1GIT-REMOTE-HELPERS(1) Git Manual GIT-REMOTE-HELPERS(1)
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6 git-remote-helpers - Helper programs to interact with remote
7 repositories
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10 git remote-<transport> <repository> [<URL>]
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13 Remote helper programs are normally not used directly by end users, but
14 they are invoked by git when it needs to interact with remote
15 repositories git does not support natively. A given helper will
16 implement a subset of the capabilities documented here. When git needs
17 to interact with a repository using a remote helper, it spawns the
18 helper as an independent process, sends commands to the helper’s
19 standard input, and expects results from the helper’s standard output.
20 Because a remote helper runs as an independent process from git, there
21 is no need to re-link git to add a new helper, nor any need to link the
22 helper with the implementation of git.
23 Every helper must support the "capabilities" command, which git will
25 use to determine what other commands the helper will accept. Other
26 commands generally concern facilities like discovering and updating
27 remote refs, transporting objects between the object database and the
28 remote repository, and updating the local object store.
29 Helpers supporting the fetch capability can discover refs from the
31 remote repository and transfer objects reachable from those refs to the
32 local object store. Helpers supporting the push capability can transfer
33 local objects to the remote repository and update remote refs.
34 Git comes with a "curl" family of remote helpers, that handle various
36 transport protocols, such as git-remote-http, git-remote-https,
37 git-remote-ftp and git-remote-ftps. They implement the capabilities
38 fetch, option, and push.
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41 Remote helper programs are invoked with one or (optionally) two
42 arguments. The first argument specifies a remote repository as in git;
43 it is either the name of a configured remote or a URL. The second
44 argument specifies a URL; it is usually of the form
45 <transport>://<address>, but any arbitrary string is possible.
46 When git encounters a URL of the form <transport>://<address>, where
48 <transport> is a protocol that it cannot handle natively, it
49 automatically invokes git remote-<transport> with the full URL as the
50 second argument. If such a URL is encountered directly on the command
51 line, the first argument is the same as the second, and if it is
52 encountered in a configured remote, the first argument is the name of
53 that remote.
54 A URL of the form <transport>::<address> explicitly instructs git to
56 invoke git remote-<transport> with <address> as the second argument. If
57 such a URL is encountered directly on the command line, the first
58 argument is <address>, and if it is encountered in a configured remote,
59 the first argument is the name of that remote.
60 Additionally, when a configured remote has remote.<name>.vcs set to
62 <transport>, git explicitly invokes git remote-<transport> with <name>
63 as the first argument. If set, the second argument is
64 remote.<name>.url; otherwise, the second argument is omitted.
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67 Commands are given by the caller on the helper’s standard input, one
68 per line.
69 capabilities
71 Lists the capabilities of the helper, one per line, ending with a
72 blank line. Each capability may be preceded with *, which marks
73 them mandatory for git version using the remote helper to
74 understand (unknown mandatory capability is fatal error).
75 list
77 Lists the refs, one per line, in the format "<value> <name> [<attr>
78 ...]". The value may be a hex sha1 hash, "@<dest>" for a symref, or
79 "?" to indicate that the helper could not get the value of the ref.
80 A space-separated list of attributes follows the name; unrecognized
81 attributes are ignored. The list ends with a blank line.
82 If push is supported this may be called as list for-push to obtain
84 the current refs prior to sending one or more push commands to the
85 helper.
86 option <name> <value>
88 Sets the transport helper option <name> to <value>. Outputs a
89 single line containing one of ok (option successfully set),
90 unsupported (option not recognized) or error <msg> (option <name>
91 is supported but <value> is not valid for it). Options should be
92 set before other commands, and may influence the behavior of those
93 commands.
94 Supported if the helper has the "option" capability.
96 fetch <sha1> <name>
98 Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects to the
99 database. Fetch commands are sent in a batch, one per line,
100 terminated with a blank line. Outputs a single blank line when all
101 fetch commands in the same batch are complete. Only objects which
102 were reported in the ref list with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
103 Optionally may output a lock <file> line indicating a file under
105 GIT_DIR/objects/pack which is keeping a pack until refs can be
106 suitably updated.
107 Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.
109 push +<src>:<dst>
111 Pushes the given local <src> commit or branch to the remote branch
112 described by <dst>. A batch sequence of one or more push commands
113 is terminated with a blank line.
114 Zero or more protocol options may be entered after the last push
116 command, before the batch’s terminating blank line.
117 When the push is complete, outputs one or more ok <dst> or error
119 <dst> <why>? lines to indicate success or failure of each pushed
120 ref. The status report output is terminated by a blank line. The
121 option field <why> may be quoted in a C style string if it contains
122 an LF.
123 Supported if the helper has the "push" capability.
125 import <name>
127 Produces a fast-import stream which imports the current value of
128 the named ref. It may additionally import other refs as needed to
129 construct the history efficiently. The script writes to a
130 helper-specific private namespace. The value of the named ref
131 should be written to a location in this namespace derived by
132 applying the refspecs from the "refspec" capability to the name of
133 the ref.
134 Especially useful for interoperability with a foreign versioning
136 system.
137 Supported if the helper has the "import" capability.
139 connect <service>
141 Connects to given service. Standard input and standard output of
142 helper are connected to specified service (git prefix is included
143 in service name so e.g. fetching uses git-upload-pack as service)
144 on remote side. Valid replies to this command are empty line
145 (connection established), fallback (no smart transport support,
146 fall back to dumb transports) and just exiting with error message
147 printed (can’t connect, don’t bother trying to fall back). After
148 line feed terminating the positive (empty) response, the output of
149 service starts. After the connection ends, the remote helper exits.
150 Supported if the helper has the "connect" capability.
152 If a fatal error occurs, the program writes the error message to stderr
154 and exits. The caller should expect that a suitable error message has
155 been printed if the child closes the connection without completing a
156 valid response for the current command.
157 Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
159 capabilities reported by the helper.
160
162 fetch, option, push, import, connect
163 This helper supports the corresponding command with the same name.
164 refspec spec
166 When using the import command, expect the source ref to have been
167 written to the destination ref. The earliest applicable refspec
168 takes precedence. For example
169 "refs/heads/:refs/svn/origin/branches/" means that, after an
170 "import refs/heads/name", the script has written to
171 refs/svn/origin/branches/name. If this capability is used at all,
172 it must cover all refs reported by the list command; if it is not
173 used, it is effectively ":"
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176 for-push
177 The caller wants to use the ref list to prepare push commands. A
178 helper might chose to acquire the ref list by opening a different
179 type of connection to the destination.
180 unchanged
182 This ref is unchanged since the last import or fetch, although the
183 helper cannot necessarily determine what value that produced.
184
186 option verbosity <n>
187 Changes the verbosity of messages displayed by the helper. A value
188 of 0 for <n> means that processes operate quietly, and the helper
189 produces only error output. 1 is the default level of verbosity,
190 and higher values of <n> correspond to the number of -v flags
191 passed on the command line.
192 option progress {true|false}
194 Enables (or disables) progress messages displayed by the transport
195 helper during a command.
196 option depth <depth>
198 Deepens the history of a shallow repository.
199 option followtags {true|false}
201 If enabled the helper should automatically fetch annotated tag
202 objects if the object the tag points at was transferred during the
203 fetch command. If the tag is not fetched by the helper a second
204 fetch command will usually be sent to ask for the tag specifically.
205 Some helpers may be able to use this option to avoid a second
206 network connection.
207 option dry-run {true|false}: If true, pretend the operation completed
209 successfully, but don’t actually change any repository data. For most
210 helpers this only applies to the push, if supported.
211 option servpath <c-style-quoted-path>
213 Sets service path (--upload-pack, --receive-pack etc.) for next
214 connect. Remote helper may support this option, but must not rely
215 on this option being set before connect request occurs.
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218 git-remote(1)
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221 Documentation by Daniel Barkalow and Ilari Liusvaara
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224 Part of the git(1) suite
225Git 1.7.4.4 04/11/2011 GIT-REMOTE-HELPERS(1)