Git Credential Manager Rename

In November 2021, "Git Credential Manager Core" was renamed to simply "Git Credential Manager", dropping the "Core" moniker. We announced the new name in a GitHub blog post, along with the new home for the project in its own organization.

At the time, the actual exectuable name was not updated and continued to be git-credential-manager-core. As of 2.0.877, the executable has been renamed to git-credential-manager, matching the new project name.

:warning: Update: :warning:

As of 2.3.0 the git-credential-manager-core symlinks have been removed.

If you have not updated your configuration you will see error messages similar to:

console

git: 'credential-manager-core' is not a git command. See 'git --help'.

To fix your configuration, please follow the instructions below.

Rename transition

If you continue to use the git-credential-manager-core executable name you may see warning messages like below:

console

warning: git-credential-manager-core was renamed to git-credential-manager
warning: see https://aka.ms/gcm/rename for more information

Since the executable was renamed in 2.0.877, GCM has also included symlinks using the old name in order to ensure no one's setups would immediately break.

These links will remain until two major Git versions are released after GCM 2.0.877, at which point the symlinks will no longer be included.

It is recommended to update your Git configuration to use the new executable name as soon as possible to prevent any issues in the future.

How to update

Git for Windows

If you are using GCM bundled with Git for Windows (recommended), you should make sure you have updated to the latest version.

Download the latest Git for Windows ⬇️

Windows standalone installer

If you are using GCM installed either by the user (gcmuser-*.exe) or system (gcm-*.exe) installers on Windows, you should uninstall the current version first and then download and install the latest version.

Uninstall instructions for your Windows version can be found here.

macOS Homebrew

Note: As of October 2022 the old git-credential-manager-core cask name is still used. In the future we plan to rename the package to drop the -core suffix.

If you use Homebrew to install GCM on macOS you should use brew upgrade to install the latest version.

brew upgrade git-credential-manager-core

macOS package

If you use the .pkg file to install GCM on macOS, you should first uninstall the current version, and then install the latest package.

sudo /usr/local/share/gcm-core/uninstall.sh
installer -pkg <path-to-new-package> -target /

Linux Debian package

If you use the .deb Debian package to install GCM on Linux, you should first unconfigure the current version, uninstall the package, and then install and configure the latest version.

git-credential-manager-core unconfigure
sudo dpkg -r gcmcore
sudo dpkg -i <path-to-new-package>
git-credential-manager configure

Linux tarball

If you are using the pre-built GCM binaries on Linux from our tarball, you should first unconfigure the current version before extracting the latest binaries.

git-credential-manager-core unconfigure
rm $(command -v git-credential-manager-core)
tar -xvf <path-to-new-tarball> -C /usr/local/bin
git-credential-manager configure

Troubleshooting

If after updating your GCM installations if you are still seeing the warning messages you can try manually editing your Git configuration to point to the correct GCM executable name.

Start by listing all Git configuration for credential.helper, including which files the particular config entries are located in, using the following command:

git config --show-origin --get-all credential.helper

On Mac or Linux you should see something like this:

shell-session

$ git config --show-origin --get-all credential.helper
file:/opt/homebrew/etc/gitconfig	credential.helper=osxkeychain
file:/Users/jdoe/.gitconfig	credential.helper=
file:/Users/jdoe/.gitconfig	credential.helper=/usr/local/share/gcm-core/git-credential-manager-core

On Windows you should see something like this:

shell-session

> git config --show-origin --get-all credential.helper
file:C:/Program Files/Git/etc/gitconfig	credential.helper=manager-core

Look out for entries that include git-credential-manager-core or manager-core; these should be replaced and updated to git-credential-manager or manager respectively.

Note: When updating the Git configuration file in your home directory ($HOME/.gitconfig or %USERPROFILE%\.gitconfig) you should ensure there are is an additional blank entry for credential.helper before the GCM entry.

Mac/Linux
ini
[credential]
    helper =
    helper = /usr/local/share/gcm-core/git-credential-manager
Windows
ini
[credential]
    helper =
    helper = C:/Program\\ Files\\ \$x86\$/Git\\ Credential\\ Manager/git-credential-manager.exe
The blank entry is important as it makes sure GCM is the only credential helper that is configured, and overrides any helpers configured at the system/ machine-wide level.