Git doesn't ask for user name

Question

I worked alone on a project versioned on Github, so for convenience I put something like this in my ~/.git/config file:

url = https://[email protected]/COMPANY/PROJECT.git

This way git asks only for password on pull/push. But now more people have to push and pull, so we thought this would make git ask also for user name:

url = https://github.com/COMPANY/PROJECT.git

But instead git asks for nothing now and this is a sample result of git pull:

error: The requested URL returned error: 403 while accessing https://github.com/COMPANY/PROJECT.git/info/refs

fatal: HTTP request failed

How can git be forced to ask for user name and password as expected?

Answer 1

I work on some different servers now and I've noticed that this issue affects git 1.7.0.4, but not the newer 1.7.9.5. So anyone experiencing the same problem should upgrade their git if possible.

@jszakmeister suggested asking the git mailing list, but having read this stackoverflow thread and this github page I think there's no point, it looks like a known problem without a good known solution. Github say they recommend git 1.7.10 and people in the stackoverflow discussion suggest things that don't really solve my problem. So I guess the only option is updating your git - let consider that the solution and this question answered.