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Some links were broken in the recent move of various technical docs
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(Merge branch 'ab/tech-docs-to-help', 2022-08-14).
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Signed-off-by: Todd Zullinger <tmz@pobox.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
584 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
584 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
gitprotocol-v2(5)
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=================
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NAME
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----
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gitprotocol-v2 - Git Wire Protocol, Version 2
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SYNOPSIS
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--------
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[verse]
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<over-the-wire-protocol>
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DESCRIPTION
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-----------
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This document presents a specification for a version 2 of Git's wire
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protocol. Protocol v2 will improve upon v1 in the following ways:
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* Instead of multiple service names, multiple commands will be
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supported by a single service
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* Easily extendable as capabilities are moved into their own section
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of the protocol, no longer being hidden behind a NUL byte and
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limited by the size of a pkt-line
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* Separate out other information hidden behind NUL bytes (e.g. agent
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string as a capability and symrefs can be requested using 'ls-refs')
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* Reference advertisement will be omitted unless explicitly requested
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* ls-refs command to explicitly request some refs
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* Designed with http and stateless-rpc in mind. With clear flush
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semantics the http remote helper can simply act as a proxy
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In protocol v2 communication is command oriented. When first contacting a
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server a list of capabilities will advertised. Some of these capabilities
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will be commands which a client can request be executed. Once a command
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has completed, a client can reuse the connection and request that other
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commands be executed.
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Packet-Line Framing
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-------------------
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All communication is done using packet-line framing, just as in v1. See
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linkgit:gitprotocol-pack[5] and linkgit:gitprotocol-common[5] for more information.
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In protocol v2 these special packets will have the following semantics:
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* '0000' Flush Packet (flush-pkt) - indicates the end of a message
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* '0001' Delimiter Packet (delim-pkt) - separates sections of a message
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* '0002' Response End Packet (response-end-pkt) - indicates the end of a
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response for stateless connections
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Initial Client Request
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----------------------
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In general a client can request to speak protocol v2 by sending
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`version=2` through the respective side-channel for the transport being
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used which inevitably sets `GIT_PROTOCOL`. More information can be
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found in linkgit:gitprotocol-pack[5] and linkgit:gitprotocol-http[5], as well as the
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`GIT_PROTOCOL` definition in `git.txt`. In all cases the
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response from the server is the capability advertisement.
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Git Transport
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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When using the git:// transport, you can request to use protocol v2 by
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sending "version=2" as an extra parameter:
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003egit-upload-pack /project.git\0host=myserver.com\0\0version=2\0
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SSH and File Transport
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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When using either the ssh:// or file:// transport, the GIT_PROTOCOL
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environment variable must be set explicitly to include "version=2".
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The server may need to be configured to allow this environment variable
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to pass.
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HTTP Transport
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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When using the http:// or https:// transport a client makes a "smart"
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info/refs request as described in linkgit:gitprotocol-http[5] and requests that
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v2 be used by supplying "version=2" in the `Git-Protocol` header.
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C: GET $GIT_URL/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.0
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C: Git-Protocol: version=2
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A v2 server would reply:
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S: 200 OK
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S: <Some headers>
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S: ...
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S:
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S: 000eversion 2\n
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S: <capability-advertisement>
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Subsequent requests are then made directly to the service
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`$GIT_URL/git-upload-pack`. (This works the same for git-receive-pack).
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Uses the `--http-backend-info-refs` option to
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linkgit:git-upload-pack[1].
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The server may need to be configured to pass this header's contents via
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the `GIT_PROTOCOL` variable. See the discussion in `git-http-backend.txt`.
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Capability Advertisement
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------------------------
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A server which decides to communicate (based on a request from a client)
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using protocol version 2, notifies the client by sending a version string
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in its initial response followed by an advertisement of its capabilities.
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Each capability is a key with an optional value. Clients must ignore all
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unknown keys. Semantics of unknown values are left to the definition of
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each key. Some capabilities will describe commands which can be requested
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to be executed by the client.
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capability-advertisement = protocol-version
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capability-list
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flush-pkt
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protocol-version = PKT-LINE("version 2" LF)
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capability-list = *capability
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capability = PKT-LINE(key[=value] LF)
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key = 1*(ALPHA | DIGIT | "-_")
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value = 1*(ALPHA | DIGIT | " -_.,?\/{}[]()<>!@#$%^&*+=:;")
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Command Request
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---------------
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After receiving the capability advertisement, a client can then issue a
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request to select the command it wants with any particular capabilities
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or arguments. There is then an optional section where the client can
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provide any command specific parameters or queries. Only a single
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command can be requested at a time.
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request = empty-request | command-request
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empty-request = flush-pkt
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command-request = command
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capability-list
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delim-pkt
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command-args
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flush-pkt
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command = PKT-LINE("command=" key LF)
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command-args = *command-specific-arg
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command-specific-args are packet line framed arguments defined by
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each individual command.
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The server will then check to ensure that the client's request is
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comprised of a valid command as well as valid capabilities which were
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advertised. If the request is valid the server will then execute the
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command. A server MUST wait till it has received the client's entire
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request before issuing a response. The format of the response is
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determined by the command being executed, but in all cases a flush-pkt
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indicates the end of the response.
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When a command has finished, and the client has received the entire
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response from the server, a client can either request that another
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command be executed or can terminate the connection. A client may
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optionally send an empty request consisting of just a flush-pkt to
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indicate that no more requests will be made.
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Capabilities
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------------
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There are two different types of capabilities: normal capabilities,
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which can be used to convey information or alter the behavior of a
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request, and commands, which are the core actions that a client wants to
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perform (fetch, push, etc).
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Protocol version 2 is stateless by default. This means that all commands
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must only last a single round and be stateless from the perspective of the
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server side, unless the client has requested a capability indicating that
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state should be maintained by the server. Clients MUST NOT require state
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management on the server side in order to function correctly. This
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permits simple round-robin load-balancing on the server side, without
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needing to worry about state management.
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agent
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~~~~~
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The server can advertise the `agent` capability with a value `X` (in the
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form `agent=X`) to notify the client that the server is running version
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`X`. The client may optionally send its own agent string by including
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the `agent` capability with a value `Y` (in the form `agent=Y`) in its
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request to the server (but it MUST NOT do so if the server did not
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advertise the agent capability). The `X` and `Y` strings may contain any
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printable ASCII characters except space (i.e., the byte range 32 < x <
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127), and are typically of the form "package/version" (e.g.,
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"git/1.8.3.1"). The agent strings are purely informative for statistics
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and debugging purposes, and MUST NOT be used to programmatically assume
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the presence or absence of particular features.
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ls-refs
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~~~~~~~
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`ls-refs` is the command used to request a reference advertisement in v2.
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Unlike the current reference advertisement, ls-refs takes in arguments
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which can be used to limit the refs sent from the server.
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Additional features not supported in the base command will be advertised
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as the value of the command in the capability advertisement in the form
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of a space separated list of features: "<command>=<feature 1> <feature 2>"
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ls-refs takes in the following arguments:
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symrefs
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In addition to the object pointed by it, show the underlying ref
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pointed by it when showing a symbolic ref.
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peel
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Show peeled tags.
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ref-prefix <prefix>
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When specified, only references having a prefix matching one of
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the provided prefixes are displayed. Multiple instances may be
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given, in which case references matching any prefix will be
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shown. Note that this is purely for optimization; a server MAY
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show refs not matching the prefix if it chooses, and clients
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should filter the result themselves.
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If the 'unborn' feature is advertised the following argument can be
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included in the client's request.
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unborn
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The server will send information about HEAD even if it is a symref
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pointing to an unborn branch in the form "unborn HEAD
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symref-target:<target>".
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The output of ls-refs is as follows:
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output = *ref
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flush-pkt
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obj-id-or-unborn = (obj-id | "unborn")
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ref = PKT-LINE(obj-id-or-unborn SP refname *(SP ref-attribute) LF)
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ref-attribute = (symref | peeled)
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symref = "symref-target:" symref-target
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peeled = "peeled:" obj-id
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fetch
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~~~~~
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`fetch` is the command used to fetch a packfile in v2. It can be looked
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at as a modified version of the v1 fetch where the ref-advertisement is
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stripped out (since the `ls-refs` command fills that role) and the
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message format is tweaked to eliminate redundancies and permit easy
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addition of future extensions.
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Additional features not supported in the base command will be advertised
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as the value of the command in the capability advertisement in the form
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of a space separated list of features: "<command>=<feature 1> <feature 2>"
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A `fetch` request can take the following arguments:
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want <oid>
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Indicates to the server an object which the client wants to
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retrieve. Wants can be anything and are not limited to
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advertised objects.
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have <oid>
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Indicates to the server an object which the client has locally.
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This allows the server to make a packfile which only contains
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the objects that the client needs. Multiple 'have' lines can be
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supplied.
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done
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Indicates to the server that negotiation should terminate (or
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not even begin if performing a clone) and that the server should
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use the information supplied in the request to construct the
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packfile.
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thin-pack
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Request that a thin pack be sent, which is a pack with deltas
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which reference base objects not contained within the pack (but
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are known to exist at the receiving end). This can reduce the
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network traffic significantly, but it requires the receiving end
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to know how to "thicken" these packs by adding the missing bases
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to the pack.
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no-progress
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Request that progress information that would normally be sent on
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side-band channel 2, during the packfile transfer, should not be
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sent. However, the side-band channel 3 is still used for error
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responses.
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include-tag
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Request that annotated tags should be sent if the objects they
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point to are being sent.
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ofs-delta
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Indicate that the client understands PACKv2 with delta referring
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to its base by position in pack rather than by an oid. That is,
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they can read OBJ_OFS_DELTA (aka type 6) in a packfile.
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If the 'shallow' feature is advertised the following arguments can be
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included in the clients request as well as the potential addition of the
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'shallow-info' section in the server's response as explained below.
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shallow <oid>
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A client must notify the server of all commits for which it only
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has shallow copies (meaning that it doesn't have the parents of
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a commit) by supplying a 'shallow <oid>' line for each such
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object so that the server is aware of the limitations of the
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client's history. This is so that the server is aware that the
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client may not have all objects reachable from such commits.
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deepen <depth>
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Requests that the fetch/clone should be shallow having a commit
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depth of <depth> relative to the remote side.
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deepen-relative
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Requests that the semantics of the "deepen" command be changed
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to indicate that the depth requested is relative to the client's
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current shallow boundary, instead of relative to the requested
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commits.
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deepen-since <timestamp>
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Requests that the shallow clone/fetch should be cut at a
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specific time, instead of depth. Internally it's equivalent to
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doing "git rev-list --max-age=<timestamp>". Cannot be used with
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"deepen".
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deepen-not <rev>
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Requests that the shallow clone/fetch should be cut at a
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specific revision specified by '<rev>', instead of a depth.
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Internally it's equivalent of doing "git rev-list --not <rev>".
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Cannot be used with "deepen", but can be used with
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"deepen-since".
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If the 'filter' feature is advertised, the following argument can be
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included in the client's request:
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filter <filter-spec>
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Request that various objects from the packfile be omitted
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using one of several filtering techniques. These are intended
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for use with partial clone and partial fetch operations. See
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`rev-list` for possible "filter-spec" values. When communicating
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with other processes, senders SHOULD translate scaled integers
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(e.g. "1k") into a fully-expanded form (e.g. "1024") to aid
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interoperability with older receivers that may not understand
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newly-invented scaling suffixes. However, receivers SHOULD
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accept the following suffixes: 'k', 'm', and 'g' for 1024,
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1048576, and 1073741824, respectively.
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If the 'ref-in-want' feature is advertised, the following argument can
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be included in the client's request as well as the potential addition of
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the 'wanted-refs' section in the server's response as explained below.
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want-ref <ref>
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Indicates to the server that the client wants to retrieve a
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particular ref, where <ref> is the full name of a ref on the
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server.
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If the 'sideband-all' feature is advertised, the following argument can be
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included in the client's request:
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sideband-all
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Instruct the server to send the whole response multiplexed, not just
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the packfile section. All non-flush and non-delim PKT-LINE in the
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response (not only in the packfile section) will then start with a byte
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indicating its sideband (1, 2, or 3), and the server may send "0005\2"
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(a PKT-LINE of sideband 2 with no payload) as a keepalive packet.
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If the 'packfile-uris' feature is advertised, the following argument
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can be included in the client's request as well as the potential
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addition of the 'packfile-uris' section in the server's response as
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explained below.
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packfile-uris <comma-separated list of protocols>
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Indicates to the server that the client is willing to receive
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URIs of any of the given protocols in place of objects in the
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sent packfile. Before performing the connectivity check, the
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client should download from all given URIs. Currently, the
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protocols supported are "http" and "https".
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If the 'wait-for-done' feature is advertised, the following argument
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can be included in the client's request.
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wait-for-done
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Indicates to the server that it should never send "ready", but
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should wait for the client to say "done" before sending the
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packfile.
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The response of `fetch` is broken into a number of sections separated by
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delimiter packets (0001), with each section beginning with its section
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header. Most sections are sent only when the packfile is sent.
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output = acknowledgements flush-pkt |
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[acknowledgments delim-pkt] [shallow-info delim-pkt]
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[wanted-refs delim-pkt] [packfile-uris delim-pkt]
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packfile flush-pkt
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acknowledgments = PKT-LINE("acknowledgments" LF)
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(nak | *ack)
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(ready)
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ready = PKT-LINE("ready" LF)
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nak = PKT-LINE("NAK" LF)
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ack = PKT-LINE("ACK" SP obj-id LF)
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shallow-info = PKT-LINE("shallow-info" LF)
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*PKT-LINE((shallow | unshallow) LF)
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shallow = "shallow" SP obj-id
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unshallow = "unshallow" SP obj-id
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wanted-refs = PKT-LINE("wanted-refs" LF)
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*PKT-LINE(wanted-ref LF)
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wanted-ref = obj-id SP refname
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packfile-uris = PKT-LINE("packfile-uris" LF) *packfile-uri
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packfile-uri = PKT-LINE(40*(HEXDIGIT) SP *%x20-ff LF)
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packfile = PKT-LINE("packfile" LF)
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*PKT-LINE(%x01-03 *%x00-ff)
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acknowledgments section
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* If the client determines that it is finished with negotiations by
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sending a "done" line (thus requiring the server to send a packfile),
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the acknowledgments sections MUST be omitted from the server's
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response.
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* Always begins with the section header "acknowledgments"
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* The server will respond with "NAK" if none of the object ids sent
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as have lines were common.
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* The server will respond with "ACK obj-id" for all of the
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object ids sent as have lines which are common.
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* A response cannot have both "ACK" lines as well as a "NAK"
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line.
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* The server will respond with a "ready" line indicating that
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the server has found an acceptable common base and is ready to
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make and send a packfile (which will be found in the packfile
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section of the same response)
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* If the server has found a suitable cut point and has decided
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to send a "ready" line, then the server can decide to (as an
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optimization) omit any "ACK" lines it would have sent during
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its response. This is because the server will have already
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determined the objects it plans to send to the client and no
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further negotiation is needed.
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shallow-info section
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* If the client has requested a shallow fetch/clone, a shallow
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client requests a fetch or the server is shallow then the
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server's response may include a shallow-info section. The
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shallow-info section will be included if (due to one of the
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above conditions) the server needs to inform the client of any
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shallow boundaries or adjustments to the clients already
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existing shallow boundaries.
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* Always begins with the section header "shallow-info"
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* If a positive depth is requested, the server will compute the
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set of commits which are no deeper than the desired depth.
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* The server sends a "shallow obj-id" line for each commit whose
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parents will not be sent in the following packfile.
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* The server sends an "unshallow obj-id" line for each commit
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which the client has indicated is shallow, but is no longer
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shallow as a result of the fetch (due to its parents being
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sent in the following packfile).
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* The server MUST NOT send any "unshallow" lines for anything
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which the client has not indicated was shallow as a part of
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its request.
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wanted-refs section
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* This section is only included if the client has requested a
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ref using a 'want-ref' line and if a packfile section is also
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included in the response.
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* Always begins with the section header "wanted-refs".
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* The server will send a ref listing ("<oid> <refname>") for
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each reference requested using 'want-ref' lines.
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* The server MUST NOT send any refs which were not requested
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using 'want-ref' lines.
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packfile-uris section
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* This section is only included if the client sent
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'packfile-uris' and the server has at least one such URI to
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send.
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* Always begins with the section header "packfile-uris".
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* For each URI the server sends, it sends a hash of the pack's
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contents (as output by git index-pack) followed by the URI.
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|
|
* The hashes are 40 hex characters long. When Git upgrades to a new
|
|
hash algorithm, this might need to be updated. (It should match
|
|
whatever index-pack outputs after "pack\t" or "keep\t".
|
|
|
|
packfile section
|
|
* This section is only included if the client has sent 'want'
|
|
lines in its request and either requested that no more
|
|
negotiation be done by sending 'done' or if the server has
|
|
decided it has found a sufficient cut point to produce a
|
|
packfile.
|
|
|
|
* Always begins with the section header "packfile"
|
|
|
|
* The transmission of the packfile begins immediately after the
|
|
section header
|
|
|
|
* The data transfer of the packfile is always multiplexed, using
|
|
the same semantics of the 'side-band-64k' capability from
|
|
protocol version 1. This means that each packet, during the
|
|
packfile data stream, is made up of a leading 4-byte pkt-line
|
|
length (typical of the pkt-line format), followed by a 1-byte
|
|
stream code, followed by the actual data.
|
|
|
|
The stream code can be one of:
|
|
1 - pack data
|
|
2 - progress messages
|
|
3 - fatal error message just before stream aborts
|
|
|
|
server-option
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
If advertised, indicates that any number of server specific options can be
|
|
included in a request. This is done by sending each option as a
|
|
"server-option=<option>" capability line in the capability-list section of
|
|
a request.
|
|
|
|
The provided options must not contain a NUL or LF character.
|
|
|
|
object-format
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
The server can advertise the `object-format` capability with a value `X` (in the
|
|
form `object-format=X`) to notify the client that the server is able to deal
|
|
with objects using hash algorithm X. If not specified, the server is assumed to
|
|
only handle SHA-1. If the client would like to use a hash algorithm other than
|
|
SHA-1, it should specify its object-format string.
|
|
|
|
session-id=<session id>
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
The server may advertise a session ID that can be used to identify this process
|
|
across multiple requests. The client may advertise its own session ID back to
|
|
the server as well.
|
|
|
|
Session IDs should be unique to a given process. They must fit within a
|
|
packet-line, and must not contain non-printable or whitespace characters. The
|
|
current implementation uses trace2 session IDs (see
|
|
link:technical/api-trace2.html[api-trace2] for details), but this may change
|
|
and users of the session ID should not rely on this fact.
|
|
|
|
object-info
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
`object-info` is the command to retrieve information about one or more objects.
|
|
Its main purpose is to allow a client to make decisions based on this
|
|
information without having to fully fetch objects. Object size is the only
|
|
information that is currently supported.
|
|
|
|
An `object-info` request takes the following arguments:
|
|
|
|
size
|
|
Requests size information to be returned for each listed object id.
|
|
|
|
oid <oid>
|
|
Indicates to the server an object which the client wants to obtain
|
|
information for.
|
|
|
|
The response of `object-info` is a list of the requested object ids
|
|
and associated requested information, each separated by a single space.
|
|
|
|
output = info flush-pkt
|
|
|
|
info = PKT-LINE(attrs) LF)
|
|
*PKT-LINE(obj-info LF)
|
|
|
|
attrs = attr | attrs SP attrs
|
|
|
|
attr = "size"
|
|
|
|
obj-info = obj-id SP obj-size
|
|
|
|
GIT
|
|
---
|
|
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
|