diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+github-backup (1.20200721) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * Removed support for GITHUB_USER/GITHUB_PASSWORD since github will soon
+    remove support for http basic auth. Use GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN instead.
+
+ -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Tue, 21 Jul 2020 23:24:03 -0400
+
 github-backup (1.20191219) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * Updated to use github-0.23 (0.24 needs larger changes)
diff --git a/Github/GetAuth.hs b/Github/GetAuth.hs
--- a/Github/GetAuth.hs
+++ b/Github/GetAuth.hs
@@ -1,27 +1,30 @@
 module Github.GetAuth where
 
 import Utility.Env
-import Utility.Monad
+import Data.Maybe
+import System.IO
 
+import Common
 import qualified GitHub.Auth as Github
-import Data.Text.Encoding (encodeUtf8)
-import qualified Data.Text as T
 import qualified Data.ByteString.UTF8 as B
 
 getAuth :: IO (Maybe Github.Auth)
-getAuth = getM id
-	[ do
-		user <- getEnv "GITHUB_USER"
-		password <- getEnv "GITHUB_PASSWORD"
-		return $ case (user, password) of
-			(Just u, Just p) -> Just $ 
-				Github.BasicAuth (tobs u) (tobs p)
-			_ -> Nothing
-	, do
-		oauthtoken <- getEnv "GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN"
-		return $ case oauthtoken of
-			Just t -> Just $ Github.OAuth (B.fromString t)
-			Nothing -> Nothing
-	]
-  where
-	tobs = encodeUtf8 . T.pack
+getAuth = do
+	oauthtoken <- getEnv "GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN"
+	case oauthtoken of
+		Just t -> return $ Just $ Github.OAuth (B.fromString t)
+		Nothing -> do
+			checkDeprecatedVars
+			return Nothing
+
+checkDeprecatedVars :: IO ()
+checkDeprecatedVars = do
+	user <- getEnv "GITHUB_USER"
+	password <- getEnv "GITHUB_PASSWORD"
+	when (isJust user && isJust password) $
+		hPutStrLn stderr $ unwords
+			[ "GITHUB_USER and GITHUB_PASSWORD are no longer"
+			, "supported, because Github is removing that"
+			, "authentication method."
+			, "Set GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN instead."
+			]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -90,9 +90,9 @@
 Bear in mind that this uses the GitHub API; don't run it every 5 minutes.
 GitHub [rate limits](http://developer.github.com/v3/#rate-limiting) the
 API to some small number of requests per hour when used without
-authentication. To avoid this limit, you can set `GITHUB_USER` and
-`GITHUB_PASSWORD` (or `GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN` obtained from
-<https://github.com/settings/tokens>) in the environment and
+authentication. To avoid this limit, you can set the environment
+variable `GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN` to a token obtained from 
+<https://github.com/settings/tokens> and
 it will log in when making (most) API requests.
 
 Anyway, github-backup *does* do an incremental backup, picking up where it
diff --git a/github-backup.1 b/github-backup.1
--- a/github-backup.1
+++ b/github-backup.1
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 the name of an organization using GitHub.)
 .PP
 By default it runs without logging in to GitHub. To log in, set
-the GITHUB_USER and GITHUB_PASSWORD environment variables. Or, set
 GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN to an oath or personal access token.
 However note that logging in only works around API rate limiting; it
 does not allow private repositories to be downloaded.
diff --git a/github-backup.cabal b/github-backup.cabal
--- a/github-backup.cabal
+++ b/github-backup.cabal
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Name: github-backup
-Version: 1.20191219
-Cabal-Version: >= 1.8
+Version: 1.20200721
+Cabal-Version: >= 1.10
 Maintainer: Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>
 Author: Joey Hess
 Stability: Stable
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 Executable github-backup
   Main-Is: github-backup.hs
   GHC-Options: -Wall -fno-warn-tabs -threaded
+  Default-Language: Haskell98
   Build-Depends:
     base (>= 4.8 && < 5),
     github (>= 0.23 && < 0.24),
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@
 Executable gitriddance
   Main-Is: gitriddance.hs
   GHC-Options: -Wall -fno-warn-tabs
+  Default-Language: Haskell98
   Build-Depends: 
     base (>= 4.8 && < 5),
     github (>= 0.23 && < 0.24),
diff --git a/gitriddance.1 b/gitriddance.1
--- a/gitriddance.1
+++ b/gitriddance.1
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@
 .IP
 git config core.gitriddance "Please submit patches to http://ikiwiki.info/todo/"
 .PP
-In order for gitriddance to log into GitHub, you need to set 
-the GITHUB_USER and GITHUB_PASSWORD environment variables.
-Or, set GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN to an oath or personal access token.
+In order for gitriddance to log into GitHub, you need to set
+GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN to an oath or personal access token.
 .SH AUTHOR 
 Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>