What is Netrc file ?

Netrc file contains user credentials and is used to auto-login. It is usually located in users home directory .netrc but location can be overridden with NETRC environment variable. Netrc also supports macros macdef to automate tasks. Netrc can be used with ftp, curl, git etc.

Netrc file:

• Create file named .netrc in home directory.

• Lets consider your git server is hosted on domain git.company.com

    ~ $ cat .netrc
    machine git.company.com
    login first.last
    password secret-password
  

Secure netrc file:

• As .netrc is used to store credentials, lets secure the file.

    ~ $ chmod 0600 ~/.netrc
  

That's it, next time when you use git for domain git.company.com, git should pick up the credentials on behalf of you ;)

Warning:

• Netrc stores credentials in plan text. This is how netrc is meant to be ;)

Use case:

• Its a good idea to use netrc when you have token based authentication.
• Automation for service accounts with token based authentication.