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