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authorLibravatar Jonathan Tan <jonathantanmy@google.com>2018-01-25 10:53:24 -0800
committerLibravatar Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>2018-01-25 11:24:32 -0800
commitaddad10594583092ad92a4b82c40040b913bb8ee (patch)
tree7751d1c911e4c213e29aab5d86855779ffa394bf /Documentation/technical
parentFirst batch after 2.16 (diff)
downloadtgif-addad10594583092ad92a4b82c40040b913bb8ee.tar.xz
Docs: split out long-running subprocess handshake
Separating out the implementation of the handshake when starting a long-running subprocess (for example, as is done for a clean/smudge filter) was done in commit fa64a2fdbeed ("sub-process: refactor handshake to common function", 2017-07-26), but its documentation still resides in gitattributes. Split out the documentation as well. Signed-off-by: Jonathan Tan <jonathantanmy@google.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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+Long-running process protocol
+=============================
+
+This protocol is used when Git needs to communicate with an external
+process throughout the entire life of a single Git command. All
+communication is in pkt-line format (see technical/protocol-common.txt)
+over standard input and standard output.
+
+Handshake
+---------
+
+Git starts by sending a welcome message (for example,
+"git-filter-client"), a list of supported protocol version numbers, and
+a flush packet. Git expects to read the welcome message with "server"
+instead of "client" (for example, "git-filter-server"), exactly one
+protocol version number from the previously sent list, and a flush
+packet. All further communication will be based on the selected version.
+The remaining protocol description below documents "version=2". Please
+note that "version=42" in the example below does not exist and is only
+there to illustrate how the protocol would look like with more than one
+version.
+
+After the version negotiation Git sends a list of all capabilities that
+it supports and a flush packet. Git expects to read a list of desired
+capabilities, which must be a subset of the supported capabilities list,
+and a flush packet as response:
+------------------------
+packet: git> git-filter-client
+packet: git> version=2
+packet: git> version=42
+packet: git> 0000
+packet: git< git-filter-server
+packet: git< version=2
+packet: git< 0000
+packet: git> capability=clean
+packet: git> capability=smudge
+packet: git> capability=not-yet-invented
+packet: git> 0000
+packet: git< capability=clean
+packet: git< capability=smudge
+packet: git< 0000
+------------------------
+
+Shutdown
+--------
+
+Git will close
+the command pipe on exit. The filter is expected to detect EOF
+and exit gracefully on its own. Git will wait until the filter
+process has stopped.