git-remote-helpers.html - external/gitster/git-htmldocs - Git at Google

 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
 <head>
 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
 <meta name="generator" content="AsciiDoc 8.2.5" />
 <style type="text/css">
 /* Debug borders */
 p, li, dt, dd, div, pre, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
 /*
  border: 1px solid red;
 */
 }

 body {
  margin: 1em 5% 1em 5%;
 }

 a {
  color: blue;
  text-decoration: underline;
 }
 a:visited {
  color: fuchsia;
 }

 em {
  font-style: italic;
 }

 strong {
  font-weight: bold;
 }

 tt {
  color: navy;
 }

 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  color: #527bbd;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  margin-top: 1.2em;
  margin-bottom: 0.5em;
  line-height: 1.3;
 }

 h1, h2, h3 {
  border-bottom: 2px solid silver;
 }
 h2 {
  padding-top: 0.5em;
 }
 h3 {
  float: left;
 }
 h3 + * {
  clear: left;
 }

 div.sectionbody {
  font-family: serif;
  margin-left: 0;
 }

 hr {
  border: 1px solid silver;
 }

 p {
  margin-top: 0.5em;
  margin-bottom: 0.5em;
 }

 pre {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
 }

 span#author {
  color: #527bbd;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 1.1em;
 }
 span#email {
 }
 span#revision {
  font-family: sans-serif;
 }

 div#footer {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: small;
  border-top: 2px solid silver;
  padding-top: 0.5em;
  margin-top: 4.0em;
 }
 div#footer-text {
  float: left;
  padding-bottom: 0.5em;
 }
 div#footer-badges {
  float: right;
  padding-bottom: 0.5em;
 }

 div#preamble,
 div.tableblock, div.imageblock, div.exampleblock, div.verseblock,
 div.quoteblock, div.literalblock, div.listingblock, div.sidebarblock,
 div.admonitionblock {
  margin-right: 10%;
  margin-top: 1.5em;
  margin-bottom: 1.5em;
 }
 div.admonitionblock {
  margin-top: 2.5em;
  margin-bottom: 2.5em;
 }

 div.content { /* Block element content. */
  padding: 0;
 }

 /* Block element titles. */
 div.title, caption.title {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
  text-align: left;
  margin-top: 1.0em;
  margin-bottom: 0.5em;
 }
 div.title + * {
  margin-top: 0;
 }

 td div.title:first-child {
  margin-top: 0.0em;
 }
 div.content div.title:first-child {
  margin-top: 0.0em;
 }
 div.content + div.title {
  margin-top: 0.0em;
 }

 div.sidebarblock > div.content {
  background: #ffffee;
  border: 1px solid silver;
  padding: 0.5em;
 }

 div.listingblock {
  margin-right: 0%;
 }
 div.listingblock > div.content {
  border: 1px solid silver;
  background: #f4f4f4;
  padding: 0.5em;
 }

 div.quoteblock > div.content {
  padding-left: 2.0em;
 }

 div.attribution {
  text-align: right;
 }
 div.verseblock + div.attribution {
  text-align: left;
 }

 div.admonitionblock .icon {
  vertical-align: top;
  font-size: 1.1em;
  font-weight: bold;
  text-decoration: underline;
  color: #527bbd;
  padding-right: 0.5em;
 }
 div.admonitionblock td.content {
  padding-left: 0.5em;
  border-left: 2px solid silver;
 }

 div.exampleblock > div.content {
  border-left: 2px solid silver;
  padding: 0.5em;
 }

 div.verseblock div.content {
  white-space: pre;
 }

 div.imageblock div.content { padding-left: 0; }
 div.imageblock img { border: 1px solid silver; }
 span.image img { border-style: none; }

 dl {
  margin-top: 0.8em;
  margin-bottom: 0.8em;
 }
 dt {
  margin-top: 0.5em;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  font-style: italic;
 }
 dd > *:first-child {
  margin-top: 0;
 }

 ul, ol {
  list-style-position: outside;
 }
 div.olist2 ol {
  list-style-type: lower-alpha;
 }

 div.tableblock > table {
  border: 3px solid #527bbd;
 }
 thead {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
 }
 tfoot {
  font-weight: bold;
 }

 div.hlist {
  margin-top: 0.8em;
  margin-bottom: 0.8em;
 }
 div.hlist td {
  padding-bottom: 5px;
 }
 td.hlist1 {
  vertical-align: top;
  font-style: italic;
  padding-right: 0.8em;
 }
 td.hlist2 {
  vertical-align: top;
 }

 @media print {
  div#footer-badges { display: none; }
 }

 div#toctitle {
  color: #527bbd;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 1.1em;
  font-weight: bold;
  margin-top: 1.0em;
  margin-bottom: 0.1em;
 }

 div.toclevel1, div.toclevel2, div.toclevel3, div.toclevel4 {
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
 }
 div.toclevel2 {
  margin-left: 2em;
  font-size: 0.9em;
 }
 div.toclevel3 {
  margin-left: 4em;
  font-size: 0.9em;
 }
 div.toclevel4 {
  margin-left: 6em;
  font-size: 0.9em;
 }
 include1::./stylesheets/xhtml11-manpage.css[]
 /* Workarounds for IE6's broken and incomplete CSS2. */

 div.sidebar-content {
  background: #ffffee;
  border: 1px solid silver;
  padding: 0.5em;
 }
 div.sidebar-title, div.image-title {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
  margin-top: 0.0em;
  margin-bottom: 0.5em;
 }

 div.listingblock div.content {
  border: 1px solid silver;
  background: #f4f4f4;
  padding: 0.5em;
 }

 div.quoteblock-content {
  padding-left: 2.0em;
 }

 div.exampleblock-content {
  border-left: 2px solid silver;
  padding-left: 0.5em;
 }

 /* IE6 sets dynamically generated links as visited. */
 div#toc a:visited { color: blue; }
 </style>
 <title>git-remote-helpers(1)</title>
 </head>
 <body>
 <div id="header">
 <h1>
 git-remote-helpers(1) Manual Page
 </h1>
 <h2>NAME</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <p>git-remote-helpers -
  Helper programs to interact with remote repositories
 </p>
 </div>
 </div>
 <h2>SYNOPSIS</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="para"><p><em>git remote-&lt;transport&gt;</em> &lt;repository&gt; [&lt;URL&gt;]</p></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="para"><p>Remote helper programs are normally not used directly by end users,
 but they are invoked by git when it needs to interact with remote
 repositories git does not support natively. A given helper will
 implement a subset of the capabilities documented here. When git
 needs to interact with a repository using a remote helper, it spawns
 the helper as an independent process, sends commands to the helper's
 standard input, and expects results from the helper's standard
 output. Because a remote helper runs as an independent process from
 git, there is no need to re-link git to add a new helper, nor any
 need to link the helper with the implementation of git.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Every helper must support the "capabilities" command, which git will
 use to determine what other commands the helper will accept. Other
 commands generally concern facilities like discovering and updating
 remote refs, transporting objects between the object database and
 the remote repository, and updating the local object store.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Helpers supporting the <em>fetch</em> capability can discover refs from the
 remote repository and transfer objects reachable from those refs to
 the local object store. Helpers supporting the <em>push</em> capability can
 transfer local objects to the remote repository and update remote refs.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Git comes with a "curl" family of remote helpers, that handle various
 transport protocols, such as <em>git-remote-http</em>, <em>git-remote-https</em>,
 <em>git-remote-ftp</em> and <em>git-remote-ftps</em>. They implement the capabilities
 <em>fetch</em>, <em>option</em>, and <em>push</em>.</p></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_invocation">INVOCATION</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="para"><p>Remote helper programs are invoked with one or (optionally) two
 arguments. The first argument specifies a remote repository as in git;
 it is either the name of a configured remote or a URL. The second
 argument specifies a URL; it is usually of the form
 <em>&lt;transport&gt;://&lt;address&gt;</em>, but any arbitrary string is possible.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>When git encounters a URL of the form <em>&lt;transport&gt;://&lt;address&gt;</em>, where
 <em>&lt;transport&gt;</em> is a protocol that it cannot handle natively, it
 automatically invokes <em>git remote-&lt;transport&gt;</em> with the full URL as
 the second argument. If such a URL is encountered directly on the
 command line, the first argument is the same as the second, and if it
 is encountered in a configured remote, the first argument is the name
 of that remote.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>A URL of the form <em>&lt;transport&gt;::&lt;address&gt;</em> explicitly instructs git to
 invoke <em>git remote-&lt;transport&gt;</em> with <em>&lt;address&gt;</em> as the second
 argument. If such a URL is encountered directly on the command line,
 the first argument is <em>&lt;address&gt;</em>, and if it is encountered in a
 configured remote, the first argument is the name of that remote.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Additionally, when a configured remote has <em>remote.&lt;name&gt;.vcs</em> set to
 <em>&lt;transport&gt;</em>, git explicitly invokes <em>git remote-&lt;transport&gt;</em> with
 <em>&lt;name&gt;</em> as the first argument. If set, the second argument is
 <em>remote.&lt;name&gt;.url</em>; otherwise, the second argument is omitted.</p></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_commands">COMMANDS</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="para"><p>Commands are given by the caller on the helper's standard input, one per line.</p></div>
 <div class="vlist"><dl>
 <dt>
 <em>capabilities</em>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Lists the capabilities of the helper, one per line, ending
  with a blank line. Each capability may be preceded with <em>*</em>,
  which marks them mandatory for git version using the remote
  helper to understand (unknown mandatory capability is fatal
  error).
 </p>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>list</em>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Lists the refs, one per line, in the format "&lt;value&gt; &lt;name&gt;
  [&lt;attr&gt; &#8230;]". The value may be a hex sha1 hash, "@&lt;dest&gt;" for
  a symref, or "?" to indicate that the helper could not get the
  value of the ref. A space-separated list of attributes follows
  the name; unrecognized attributes are ignored. The list ends
  with a blank line.
 </p>
 <div class="para"><p>If <em>push</em> is supported this may be called as <em>list for-push</em>
 to obtain the current refs prior to sending one or more <em>push</em>
 commands to the helper.</p></div>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>option</em> &lt;name&gt; &lt;value&gt;
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Sets the transport helper option &lt;name&gt; to &lt;value&gt;. Outputs a
  single line containing one of <em>ok</em> (option successfully set),
  <em>unsupported</em> (option not recognized) or <em>error &lt;msg&gt;</em>
  (option &lt;name&gt; is supported but &lt;value&gt; is not valid
  for it). Options should be set before other commands,
  and may influence the behavior of those commands.
 </p>
 <div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "option" capability.</p></div>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>fetch</em> &lt;sha1&gt; &lt;name&gt;
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects
  to the database. Fetch commands are sent in a batch, one
  per line, terminated with a blank line.
  Outputs a single blank line when all fetch commands in the
  same batch are complete. Only objects which were reported
  in the ref list with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
 </p>
 <div class="para"><p>Optionally may output a <em>lock &lt;file&gt;</em> line indicating a file under
 GIT_DIR/objects/pack which is keeping a pack until refs can be
 suitably updated.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.</p></div>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>push</em> +&lt;src&gt;:&lt;dst&gt;
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Pushes the given local &lt;src&gt; commit or branch to the
  remote branch described by &lt;dst&gt;. A batch sequence of
  one or more push commands is terminated with a blank line.
 </p>
 <div class="para"><p>Zero or more protocol options may be entered after the last <em>push</em>
 command, before the batch's terminating blank line.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>When the push is complete, outputs one or more <em>ok &lt;dst&gt;</em> or
 <em>error &lt;dst&gt; &lt;why&gt;?</em> lines to indicate success or failure of
 each pushed ref. The status report output is terminated by
 a blank line. The option field &lt;why&gt; may be quoted in a C
 style string if it contains an LF.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "push" capability.</p></div>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>import</em> &lt;name&gt;
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Produces a fast-import stream which imports the current value
  of the named ref. It may additionally import other refs as
  needed to construct the history efficiently. The script writes
  to a helper-specific private namespace. The value of the named
  ref should be written to a location in this namespace derived
  by applying the refspecs from the "refspec" capability to the
  name of the ref.
 </p>
 <div class="para"><p>Especially useful for interoperability with a foreign versioning
 system.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "import" capability.</p></div>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>connect</em> &lt;service&gt;
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Connects to given service. Standard input and standard output
  of helper are connected to specified service (git prefix is
  included in service name so e.g. fetching uses <em>git-upload-pack</em>
  as service) on remote side. Valid replies to this command are
  empty line (connection established), <em>fallback</em> (no smart
  transport support, fall back to dumb transports) and just
  exiting with error message printed (can't connect, don't
  bother trying to fall back). After line feed terminating the
  positive (empty) response, the output of service starts. After
  the connection ends, the remote helper exits.
 </p>
 <div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "connect" capability.</p></div>
 </dd>
 </dl></div>
 <div class="para"><p>If a fatal error occurs, the program writes the error message to
 stderr and exits. The caller should expect that a suitable error
 message has been printed if the child closes the connection without
 completing a valid response for the current command.</p></div>
 <div class="para"><p>Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
 capabilities reported by the helper.</p></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_capabilities">CAPABILITIES</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="vlist"><dl>
 <dt>
 <em>fetch</em>
 </dt>
 <dt>
 <em>option</em>
 </dt>
 <dt>
 <em>push</em>
 </dt>
 <dt>
 <em>import</em>
 </dt>
 <dt>
 <em>connect</em>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  This helper supports the corresponding command with the same name.
 </p>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>refspec</em> <em>spec</em>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  When using the import command, expect the source ref to have
  been written to the destination ref. The earliest applicable
  refspec takes precedence. For example
  "refs/heads/<strong>:refs/svn/origin/branches/</strong>" means that, after an
  "import refs/heads/name", the script has written to
  refs/svn/origin/branches/name. If this capability is used at
  all, it must cover all refs reported by the list command; if
  it is not used, it is effectively "<strong>:</strong>"
 </p>
 </dd>
 </dl></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_ref_list_attributes">REF LIST ATTRIBUTES</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="vlist"><dl>
 <dt>
 <em>for-push</em>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  The caller wants to use the ref list to prepare push
  commands. A helper might chose to acquire the ref list by
  opening a different type of connection to the destination.
 </p>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>unchanged</em>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  This ref is unchanged since the last import or fetch, although
  the helper cannot necessarily determine what value that produced.
 </p>
 </dd>
 </dl></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="vlist"><dl>
 <dt>
 <em>option verbosity</em> &lt;N&gt;
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Changes the verbosity of messages displayed by the helper.
  A value of 0 for N means that processes operate
  quietly, and the helper produces only error output.
  1 is the default level of verbosity, and higher values
  of N correspond to the number of -v flags passed on the
  command line.
 </p>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>option progress</em> {<em>true</em>|<em>false</em>}
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Enables (or disables) progress messages displayed by the
  transport helper during a command.
 </p>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>option depth</em> &lt;depth&gt;
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Deepens the history of a shallow repository.
 </p>
 </dd>
 <dt>
 <em>option followtags</em> {<em>true</em>|<em>false</em>}
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  If enabled the helper should automatically fetch annotated
  tag objects if the object the tag points at was transferred
  during the fetch command. If the tag is not fetched by
  the helper a second fetch command will usually be sent to
  ask for the tag specifically. Some helpers may be able to
  use this option to avoid a second network connection.
 </p>
 </dd>
 </dl></div>
 <div class="para"><p><em>option dry-run</em> {<em>true</em>|<em>false</em>}:
  If true, pretend the operation completed successfully,
  but don't actually change any repository data. For most
  helpers this only applies to the <em>push</em>, if supported.</p></div>
 <div class="vlist"><dl>
 <dt>
 <em>option servpath &lt;c-style-quoted-path&gt;</em>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
  Sets service path (--upload-pack, --receive-pack etc.) for
  next connect. Remote helper may support this option, but
  must not rely on this option being set before
  connect request occurs.
 </p>
 </dd>
 </dl></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_see_also">SEE ALSO</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="para"><p><a href="git-remote.html">git-remote(1)</a></p></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_documentation">Documentation</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="para"><p>Documentation by Daniel Barkalow and Ilari Liusvaara</p></div>
 </div>
 <h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
 <div class="sectionbody">
 <div class="para"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
 </div>
 <div id="footer">
 <div id="footer-text">
 Last updated 2010-09-18 23:56:54 UTC
 </div>
 </div>
 </body>
 </html>
	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
	"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
	<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
	<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
	<meta name="generator" content="AsciiDoc 8.2.5" />
	<style type="text/css">
	/* Debug borders */
	p, li, dt, dd, div, pre, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
	/*
	border: 1px solid red;
	*/
	}

	body {
	margin: 1em 5% 1em 5%;
	}

	a {
	color: blue;
	text-decoration: underline;
	}
	a:visited {
	color: fuchsia;
	}

	em {
	font-style: italic;
	}

	strong {
	font-weight: bold;
	}

	tt {
	color: navy;
	}

	h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
	color: #527bbd;
	font-family: sans-serif;
	margin-top: 1.2em;
	margin-bottom: 0.5em;
	line-height: 1.3;
	}

	h1, h2, h3 {
	border-bottom: 2px solid silver;
	}
	h2 {
	padding-top: 0.5em;
	}
	h3 {
	float: left;
	}
	h3 + * {
	clear: left;
	}

	div.sectionbody {
	font-family: serif;
	margin-left: 0;
	}

	hr {
	border: 1px solid silver;
	}

	p {
	margin-top: 0.5em;
	margin-bottom: 0.5em;
	}

	pre {
	padding: 0;
	margin: 0;
	}

	span#author {
	color: #527bbd;
	font-family: sans-serif;
	font-weight: bold;
	font-size: 1.1em;
	}
	span#email {
	}
	span#revision {
	font-family: sans-serif;
	}

	div#footer {
	font-family: sans-serif;
	font-size: small;
	border-top: 2px solid silver;
	padding-top: 0.5em;
	margin-top: 4.0em;
	}
	div#footer-text {
	float: left;
	padding-bottom: 0.5em;
	}
	div#footer-badges {
	float: right;
	padding-bottom: 0.5em;
	}

	div#preamble,
	div.tableblock, div.imageblock, div.exampleblock, div.verseblock,
	div.quoteblock, div.literalblock, div.listingblock, div.sidebarblock,
	div.admonitionblock {
	margin-right: 10%;
	margin-top: 1.5em;
	margin-bottom: 1.5em;
	}
	div.admonitionblock {
	margin-top: 2.5em;
	margin-bottom: 2.5em;
	}

	div.content { /* Block element content. */
	padding: 0;
	}

	/* Block element titles. */
	div.title, caption.title {
	font-family: sans-serif;
	font-weight: bold;
	text-align: left;
	margin-top: 1.0em;
	margin-bottom: 0.5em;
	}
	div.title + * {
	margin-top: 0;
	}

	td div.title:first-child {
	margin-top: 0.0em;
	}
	div.content div.title:first-child {
	margin-top: 0.0em;
	}
	div.content + div.title {
	margin-top: 0.0em;
	}

	div.sidebarblock > div.content {
	background: #ffffee;
	border: 1px solid silver;
	padding: 0.5em;
	}

	div.listingblock {
	margin-right: 0%;
	}
	div.listingblock > div.content {
	border: 1px solid silver;
	background: #f4f4f4;
	padding: 0.5em;
	}

	div.quoteblock > div.content {
	padding-left: 2.0em;
	}

	div.attribution {
	text-align: right;
	}
	div.verseblock + div.attribution {
	text-align: left;
	}

	div.admonitionblock .icon {
	vertical-align: top;
	font-size: 1.1em;
	font-weight: bold;
	text-decoration: underline;
	color: #527bbd;
	padding-right: 0.5em;
	}
	div.admonitionblock td.content {
	padding-left: 0.5em;
	border-left: 2px solid silver;
	}

	div.exampleblock > div.content {
	border-left: 2px solid silver;
	padding: 0.5em;
	}

	div.verseblock div.content {
	white-space: pre;
	}

	div.imageblock div.content { padding-left: 0; }
	div.imageblock img { border: 1px solid silver; }
	span.image img { border-style: none; }

	dl {
	margin-top: 0.8em;
	margin-bottom: 0.8em;
	}
	dt {
	margin-top: 0.5em;
	margin-bottom: 0;
	font-style: italic;
	}
	dd > *:first-child {
	margin-top: 0;
	}

	ul, ol {
	list-style-position: outside;
	}
	div.olist2 ol {
	list-style-type: lower-alpha;
	}

	div.tableblock > table {
	border: 3px solid #527bbd;
	}
	thead {
	font-family: sans-serif;
	font-weight: bold;
	}
	tfoot {
	font-weight: bold;
	}

	div.hlist {
	margin-top: 0.8em;
	margin-bottom: 0.8em;
	}
	div.hlist td {
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	}
	td.hlist1 {
	vertical-align: top;
	font-style: italic;
	padding-right: 0.8em;
	}
	td.hlist2 {
	vertical-align: top;
	}

	@media print {
	div#footer-badges { display: none; }
	}

	div#toctitle {
	color: #527bbd;
	font-family: sans-serif;
	font-size: 1.1em;
	font-weight: bold;
	margin-top: 1.0em;
	margin-bottom: 0.1em;
	}

	div.toclevel1, div.toclevel2, div.toclevel3, div.toclevel4 {
	margin-top: 0;
	margin-bottom: 0;
	}
	div.toclevel2 {
	margin-left: 2em;
	font-size: 0.9em;
	}
	div.toclevel3 {
	margin-left: 4em;
	font-size: 0.9em;
	}
	div.toclevel4 {
	margin-left: 6em;
	font-size: 0.9em;
	}
	include1::./stylesheets/xhtml11-manpage.css[]
	/* Workarounds for IE6's broken and incomplete CSS2. */

	div.sidebar-content {
	background: #ffffee;
	border: 1px solid silver;
	padding: 0.5em;
	}
	div.sidebar-title, div.image-title {
	font-family: sans-serif;
	font-weight: bold;
	margin-top: 0.0em;
	margin-bottom: 0.5em;
	}

	div.listingblock div.content {
	border: 1px solid silver;
	background: #f4f4f4;
	padding: 0.5em;
	}

	div.quoteblock-content {
	padding-left: 2.0em;
	}

	div.exampleblock-content {
	border-left: 2px solid silver;
	padding-left: 0.5em;
	}

	/* IE6 sets dynamically generated links as visited. */
	div#toc a:visited { color: blue; }
	</style>
	<title>git-remote-helpers(1)</title>
	</head>
	<body>
	<div id="header">
	<h1>
	git-remote-helpers(1) Manual Page
	</h1>
	<h2>NAME</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<p>git-remote-helpers -
	Helper programs to interact with remote repositories
	</p>
	</div>
	</div>
	<h2>SYNOPSIS</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="para"><p><em>git remote-<transport></em> <repository> [<URL>]</p></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="para"><p>Remote helper programs are normally not used directly by end users,
	but they are invoked by git when it needs to interact with remote
	repositories git does not support natively. A given helper will
	implement a subset of the capabilities documented here. When git
	needs to interact with a repository using a remote helper, it spawns
	the helper as an independent process, sends commands to the helper's
	standard input, and expects results from the helper's standard
	output. Because a remote helper runs as an independent process from
	git, there is no need to re-link git to add a new helper, nor any
	need to link the helper with the implementation of git.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Every helper must support the "capabilities" command, which git will
	use to determine what other commands the helper will accept. Other
	commands generally concern facilities like discovering and updating
	remote refs, transporting objects between the object database and
	the remote repository, and updating the local object store.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Helpers supporting the <em>fetch</em> capability can discover refs from the
	remote repository and transfer objects reachable from those refs to
	the local object store. Helpers supporting the <em>push</em> capability can
	transfer local objects to the remote repository and update remote refs.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Git comes with a "curl" family of remote helpers, that handle various
	transport protocols, such as <em>git-remote-http</em>, <em>git-remote-https</em>,
	<em>git-remote-ftp</em> and <em>git-remote-ftps</em>. They implement the capabilities
	<em>fetch</em>, <em>option</em>, and <em>push</em>.</p></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_invocation">INVOCATION</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="para"><p>Remote helper programs are invoked with one or (optionally) two
	arguments. The first argument specifies a remote repository as in git;
	it is either the name of a configured remote or a URL. The second
	argument specifies a URL; it is usually of the form
	<em><transport>://<address></em>, but any arbitrary string is possible.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>When git encounters a URL of the form <em><transport>://<address></em>, where
	<em><transport></em> is a protocol that it cannot handle natively, it
	automatically invokes <em>git remote-<transport></em> with the full URL as
	the second argument. If such a URL is encountered directly on the
	command line, the first argument is the same as the second, and if it
	is encountered in a configured remote, the first argument is the name
	of that remote.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>A URL of the form <em><transport>::<address></em> explicitly instructs git to
	invoke <em>git remote-<transport></em> with <em><address></em> as the second
	argument. If such a URL is encountered directly on the command line,
	the first argument is <em><address></em>, and if it is encountered in a
	configured remote, the first argument is the name of that remote.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Additionally, when a configured remote has <em>remote.<name>.vcs</em> set to
	<em><transport></em>, git explicitly invokes <em>git remote-<transport></em> with
	<em><name></em> as the first argument. If set, the second argument is
	<em>remote.<name>.url</em>; otherwise, the second argument is omitted.</p></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_commands">COMMANDS</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="para"><p>Commands are given by the caller on the helper's standard input, one per line.</p></div>
	<div class="vlist"><dl>
	<dt>
	<em>capabilities</em>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Lists the capabilities of the helper, one per line, ending
	with a blank line. Each capability may be preceded with <em>*</em>,
	which marks them mandatory for git version using the remote
	helper to understand (unknown mandatory capability is fatal
	error).
	</p>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>list</em>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Lists the refs, one per line, in the format "<value> <name>
	[<attr> …]". The value may be a hex sha1 hash, "@<dest>" for
	a symref, or "?" to indicate that the helper could not get the
	value of the ref. A space-separated list of attributes follows
	the name; unrecognized attributes are ignored. The list ends
	with a blank line.
	</p>
	<div class="para"><p>If <em>push</em> is supported this may be called as <em>list for-push</em>
	to obtain the current refs prior to sending one or more <em>push</em>
	commands to the helper.</p></div>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>option</em> <name> <value>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Sets the transport helper option <name> to <value>. Outputs a
	single line containing one of <em>ok</em> (option successfully set),
	<em>unsupported</em> (option not recognized) or <em>error <msg></em>
	(option <name> is supported but <value> is not valid
	for it). Options should be set before other commands,
	and may influence the behavior of those commands.
	</p>
	<div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "option" capability.</p></div>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>fetch</em> <sha1> <name>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects
	to the database. Fetch commands are sent in a batch, one
	per line, terminated with a blank line.
	Outputs a single blank line when all fetch commands in the
	same batch are complete. Only objects which were reported
	in the ref list with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
	</p>
	<div class="para"><p>Optionally may output a <em>lock <file></em> line indicating a file under
	GIT_DIR/objects/pack which is keeping a pack until refs can be
	suitably updated.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.</p></div>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>push</em> +<src>:<dst>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Pushes the given local <src> commit or branch to the
	remote branch described by <dst>. A batch sequence of
	one or more push commands is terminated with a blank line.
	</p>
	<div class="para"><p>Zero or more protocol options may be entered after the last <em>push</em>
	command, before the batch's terminating blank line.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>When the push is complete, outputs one or more <em>ok <dst></em> or
	<em>error <dst> <why>?</em> lines to indicate success or failure of
	each pushed ref. The status report output is terminated by
	a blank line. The option field <why> may be quoted in a C
	style string if it contains an LF.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "push" capability.</p></div>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>import</em> <name>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Produces a fast-import stream which imports the current value
	of the named ref. It may additionally import other refs as
	needed to construct the history efficiently. The script writes
	to a helper-specific private namespace. The value of the named
	ref should be written to a location in this namespace derived
	by applying the refspecs from the "refspec" capability to the
	name of the ref.
	</p>
	<div class="para"><p>Especially useful for interoperability with a foreign versioning
	system.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "import" capability.</p></div>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>connect</em> <service>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Connects to given service. Standard input and standard output
	of helper are connected to specified service (git prefix is
	included in service name so e.g. fetching uses <em>git-upload-pack</em>
	as service) on remote side. Valid replies to this command are
	empty line (connection established), <em>fallback</em> (no smart
	transport support, fall back to dumb transports) and just
	exiting with error message printed (can't connect, don't
	bother trying to fall back). After line feed terminating the
	positive (empty) response, the output of service starts. After
	the connection ends, the remote helper exits.
	</p>
	<div class="para"><p>Supported if the helper has the "connect" capability.</p></div>
	</dd>
	</dl></div>
	<div class="para"><p>If a fatal error occurs, the program writes the error message to
	stderr and exits. The caller should expect that a suitable error
	message has been printed if the child closes the connection without
	completing a valid response for the current command.</p></div>
	<div class="para"><p>Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
	capabilities reported by the helper.</p></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_capabilities">CAPABILITIES</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="vlist"><dl>
	<dt>
	<em>fetch</em>
	</dt>
	<dt>
	<em>option</em>
	</dt>
	<dt>
	<em>push</em>
	</dt>
	<dt>
	<em>import</em>
	</dt>
	<dt>
	<em>connect</em>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	This helper supports the corresponding command with the same name.
	</p>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>refspec</em> <em>spec</em>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	When using the import command, expect the source ref to have
	been written to the destination ref. The earliest applicable
	refspec takes precedence. For example
	"refs/heads/<strong>:refs/svn/origin/branches/</strong>" means that, after an
	"import refs/heads/name", the script has written to
	refs/svn/origin/branches/name. If this capability is used at
	all, it must cover all refs reported by the list command; if
	it is not used, it is effectively "<strong>:</strong>"
	</p>
	</dd>
	</dl></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_ref_list_attributes">REF LIST ATTRIBUTES</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="vlist"><dl>
	<dt>
	<em>for-push</em>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	The caller wants to use the ref list to prepare push
	commands. A helper might chose to acquire the ref list by
	opening a different type of connection to the destination.
	</p>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>unchanged</em>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	This ref is unchanged since the last import or fetch, although
	the helper cannot necessarily determine what value that produced.
	</p>
	</dd>
	</dl></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="vlist"><dl>
	<dt>
	<em>option verbosity</em> <N>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Changes the verbosity of messages displayed by the helper.
	A value of 0 for N means that processes operate
	quietly, and the helper produces only error output.
	1 is the default level of verbosity, and higher values
	of N correspond to the number of -v flags passed on the
	command line.
	</p>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>option progress</em> {<em>true</em>\|<em>false</em>}
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Enables (or disables) progress messages displayed by the
	transport helper during a command.
	</p>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>option depth</em> <depth>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Deepens the history of a shallow repository.
	</p>
	</dd>
	<dt>
	<em>option followtags</em> {<em>true</em>\|<em>false</em>}
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	If enabled the helper should automatically fetch annotated
	tag objects if the object the tag points at was transferred
	during the fetch command. If the tag is not fetched by
	the helper a second fetch command will usually be sent to
	ask for the tag specifically. Some helpers may be able to
	use this option to avoid a second network connection.
	</p>
	</dd>
	</dl></div>
	<div class="para"><p><em>option dry-run</em> {<em>true</em>\|<em>false</em>}:
	If true, pretend the operation completed successfully,
	but don't actually change any repository data. For most
	helpers this only applies to the <em>push</em>, if supported.</p></div>
	<div class="vlist"><dl>
	<dt>
	<em>option servpath <c-style-quoted-path></em>
	</dt>
	<dd>
	<p>
	Sets service path (--upload-pack, --receive-pack etc.) for
	next connect. Remote helper may support this option, but
	must not rely on this option being set before
	connect request occurs.
	</p>
	</dd>
	</dl></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_see_also">SEE ALSO</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="para"><p><a href="git-remote.html">git-remote(1)</a></p></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_documentation">Documentation</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="para"><p>Documentation by Daniel Barkalow and Ilari Liusvaara</p></div>
	</div>
	<h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
	<div class="sectionbody">
	<div class="para"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
	</div>
	<div id="footer">
	<div id="footer-text">
	Last updated 2010-09-18 23:56:54 UTC
	</div>
	</div>
	</body>
	</html>