git - Can the credentials stored in Github for Windows be shared with the whole operating system?

Question

Is it possible to share GHfW's Git configuration with the entire operating system? Ideally I'd like to have GHfW's git.exe on the system PATH and have the credentials stored through GHfW available from any command prompt?

Answer 1

By default, GitHub For windows will use %USERPROFILE% as its %HOME% to store:

• .gitconfig (global config for all repos)
• .ssh/github_rsa (private key used by GitHub for Windows for authentication)*
• .ssh/github_rsa.pub (public key used by GitHub for Windows for authentication)

If you are working outside of GitHub for Windows, and git local installation will benefit from the same settings provided the %HOME% is defined to the same %USERPROFILE% environment variable path.

However, there is no easy way to use (actually find) its wrapped git version:
GitHub for Windows only exposes a wrapped msysgit in %APPDATA%GitHubPortableGit_8810fd5c2c79c73adcc73fd0825f3b32fdb816e7cmdgit.exe,
with 8810fd5c2c79c73adcc73fd0825f3b32fdb816e7 being the SHA1 of a github/msysgit project.
It uses internally the environment variable %git_install_root%.

You can grep its path in %USERPROFILE%Local SettingsApplication DataGitHubshell.ps1 though.