Documentation / git-remote-helpers.txton commit Allow helper to map private ref names into normal names (72ff894)
   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
  38'fetch' <sha1> <name>::
  39        Fetches the given object, writing the necessary objects to the
  40        database. Outputs a blank line when the fetch is
  41        complete. Only objects which were reported in the ref list
  42        with a sha1 may be fetched this way.
  43+
  44Supported if the helper has the "fetch" capability.
  45
  46'import' <name>::
  47        Produces a fast-import stream which imports the current value
  48        of the named ref. It may additionally import other refs as
  49        needed to construct the history efficiently. The script writes
  50        to a helper-specific private namespace. The value of the named
  51        ref should be written to a location in this namespace derived
  52        by applying the refspecs from the "refspec" capability to the
  53        name of the ref.
  54+
  55Supported if the helper has the "import" capability.
  56
  57If a fatal error occurs, the program writes the error message to
  58stderr and exits. The caller should expect that a suitable error
  59message has been printed if the child closes the connection without
  60completing a valid response for the current command.
  61
  62Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
  63capabilities reported by the helper.
  64
  65CAPABILITIES
  66------------
  67
  68'fetch'::
  69        This helper supports the 'fetch' command.
  70
  71'import'::
  72        This helper supports the 'import' command.
  73
  74'refspec' 'spec'::
  75        When using the import command, expect the source ref to have
  76        been written to the destination ref. The earliest applicable
  77        refspec takes precedence. For example
  78        "refs/heads/*:refs/svn/origin/branches/*" means that, after an
  79        "import refs/heads/name", the script has written to
  80        refs/svn/origin/branches/name. If this capability is used at
  81        all, it must cover all refs reported by the list command; if
  82        it is not used, it is effectively "*:*"
  83
  84REF LIST ATTRIBUTES
  85-------------------
  86
  87None are defined yet, but the caller must accept any which are supplied.
  88
  89Documentation
  90-------------
  91Documentation by Daniel Barkalow.
  92
  93GIT
  94---
  95Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite