Documentation / git-remote-helpers.txton commit Clarify and correct -z (64485b4)
   1git-remote-helpers(1)
   2=====================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-remote-helpers - Helper programs for interoperation with remote git
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10'git remote-<transport>' <remote>
  11
  12DESCRIPTION
  13-----------
  14
  15These programs are normally not used directly by end users, but are
  16invoked by various git programs that interact with remote repositories
  17when the repository they would operate on will be accessed using
  18transport code not linked into the main git binary. Various particular
  19helper programs will behave as documented here.
  20
  21COMMANDS
  22--------
  23
  24Commands are given by the caller on the helper's standard input, one per line.
  25
  26'capabilities'::
  27        Lists the capabilities of the helper, one per line, ending
  28        with a blank line.
  29
  30'list'::
  31        Lists the refs, one per line, in the format "<value> <name>
  32        [<attr> ...]". The value may be a hex sha1 hash, "@<dest>" for
  33        a symref, or "?" to indicate that the helper could not get the
  34        value of the ref. A space-separated list of attributes follows
  35        the name; unrecognized attributes are ignored. After the
  36        complete list, outputs a blank line.
  37+
  38If 'push' is supported this may be called as 'list for-push'
  39to obtain the current refs prior to sending one or more 'push'
  40commands to the helper.
  41
  42'option' <name> <value>::
  43        Set the transport helper option <name> to <value>.  Outputs a
  44        single line containing one of 'ok' (option successfully set),
  45        'unsupported' (option not recognized) or 'error <msg>'
  46        (option <name> is supported but <value> is not correct
  47        for it).  Options should be set before other commands,
  48        and may how those commands behave.
  49+
  50Supported if the helper has the "option" capability.
  51
  52'fetch' <sha1> <name>::
  53        Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects
  54        to the database.  Fetch commands are sent in a batch, one
  55        per line, and the batch is terminated with a blank line.
  56        Outputs a single blank line when all fetch commands in the
  57        same batch are complete. Only objects which were reported
  58        in the ref list with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
  59+
  60Optionally may output a 'lock <file>' line indicating a file under
  61GIT_DIR/objects/pack which is keeping a pack until refs can be
  62suitably updated.
  63+
  64Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.
  65
  66'push' +<src>:<dst>::
  67        Pushes the given <src> commit or branch locally to the
  68        remote branch described by <dst>.  A batch sequence of
  69        one or more push commands is terminated with a blank line.
  70+
  71Zero or more protocol options may be entered after the last 'push'
  72command, before the batch's terminating blank line.
  73+
  74When the push is complete, outputs one or more 'ok <dst>' or
  75'error <dst> <why>?' lines to indicate success or failure of
  76each pushed ref.  The status report output is terminated by
  77a blank line.  The option field <why> may be quoted in a C
  78style string if it contains an LF.
  79+
  80Supported if the helper has the "push" capability.
  81
  82If a fatal error occurs, the program writes the error message to
  83stderr and exits. The caller should expect that a suitable error
  84message has been printed if the child closes the connection without
  85completing a valid response for the current command.
  86
  87Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
  88capabilities reported by the helper.
  89
  90CAPABILITIES
  91------------
  92
  93'fetch'::
  94        This helper supports the 'fetch' command.
  95
  96'option'::
  97        This helper supports the option command.
  98
  99'push'::
 100        This helper supports the 'push' command.
 101
 102REF LIST ATTRIBUTES
 103-------------------
 104
 105'for-push'::
 106        The caller wants to use the ref list to prepare push
 107        commands.  A helper might chose to acquire the ref list by
 108        opening a different type of connection to the destination.
 109
 110OPTIONS
 111-------
 112'option verbosity' <N>::
 113        Change the level of messages displayed by the helper.
 114        When N is 0 the end-user has asked the process to be
 115        quiet, and the helper should produce only error output.
 116        N of 1 is the default level of verbosity, higher values
 117        of N correspond to the number of -v flags passed on the
 118        command line.
 119
 120'option progress' \{'true'|'false'\}::
 121        Enable (or disable) progress messages displayed by the
 122        transport helper during a command.
 123
 124'option depth' <depth>::
 125        Deepen the history of a shallow repository.
 126
 127'option followtags' \{'true'|'false'\}::
 128        If enabled the helper should automatically fetch annotated
 129        tag objects if the object the tag points at was transferred
 130        during the fetch command.  If the tag is not fetched by
 131        the helper a second fetch command will usually be sent to
 132        ask for the tag specifically.  Some helpers may be able to
 133        use this option to avoid a second network connection.
 134
 135'option dry-run' \{'true'|'false'\}:
 136        If true, pretend the operation completed successfully,
 137        but don't actually change any repository data.  For most
 138        helpers this only applies to the 'push', if supported.
 139
 140Documentation
 141-------------
 142Documentation by Daniel Barkalow.
 143
 144GIT
 145---
 146Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite