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diff --git a/Documentation/technical/api-credentials.txt b/Documentation/technical/api-credentials.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 75368f26ca..0000000000 --- a/Documentation/technical/api-credentials.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,271 +0,0 @@ -credentials API -=============== - -The credentials API provides an abstracted way of gathering username and -password credentials from the user (even though credentials in the wider -world can take many forms, in this document the word "credential" always -refers to a username and password pair). - -This document describes two interfaces: the C API that the credential -subsystem provides to the rest of Git, and the protocol that Git uses to -communicate with system-specific "credential helpers". If you are -writing Git code that wants to look up or prompt for credentials, see -the section "C API" below. If you want to write your own helper, see -the section on "Credential Helpers" below. - -Typical setup -------------- - ------------- -+-----------------------+ -| Git code (C) |--- to server requiring ---> -| | authentication -|.......................| -| C credential API |--- prompt ---> User -+-----------------------+ - ^ | - | pipe | - | v -+-----------------------+ -| Git credential helper | -+-----------------------+ ------------- - -The Git code (typically a remote-helper) will call the C API to obtain -credential data like a login/password pair (credential_fill). The -API will itself call a remote helper (e.g. "git credential-cache" or -"git credential-store") that may retrieve credential data from a -store. If the credential helper cannot find the information, the C API -will prompt the user. Then, the caller of the API takes care of -contacting the server, and does the actual authentication. - -C API ------ - -The credential C API is meant to be called by Git code which needs to -acquire or store a credential. It is centered around an object -representing a single credential and provides three basic operations: -fill (acquire credentials by calling helpers and/or prompting the user), -approve (mark a credential as successfully used so that it can be stored -for later use), and reject (mark a credential as unsuccessful so that it -can be erased from any persistent storage). - -Data Structures -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - -`struct credential`:: - - This struct represents a single username/password combination - along with any associated context. All string fields should be - heap-allocated (or NULL if they are not known or not applicable). - The meaning of the individual context fields is the same as - their counterparts in the helper protocol; see the section below - for a description of each field. -+ -The `helpers` member of the struct is a `string_list` of helpers. Each -string specifies an external helper which will be run, in order, to -either acquire or store credentials. See the section on credential -helpers below. This list is filled-in by the API functions -according to the corresponding configuration variables before -consulting helpers, so there usually is no need for a caller to -modify the helpers field at all. -+ -This struct should always be initialized with `CREDENTIAL_INIT` or -`credential_init`. - - -Functions -~~~~~~~~~ - -`credential_init`:: - - Initialize a credential structure, setting all fields to empty. - -`credential_clear`:: - - Free any resources associated with the credential structure, - returning it to a pristine initialized state. - -`credential_fill`:: - - Instruct the credential subsystem to fill the username and - password fields of the passed credential struct by first - consulting helpers, then asking the user. After this function - returns, the username and password fields of the credential are - guaranteed to be non-NULL. If an error occurs, the function will - die(). - -`credential_reject`:: - - Inform the credential subsystem that the provided credentials - have been rejected. This will cause the credential subsystem to - notify any helpers of the rejection (which allows them, for - example, to purge the invalid credentials from storage). It - will also free() the username and password fields of the - credential and set them to NULL (readying the credential for - another call to `credential_fill`). Any errors from helpers are - ignored. - -`credential_approve`:: - - Inform the credential subsystem that the provided credentials - were successfully used for authentication. This will cause the - credential subsystem to notify any helpers of the approval, so - that they may store the result to be used again. Any errors - from helpers are ignored. - -`credential_from_url`:: - - Parse a URL into broken-down credential fields. - -Example -~~~~~~~ - -The example below shows how the functions of the credential API could be -used to login to a fictitious "foo" service on a remote host: - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -int foo_login(struct foo_connection *f) -{ - int status; - /* - * Create a credential with some context; we don't yet know the - * username or password. - */ - - struct credential c = CREDENTIAL_INIT; - c.protocol = xstrdup("foo"); - c.host = xstrdup(f->hostname); - - /* - * Fill in the username and password fields by contacting - * helpers and/or asking the user. The function will die if it - * fails. - */ - credential_fill(&c); - - /* - * Otherwise, we have a username and password. Try to use it. - */ - status = send_foo_login(f, c.username, c.password); - switch (status) { - case FOO_OK: - /* It worked. Store the credential for later use. */ - credential_accept(&c); - break; - case FOO_BAD_LOGIN: - /* Erase the credential from storage so we don't try it - * again. */ - credential_reject(&c); - break; - default: - /* - * Some other error occurred. We don't know if the - * credential is good or bad, so report nothing to the - * credential subsystem. - */ - } - - /* Free any associated resources. */ - credential_clear(&c); - - return status; -} ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - - -Credential Helpers ------------------- - -Credential helpers are programs executed by Git to fetch or save -credentials from and to long-term storage (where "long-term" is simply -longer than a single Git process; e.g., credentials may be stored -in-memory for a few minutes, or indefinitely on disk). - -Each helper is specified by a single string in the configuration -variable `credential.helper` (and others, see linkgit:git-config[1]). -The string is transformed by Git into a command to be executed using -these rules: - - 1. If the helper string begins with "!", it is considered a shell - snippet, and everything after the "!" becomes the command. - - 2. Otherwise, if the helper string begins with an absolute path, the - verbatim helper string becomes the command. - - 3. Otherwise, the string "git credential-" is prepended to the helper - string, and the result becomes the command. - -The resulting command then has an "operation" argument appended to it -(see below for details), and the result is executed by the shell. - -Here are some example specifications: - ----------------------------------------------------- -# run "git credential-foo" -foo - -# same as above, but pass an argument to the helper -foo --bar=baz - -# the arguments are parsed by the shell, so use shell -# quoting if necessary -foo --bar="whitespace arg" - -# you can also use an absolute path, which will not use the git wrapper -/path/to/my/helper --with-arguments - -# or you can specify your own shell snippet -!f() { echo "password=`cat $HOME/.secret`"; }; f ----------------------------------------------------- - -Generally speaking, rule (3) above is the simplest for users to specify. -Authors of credential helpers should make an effort to assist their -users by naming their program "git-credential-$NAME", and putting it in -the $PATH or $GIT_EXEC_PATH during installation, which will allow a user -to enable it with `git config credential.helper $NAME`. - -When a helper is executed, it will have one "operation" argument -appended to its command line, which is one of: - -`get`:: - - Return a matching credential, if any exists. - -`store`:: - - Store the credential, if applicable to the helper. - -`erase`:: - - Remove a matching credential, if any, from the helper's storage. - -The details of the credential will be provided on the helper's stdin -stream. The exact format is the same as the input/output format of the -`git credential` plumbing command (see the section `INPUT/OUTPUT -FORMAT` in linkgit:git-credential[1] for a detailed specification). - -For a `get` operation, the helper should produce a list of attributes -on stdout in the same format. A helper is free to produce a subset, or -even no values at all if it has nothing useful to provide. Any provided -attributes will overwrite those already known about by Git. If a helper -outputs a `quit` attribute with a value of `true` or `1`, no further -helpers will be consulted, nor will the user be prompted (if no -credential has been provided, the operation will then fail). - -For a `store` or `erase` operation, the helper's output is ignored. -If it fails to perform the requested operation, it may complain to -stderr to inform the user. If it does not support the requested -operation (e.g., a read-only store), it should silently ignore the -request. - -If a helper receives any other operation, it should silently ignore the -request. This leaves room for future operations to be added (older -helpers will just ignore the new requests). - -See also --------- - -linkgit:gitcredentials[7] - -linkgit:git-config[1] (See configuration variables `credential.*`) |