git/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt
Daniel Barkalow 6eb996b570 Add support for external programs for handling native fetches
transport_get() can call transport_native_helper_init() to have list and
fetch-ref operations handled by running a separate program as:

 git remote-<something> <remote> [<url>]

This program then accepts, on its stdin, "list" and "fetch <hex>
<name>" commands; the former prints out a list of available refs and
either their hashes or what they are symrefs to, while the latter
fetches them into the local object database and prints a newline when done.

Signed-off-by: Daniel Barkalow <barkalow@iabervon.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-08-05 10:34:01 -07:00

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git-remote-helpers(1)
=====================
NAME
----
git-remote-helpers - Helper programs for interoperation with remote git
SYNOPSIS
--------
'git remote-<transport>' <remote>
DESCRIPTION
-----------
These programs are normally not used directly by end users, but are
invoked by various git programs that interact with remote repositories
when the repository they would operate on will be accessed using
transport code not linked into the main git binary. Various particular
helper programs will behave as documented here.
COMMANDS
--------
Commands are given by the caller on the helper's standard input, one per line.
'capabilities'::
Lists the capabilities of the helper, one per line, ending
with a blank line.
'list'::
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. After the
complete list, outputs a blank line.
'fetch' <sha1> <name>::
Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects to the
database. Outputs a blank line when the fetch is
complete. Only objects which were reported in the ref list
with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
+
Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.
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.
Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
capabilities reported by the helper.
CAPABILITIES
------------
'fetch'::
This helper supports the 'fetch' command.
REF LIST ATTRIBUTES
-------------------
None are defined yet, but the caller must accept any which are supplied.
Documentation
-------------
Documentation by Daniel Barkalow.
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite