
--John
On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 12:04 PM Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 10:46:48AM -0500, John Ratliff wrote:
>
> > I have configured my git to cache my credentials for 12 hours using
> > this section in my .gitconfig
> >
> > [credential "https://mygithub.example.edu"]
> > username = myuser
> > helper = cache --timeout 43200
> >
> > However, the credentials don’t always seem to expire after 12 hours.
> > Sometimes I come back the next morning and the credentials still work.
> > This is generally after leaving at 5:00 PM and coming back in the next
> > day at 9:00 AM, well past the 12 hour timeout.
> >
> > Is there any way to see the current timeout value? Is it a rolling
> > timeout (i.e. any git action resets the timeout)?
>
> It's the "rolling" thing, though the source is a bit subtle. The
> credential-cache helper sets an absolute expiration when the value is
> stored, and it doesn't update it on a "get" request.
>
> However, Git's interaction with the helpers is generally:
>
> - when we need a credential ask for one
>
> - when a credential is rejected by a server, tell helpers to erase it
>
> - when a credential is accepted by a server, tell helpers to store it
>
> And it's that last one that provides the rolling timeout, because we do
> it even if the credential came from a helper in the first place!
>
> I actually wrote a patch long ago to switch this behavior:
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/git/20120407033417.GA13914@sigill.intra.peff.net/
>
> But it turned out some people actually rely on it. :)
>
> There's some discussion in that thread about paths forward, and I think
> I even played around with it back then. But then it sat on my todo list,
> and now it has been 9 years, so I don't remember if there were good
> reasons not to push it forward, or if I simply never got around to it (I
> suspect the latter; nobody had a pressing use case that was solved by
> avoiding the rolling timeouts, it just seemed to me to be a bit less
> surprising). I'd be happy if somebody wanted to revisit the topic.
>
> (To your other question, "is there a way to see the timeout value", the
> answer is "not really, without running it under gdb". I wouldn't be
> opposed to adding more diagnostic output to the daemon. But you can also
> see some of what's going on by setting GIT_TRACE=1 in the environment,
> which will show the extra "store" operation being done by Git).
>
> -Peff
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2021-03-10 15:44 UTC | newest]
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