6 git-remote-helpers - Helper programs to interact with remote repositories
11 'git remote-<transport>' <repository> [<URL>]
16 Remote helper programs are normally not used directly by end users,
17 but they are invoked by git when it needs to interact with remote
18 repositories git does not support natively. A given helper will
19 implement a subset of the capabilities documented here. When git
20 needs to interact with a repository using a remote helper, it spawns
21 the helper as an independent process, sends commands to the helper's
22 standard input, and expects results from the helper's standard
23 output. Because a remote helper runs as an independent process from
24 git, there is no need to re-link git to add a new helper, nor any
25 need to link the helper with the implementation of git.
27 Every helper must support the "capabilities" command, which git will
28 use to determine what other commands the helper will accept. Other
29 commands generally concern facilities like discovering and updating
30 remote refs, transporting objects between the object database and
31 the remote repository, and updating the local object store.
33 Helpers supporting the 'fetch' capability can discover refs from the
34 remote repository and transfer objects reachable from those refs to
35 the local object store. Helpers supporting the 'push' capability can
36 transfer local objects to the remote repository and update remote refs.
38 Git comes with a "curl" family of remote helpers, that handle various
39 transport protocols, such as 'git-remote-http', 'git-remote-https',
40 'git-remote-ftp' and 'git-remote-ftps'. They implement the capabilities
41 'fetch', 'option', and 'push'.
46 Remote helper programs are invoked with one or (optionally) two
47 arguments. The first argument specifies a remote repository as in git;
48 it is either the name of a configured remote or a URL. The second
49 argument specifies a URL; it is usually of the form
50 '<transport>://<address>', but any arbitrary string is possible.
51 The 'GIT_DIR' environment variable is set up for the remote helper
52 and can be used to determine where to store additional data or from
53 which directory to invoke auxiliary git commands.
55 When git encounters a URL of the form '<transport>://<address>', where
56 '<transport>' is a protocol that it cannot handle natively, it
57 automatically invokes 'git remote-<transport>' with the full URL as
58 the second argument. If such a URL is encountered directly on the
59 command line, the first argument is the same as the second, and if it
60 is encountered in a configured remote, the first argument is the name
63 A URL of the form '<transport>::<address>' explicitly instructs git to
64 invoke 'git remote-<transport>' with '<address>' as the second
65 argument. If such a URL is encountered directly on the command line,
66 the first argument is '<address>', and if it is encountered in a
67 configured remote, the first argument is the name of that remote.
69 Additionally, when a configured remote has 'remote.<name>.vcs' set to
70 '<transport>', git explicitly invokes 'git remote-<transport>' with
71 '<name>' as the first argument. If set, the second argument is
72 'remote.<name>.url'; otherwise, the second argument is omitted.
77 Commands are given by the caller on the helper's standard input, one per line.
80 Lists the capabilities of the helper, one per line, ending
81 with a blank line. Each capability may be preceded with '*',
82 which marks them mandatory for git version using the remote
83 helper to understand (unknown mandatory capability is fatal
87 Lists the refs, one per line, in the format "<value> <name>
88 [<attr> ...]". The value may be a hex sha1 hash, "@<dest>" for
89 a symref, or "?" to indicate that the helper could not get the
90 value of the ref. A space-separated list of attributes follows
91 the name; unrecognized attributes are ignored. The list ends
94 If 'push' is supported this may be called as 'list for-push'
95 to obtain the current refs prior to sending one or more 'push'
96 commands to the helper.
98 'option' <name> <value>::
99 Sets the transport helper option <name> to <value>. Outputs a
100 single line containing one of 'ok' (option successfully set),
101 'unsupported' (option not recognized) or 'error <msg>'
102 (option <name> is supported but <value> is not valid
103 for it). Options should be set before other commands,
104 and may influence the behavior of those commands.
106 Supported if the helper has the "option" capability.
108 'fetch' <sha1> <name>::
109 Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects
110 to the database. Fetch commands are sent in a batch, one
111 per line, terminated with a blank line.
112 Outputs a single blank line when all fetch commands in the
113 same batch are complete. Only objects which were reported
114 in the ref list with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
116 Optionally may output a 'lock <file>' line indicating a file under
117 GIT_DIR/objects/pack which is keeping a pack until refs can be
120 Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.
122 'push' +<src>:<dst>::
123 Pushes the given local <src> commit or branch to the
124 remote branch described by <dst>. A batch sequence of
125 one or more push commands is terminated with a blank line.
127 Zero or more protocol options may be entered after the last 'push'
128 command, before the batch's terminating blank line.
130 When the push is complete, outputs one or more 'ok <dst>' or
131 'error <dst> <why>?' lines to indicate success or failure of
132 each pushed ref. The status report output is terminated by
133 a blank line. The option field <why> may be quoted in a C
134 style string if it contains an LF.
136 Supported if the helper has the "push" capability.
139 Produces a fast-import stream which imports the current value
140 of the named ref. It may additionally import other refs as
141 needed to construct the history efficiently. The script writes
142 to a helper-specific private namespace. The value of the named
143 ref should be written to a location in this namespace derived
144 by applying the refspecs from the "refspec" capability to the
147 Especially useful for interoperability with a foreign versioning
150 Supported if the helper has the "import" capability.
152 'connect' <service>::
153 Connects to given service. Standard input and standard output
154 of helper are connected to specified service (git prefix is
155 included in service name so e.g. fetching uses 'git-upload-pack'
156 as service) on remote side. Valid replies to this command are
157 empty line (connection established), 'fallback' (no smart
158 transport support, fall back to dumb transports) and just
159 exiting with error message printed (can't connect, don't
160 bother trying to fall back). After line feed terminating the
161 positive (empty) response, the output of service starts. After
162 the connection ends, the remote helper exits.
164 Supported if the helper has the "connect" capability.
166 If a fatal error occurs, the program writes the error message to
167 stderr and exits. The caller should expect that a suitable error
168 message has been printed if the child closes the connection without
169 completing a valid response for the current command.
171 Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
172 capabilities reported by the helper.
182 This helper supports the corresponding command with the same name.
185 When using the import command, expect the source ref to have
186 been written to the destination ref. The earliest applicable
187 refspec takes precedence. For example
188 "refs/heads/{asterisk}:refs/svn/origin/branches/{asterisk}" means
189 that, after an "import refs/heads/name", the script has written to
190 refs/svn/origin/branches/name. If this capability is used at
191 all, it must cover all refs reported by the list command; if
192 it is not used, it is effectively "{asterisk}:{asterisk}"
198 The caller wants to use the ref list to prepare push
199 commands. A helper might chose to acquire the ref list by
200 opening a different type of connection to the destination.
203 This ref is unchanged since the last import or fetch, although
204 the helper cannot necessarily determine what value that produced.
208 'option verbosity' <n>::
209 Changes the verbosity of messages displayed by the helper.
210 A value of 0 for <n> means that processes operate
211 quietly, and the helper produces only error output.
212 1 is the default level of verbosity, and higher values
213 of <n> correspond to the number of -v flags passed on the
216 'option progress' \{'true'|'false'\}::
217 Enables (or disables) progress messages displayed by the
218 transport helper during a command.
220 'option depth' <depth>::
221 Deepens the history of a shallow repository.
223 'option followtags' \{'true'|'false'\}::
224 If enabled the helper should automatically fetch annotated
225 tag objects if the object the tag points at was transferred
226 during the fetch command. If the tag is not fetched by
227 the helper a second fetch command will usually be sent to
228 ask for the tag specifically. Some helpers may be able to
229 use this option to avoid a second network connection.
231 'option dry-run' \{'true'|'false'\}:
232 If true, pretend the operation completed successfully,
233 but don't actually change any repository data. For most
234 helpers this only applies to the 'push', if supported.
236 'option servpath <c-style-quoted-path>'::
237 Sets service path (--upload-pack, --receive-pack etc.) for
238 next connect. Remote helper may support this option, but
239 must not rely on this option being set before
240 connect request occurs.
244 linkgit:git-remote[1]
248 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
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