oam/knowledge base/netrc.md

The .netrc file

Specifies automatic login information for the ftp and rexec commands.

1. TL;DR
2. Format
3. Further readings

TL;DR

Located under a user's home directory (~/.netrc).
It must be owned by either the user executing the command, or by the root user.

If a .netrc file contains a login password, the file's permissions must be set to 600 (read and write for its owner only).

Format

The file can contain the following entries separated by spaces, tabs, or new lines:

• machine hostname: starts the definition of the automatic login process for the specified hostname.
  All entries following this key, up to a new machine entry or the end of the file, will apply to just the specified hostname.

• default: works like machine, but matches any hostname.
  There can be only 1 in the whole file, and it must the last entry. Entries following this key will be ignored.

• login username: the full user name used for authentication; if found, the automatic login process initiates a login with the specified username, otherwise it will fail.

• password password: the password to use for authentication.
  It must be set at the remote host, and must be present in .netrc. Otherwise, the process will fail and the user will be prompted for a new value.

  Warning

  Passwords in this fields cannot contain spaces.

The two formats below are equivalent:

machine example.com login daniel password qwerty
machine host1.austin.century.com login fred password bluebonnet

machine example.com
login daniel
password qwerty
machine host1.austin.century.com
login fred
password bluebonnet

Further readings

• netrc