6 git-remote-helpers - Helper programs for interoperation with remote git
10 'git remote-<transport>' <remote>
15 These programs are normally not used directly by end users, but are
16 invoked by various git programs that interact with remote repositories
17 when the repository they would operate on will be accessed using
18 transport code not linked into the main git binary. Various particular
19 helper programs will behave as documented here.
24 Commands are given by the caller on the helper's standard input, one per line.
27 Lists the capabilities of the helper, one per line, ending
28 with a blank line. Each capability may be preceeded with '*'.
29 This marks them mandatory for git version using the remote
30 helper to understand (unknown mandatory capability is fatal
34 Lists the refs, one per line, in the format "<value> <name>
35 [<attr> ...]". The value may be a hex sha1 hash, "@<dest>" for
36 a symref, or "?" to indicate that the helper could not get the
37 value of the ref. A space-separated list of attributes follows
38 the name; unrecognized attributes are ignored. After the
39 complete list, outputs a blank line.
41 If 'push' is supported this may be called as 'list for-push'
42 to obtain the current refs prior to sending one or more 'push'
43 commands to the helper.
45 'option' <name> <value>::
46 Set the transport helper option <name> to <value>. Outputs a
47 single line containing one of 'ok' (option successfully set),
48 'unsupported' (option not recognized) or 'error <msg>'
49 (option <name> is supported but <value> is not correct
50 for it). Options should be set before other commands,
51 and may how those commands behave.
53 Supported if the helper has the "option" capability.
55 'fetch' <sha1> <name>::
56 Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects
57 to the database. Fetch commands are sent in a batch, one
58 per line, and the batch is terminated with a blank line.
59 Outputs a single blank line when all fetch commands in the
60 same batch are complete. Only objects which were reported
61 in the ref list with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
63 Optionally may output a 'lock <file>' line indicating a file under
64 GIT_DIR/objects/pack which is keeping a pack until refs can be
67 Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.
70 Pushes the given <src> commit or branch locally to the
71 remote branch described by <dst>. A batch sequence of
72 one or more push commands is terminated with a blank line.
74 Zero or more protocol options may be entered after the last 'push'
75 command, before the batch's terminating blank line.
77 When the push is complete, outputs one or more 'ok <dst>' or
78 'error <dst> <why>?' lines to indicate success or failure of
79 each pushed ref. The status report output is terminated by
80 a blank line. The option field <why> may be quoted in a C
81 style string if it contains an LF.
83 Supported if the helper has the "push" capability.
86 Produces a fast-import stream which imports the current value
87 of the named ref. It may additionally import other refs as
88 needed to construct the history efficiently. The script writes
89 to a helper-specific private namespace. The value of the named
90 ref should be written to a location in this namespace derived
91 by applying the refspecs from the "refspec" capability to the
94 Supported if the helper has the "import" capability.
96 If a fatal error occurs, the program writes the error message to
97 stderr and exits. The caller should expect that a suitable error
98 message has been printed if the child closes the connection without
99 completing a valid response for the current command.
101 Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
102 capabilities reported by the helper.
108 This helper supports the 'fetch' command.
111 This helper supports the option command.
114 This helper supports the 'push' command.
117 This helper supports the 'import' command.
120 When using the import command, expect the source ref to have
121 been written to the destination ref. The earliest applicable
122 refspec takes precedence. For example
123 "refs/heads/*:refs/svn/origin/branches/*" means that, after an
124 "import refs/heads/name", the script has written to
125 refs/svn/origin/branches/name. If this capability is used at
126 all, it must cover all refs reported by the list command; if
127 it is not used, it is effectively "*:*"
133 The caller wants to use the ref list to prepare push
134 commands. A helper might chose to acquire the ref list by
135 opening a different type of connection to the destination.
138 This ref is unchanged since the last import or fetch, although
139 the helper cannot necessarily determine what value that produced.
143 'option verbosity' <N>::
144 Change the level of messages displayed by the helper.
145 When N is 0 the end-user has asked the process to be
146 quiet, and the helper should produce only error output.
147 N of 1 is the default level of verbosity, higher values
148 of N correspond to the number of -v flags passed on the
151 'option progress' \{'true'|'false'\}::
152 Enable (or disable) progress messages displayed by the
153 transport helper during a command.
155 'option depth' <depth>::
156 Deepen the history of a shallow repository.
158 'option followtags' \{'true'|'false'\}::
159 If enabled the helper should automatically fetch annotated
160 tag objects if the object the tag points at was transferred
161 during the fetch command. If the tag is not fetched by
162 the helper a second fetch command will usually be sent to
163 ask for the tag specifically. Some helpers may be able to
164 use this option to avoid a second network connection.
166 'option dry-run' \{'true'|'false'\}:
167 If true, pretend the operation completed successfully,
168 but don't actually change any repository data. For most
169 helpers this only applies to the 'push', if supported.
173 Documentation by Daniel Barkalow.
177 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite