Configuring the caching behavior of GitHub Personal Access Tokens (PATs) requires a combination of JavaScript and platform-specific tools to manage the cache. In this example, I have provided a JavaScript script that allows users to specify the cache timeout and an option to store credentials permanently. The script will work on both Windows and Unix-like platforms (Linux and macOS) [1][2].

Before using this script, you need to install Git and authenticate with your GitHub account to set up the credential cache. You can do this by running git config --global credential.helper cache.
Here's the JavaScript script that configures the caching behavior:

const { exec } = require('child_process');
const readline = require('readline');

function configureGitCache(timeout, storePermanently) {
  // Set the cache timeout
  exec(`git config --global credential.https://github.com.helper cache --timeout=${timeout}`);

  // Set whether to store credentials permanently
  exec(`git config --global credential.https://github.com.helper store ${storePermanently ? "always" : "auto"}`);

  console.log(`GitHub PAT cache configured with a timeout of ${timeout} seconds.`);
  console.log(`Credentials will ${storePermanently ? 'always' : 'auto'}-store.`);
}

const rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout
});

// Ask the user for cache timeout and permanent storage preference
rl.question('Enter cache timeout in seconds: ', (timeout) => {
  rl.question('Store credentials permanently? (yes/no): ', (storePermanently) => {
    const timeoutSeconds = parseInt(timeout);

    if (!isNaN(timeoutSeconds)) {
      const isStoringPermanently = storePermanently.toLowerCase() === 'yes';
      configureGitCache(timeoutSeconds, isStoringPermanently);
    } else {
      console.log('Invalid timeout value. Please enter a number of seconds.');
    }

    rl.close();
  });
});

Here's how the script works:

  1. It uses the child_process module to run Git commands to configure the credential helper's timeout and permanent storage settings globally.
  2. It prompts the user to enter the cache timeout value in seconds and whether they want to store credentials permanently.
  3. The script then sets the cache timeout and storage preference based on the user's input.
  4. Finally, it prints a message indicating the configuration changes.

To run the script, you'll need to have Node.js installed. Save the script to a .js file, open your terminal, navigate to the script's location, and execute it using the node command.