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Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Git Credential Manager Core can be used with the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to enable secure authentication of your remote Git repositories from inside of WSL.

Supported versions

GCM Core supports being called from both WSL1 and WSL2 installations.

Note: In order to use GCM with WSL, without a Git for Windows installation you must be using GCM version 2.0.XXX or later. You must also be on Windows 10 Version 1903 and later. This is the first version of Windows that includes the required wsl.exe command-line tool that GCM uses to interoperate with Git in your WSL distributions.

Set up WSL & Git Credential Manager

Step 1

Install the latest Git for Windows ⬇️

Step 2

Inside your WSL installation, run the following command to set GCM as the Git credential helper:

git config --global credential.helper /mnt/c/Program\ Files/Git/mingw64/libexec/git-core/git-credential-manager-core.exe

Step 3 (Azure DevOps only)

If you intend to use Azure DevOps you must also set the following Git configuration inside of your WSL installation.

git config --global credential.https://dev.azure.com.useHttpPath true

Using GCM & WSL without Git for Windows

If you wish to use GCM Core inside of WSL without installing Git for Windows you must complete additional configuration so that GCM can callback to Git inside of your WSL installation.

In Windows you need to update the WSLENV environment variable to include the value GIT_EXEC_PATH/wp. From an Administrator Command Prompt run the following:

SETX WSLENV=%WSLENV%:GIT_EXEC_PATH/wp

..and then restart your WSL installation.

How it works

GCM leverages the built-in interoperability between Windows and WSL, provided by Microsoft. You can read more about Windows/WSL interop here.

Git inside of a WSL installation can launch the GCM Windows application transparently to acquire credentials. Running GCM as a Windows application allows it to take full advantage of the host operating system for storing credentials securely, and presenting GUI prompts for authentication.

By using the host operating system (Windows) to store credentials also means that your Windows applications and WSL distributions can all share those credentials, removing the need to sign-in multiple times.

Caveats

Using GCM as a credential helper for a WSL Git installation means that any configuration set in WSL Git is NOT respected by GCM (by default). This is because GCM is running as a Windows application, and therefore will use the Git for Windows installation to query configuration.

This means things like proxy settings for GCM need to be set in Git for Windows as well as WSL Git as they are stored in different files (%USERPROFILE%\.gitconfig vs \\wsl$\distro\home\$USER\.gitconfig).

You can configure WSL such that GCM will use the WSL Git configuration following the instructions above. However, this then means that things like proxy settings are unique to the specific WSL installation, and not shared with others or the Windows host.

Can I install Git Credential Manager directly inside of WSL?

Yes. Rather than install GCM as a Windows application (and have WSL Git invoke the Windows GCM), can you install GCM as a Linux application instead.

To do this, simply follow the GCM installation instructions for Linux.

Note: In this scenario, because GCM is running as a Linux application it cannot utilize authentication or credential storage features of the host Windows operating system.