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diff --git a/Documentation/technical/protocol-v2.txt b/Documentation/technical/protocol-v2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..09e4e0273f --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/technical/protocol-v2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,439 @@ + Git Wire Protocol, Version 2 +============================== + +This document presents a specification for a version 2 of Git's wire +protocol. Protocol v2 will improve upon v1 in the following ways: + + * Instead of multiple service names, multiple commands will be + supported by a single service + * Easily extendable as capabilities are moved into their own section + of the protocol, no longer being hidden behind a NUL byte and + limited by the size of a pkt-line + * Separate out other information hidden behind NUL bytes (e.g. agent + string as a capability and symrefs can be requested using 'ls-refs') + * Reference advertisement will be omitted unless explicitly requested + * ls-refs command to explicitly request some refs + * Designed with http and stateless-rpc in mind. With clear flush + semantics the http remote helper can simply act as a proxy + +In protocol v2 communication is command oriented. When first contacting a +server a list of capabilities will advertised. Some of these capabilities +will be commands which a client can request be executed. Once a command +has completed, a client can reuse the connection and request that other +commands be executed. + + Packet-Line Framing +--------------------- + +All communication is done using packet-line framing, just as in v1. See +`Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt` and +`Documentation/technical/protocol-common.txt` for more information. + +In protocol v2 these special packets will have the following semantics: + + * '0000' Flush Packet (flush-pkt) - indicates the end of a message + * '0001' Delimiter Packet (delim-pkt) - separates sections of a message + + Initial Client Request +------------------------ + +In general a client can request to speak protocol v2 by sending +`version=2` through the respective side-channel for the transport being +used which inevitably sets `GIT_PROTOCOL`. More information can be +found in `pack-protocol.txt` and `http-protocol.txt`. In all cases the +response from the server is the capability advertisement. + + Git Transport +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +When using the git:// transport, you can request to use protocol v2 by +sending "version=2" as an extra parameter: + + 003egit-upload-pack /project.git\0host=myserver.com\0\0version=2\0 + + SSH and File Transport +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +When using either the ssh:// or file:// transport, the GIT_PROTOCOL +environment variable must be set explicitly to include "version=2". + + HTTP Transport +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +When using the http:// or https:// transport a client makes a "smart" +info/refs request as described in `http-protocol.txt` and requests that +v2 be used by supplying "version=2" in the `Git-Protocol` header. + + C: GET $GIT_URL/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.0 + C: Git-Protocol: version=2 + +A v2 server would reply: + + S: 200 OK + S: <Some headers> + S: ... + S: + S: 000eversion 2\n + S: <capability-advertisement> + +Subsequent requests are then made directly to the service +`$GIT_URL/git-upload-pack`. (This works the same for git-receive-pack). + + Capability Advertisement +-------------------------- + +A server which decides to communicate (based on a request from a client) +using protocol version 2, notifies the client by sending a version string +in its initial response followed by an advertisement of its capabilities. +Each capability is a key with an optional value. Clients must ignore all +unknown keys. Semantics of unknown values are left to the definition of +each key. Some capabilities will describe commands which can be requested +to be executed by the client. + + capability-advertisement = protocol-version + capability-list + flush-pkt + + protocol-version = PKT-LINE("version 2" LF) + capability-list = *capability + capability = PKT-LINE(key[=value] LF) + + key = 1*(ALPHA | DIGIT | "-_") + value = 1*(ALPHA | DIGIT | " -_.,?\/{}[]()<>!@#$%^&*+=:;") + + Command Request +----------------- + +After receiving the capability advertisement, a client can then issue a +request to select the command it wants with any particular capabilities +or arguments. There is then an optional section where the client can +provide any command specific parameters or queries. Only a single +command can be requested at a time. + + request = empty-request | command-request + empty-request = flush-pkt + command-request = command + capability-list + [command-args] + flush-pkt + command = PKT-LINE("command=" key LF) + command-args = delim-pkt + *command-specific-arg + + command-specific-args are packet line framed arguments defined by + each individual command. + +The server will then check to ensure that the client's request is +comprised of a valid command as well as valid capabilities which were +advertised. If the request is valid the server will then execute the +command. A server MUST wait till it has received the client's entire +request before issuing a response. The format of the response is +determined by the command being executed, but in all cases a flush-pkt +indicates the end of the response. + +When a command has finished, and the client has received the entire +response from the server, a client can either request that another +command be executed or can terminate the connection. A client may +optionally send an empty request consisting of just a flush-pkt to +indicate that no more requests will be made. + + Capabilities +-------------- + +There are two different types of capabilities: normal capabilities, +which can be used to to convey information or alter the behavior of a +request, and commands, which are the core actions that a client wants to +perform (fetch, push, etc). + +Protocol version 2 is stateless by default. This means that all commands +must only last a single round and be stateless from the perspective of the +server side, unless the client has requested a capability indicating that +state should be maintained by the server. Clients MUST NOT require state +management on the server side in order to function correctly. This +permits simple round-robin load-balancing on the server side, without +needing to worry about state management. + + agent +~~~~~~~ + +The server can advertise the `agent` capability with a value `X` (in the +form `agent=X`) to notify the client that the server is running version +`X`. The client may optionally send its own agent string by including +the `agent` capability with a value `Y` (in the form `agent=Y`) in its +request to the server (but it MUST NOT do so if the server did not +advertise the agent capability). The `X` and `Y` strings may contain any +printable ASCII characters except space (i.e., the byte range 32 < x < +127), and are typically of the form "package/version" (e.g., +"git/1.8.3.1"). The agent strings are purely informative for statistics +and debugging purposes, and MUST NOT be used to programmatically assume +the presence or absence of particular features. + + ls-refs +~~~~~~~~~ + +`ls-refs` is the command used to request a reference advertisement in v2. +Unlike the current reference advertisement, ls-refs takes in arguments +which can be used to limit the refs sent from the server. + +Additional features not supported in the base command will be advertised +as the value of the command in the capability advertisement in the form +of a space separated list of features: "<command>=<feature 1> <feature 2>" + +ls-refs takes in the following arguments: + + symrefs + In addition to the object pointed by it, show the underlying ref + pointed by it when showing a symbolic ref. + peel + Show peeled tags. + ref-prefix <prefix> + When specified, only references having a prefix matching one of + the provided prefixes are displayed. + +The output of ls-refs is as follows: + + output = *ref + flush-pkt + ref = PKT-LINE(obj-id SP refname *(SP ref-attribute) LF) + ref-attribute = (symref | peeled) + symref = "symref-target:" symref-target + peeled = "peeled:" obj-id + + fetch +~~~~~~~ + +`fetch` is the command used to fetch a packfile in v2. It can be looked +at as a modified version of the v1 fetch where the ref-advertisement is +stripped out (since the `ls-refs` command fills that role) and the +message format is tweaked to eliminate redundancies and permit easy +addition of future extensions. + +Additional features not supported in the base command will be advertised +as the value of the command in the capability advertisement in the form +of a space separated list of features: "<command>=<feature 1> <feature 2>" + +A `fetch` request can take the following arguments: + + want <oid> + Indicates to the server an object which the client wants to + retrieve. Wants can be anything and are not limited to + advertised objects. + + have <oid> + Indicates to the server an object which the client has locally. + This allows the server to make a packfile which only contains + the objects that the client needs. Multiple 'have' lines can be + supplied. + + done + Indicates to the server that negotiation should terminate (or + not even begin if performing a clone) and that the server should + use the information supplied in the request to construct the + packfile. + + thin-pack + Request that a thin pack be sent, which is a pack with deltas + which reference base objects not contained within the pack (but + are known to exist at the receiving end). This can reduce the + network traffic significantly, but it requires the receiving end + to know how to "thicken" these packs by adding the missing bases + to the pack. + + no-progress + Request that progress information that would normally be sent on + side-band channel 2, during the packfile transfer, should not be + sent. However, the side-band channel 3 is still used for error + responses. + + include-tag + Request that annotated tags should be sent if the objects they + point to are being sent. + + ofs-delta + Indicate that the client understands PACKv2 with delta referring + to its base by position in pack rather than by an oid. That is, + they can read OBJ_OFS_DELTA (ake type 6) in a packfile. + +If the 'shallow' feature is advertised the following arguments can be +included in the clients request as well as the potential addition of the +'shallow-info' section in the server's response as explained below. + + shallow <oid> + A client must notify the server of all commits for which it only + has shallow copies (meaning that it doesn't have the parents of + a commit) by supplying a 'shallow <oid>' line for each such + object so that the server is aware of the limitations of the + client's history. This is so that the server is aware that the + client may not have all objects reachable from such commits. + + deepen <depth> + Requests that the fetch/clone should be shallow having a commit + depth of <depth> relative to the remote side. + + deepen-relative + Requests that the semantics of the "deepen" command be changed + to indicate that the depth requested is relative to the client's + current shallow boundary, instead of relative to the requested + commits. + + deepen-since <timestamp> + Requests that the shallow clone/fetch should be cut at a + specific time, instead of depth. Internally it's equivalent to + doing "git rev-list --max-age=<timestamp>". Cannot be used with + "deepen". + + deepen-not <rev> + Requests that the shallow clone/fetch should be cut at a + specific revision specified by '<rev>', instead of a depth. + Internally it's equivalent of doing "git rev-list --not <rev>". + Cannot be used with "deepen", but can be used with + "deepen-since". + +If the 'filter' feature is advertised, the following argument can be +included in the client's request: + + filter <filter-spec> + Request that various objects from the packfile be omitted + using one of several filtering techniques. These are intended + for use with partial clone and partial fetch operations. See + `rev-list` for possible "filter-spec" values. + +If the 'ref-in-want' feature is advertised, the following argument can +be included in the client's request as well as the potential addition of +the 'wanted-refs' section in the server's response as explained below. + + want-ref <ref> + Indicates to the server that the client wants to retrieve a + particular ref, where <ref> is the full name of a ref on the + server. + +The response of `fetch` is broken into a number of sections separated by +delimiter packets (0001), with each section beginning with its section +header. + + output = *section + section = (acknowledgments | shallow-info | wanted-refs | packfile) + (flush-pkt | delim-pkt) + + acknowledgments = PKT-LINE("acknowledgments" LF) + (nak | *ack) + (ready) + ready = PKT-LINE("ready" LF) + nak = PKT-LINE("NAK" LF) + ack = PKT-LINE("ACK" SP obj-id LF) + + shallow-info = PKT-LINE("shallow-info" LF) + *PKT-LINE((shallow | unshallow) LF) + shallow = "shallow" SP obj-id + unshallow = "unshallow" SP obj-id + + wanted-refs = PKT-LINE("wanted-refs" LF) + *PKT-LINE(wanted-ref LF) + wanted-ref = obj-id SP refname + + packfile = PKT-LINE("packfile" LF) + *PKT-LINE(%x01-03 *%x00-ff) + + acknowledgments section + * If the client determines that it is finished with negotiations + by sending a "done" line, the acknowledgments sections MUST be + omitted from the server's response. + + * Always begins with the section header "acknowledgments" + + * The server will respond with "NAK" if none of the object ids sent + as have lines were common. + + * The server will respond with "ACK obj-id" for all of the + object ids sent as have lines which are common. + + * A response cannot have both "ACK" lines as well as a "NAK" + line. + + * The server will respond with a "ready" line indicating that + the server has found an acceptable common base and is ready to + make and send a packfile (which will be found in the packfile + section of the same response) + + * If the server has found a suitable cut point and has decided + to send a "ready" line, then the server can decide to (as an + optimization) omit any "ACK" lines it would have sent during + its response. This is because the server will have already + determined the objects it plans to send to the client and no + further negotiation is needed. + + shallow-info section + * If the client has requested a shallow fetch/clone, a shallow + client requests a fetch or the server is shallow then the + server's response may include a shallow-info section. The + shallow-info section will be included if (due to one of the + above conditions) the server needs to inform the client of any + shallow boundaries or adjustments to the clients already + existing shallow boundaries. + + * Always begins with the section header "shallow-info" + + * If a positive depth is requested, the server will compute the + set of commits which are no deeper than the desired depth. + + * The server sends a "shallow obj-id" line for each commit whose + parents will not be sent in the following packfile. + + * The server sends an "unshallow obj-id" line for each commit + which the client has indicated is shallow, but is no longer + shallow as a result of the fetch (due to its parents being + sent in the following packfile). + + * The server MUST NOT send any "unshallow" lines for anything + which the client has not indicated was shallow as a part of + its request. + + * This section is only included if a packfile section is also + included in the response. + + wanted-refs section + * This section is only included if the client has requested a + ref using a 'want-ref' line and if a packfile section is also + included in the response. + + * Always begins with the section header "wanted-refs". + + * The server will send a ref listing ("<oid> <refname>") for + each reference requested using 'want-ref' lines. + + * The server MUST NOT send any refs which were not requested + using 'want-ref' lines. + + packfile section + * This section is only included if the client has sent 'want' + lines in its request and either requested that no more + negotiation be done by sending 'done' or if the server has + decided it has found a sufficient cut point to produce a + packfile. + + * Always begins with the section header "packfile" + + * The transmission of the packfile begins immediately after the + section header + + * The data transfer of the packfile is always multiplexed, using + the same semantics of the 'side-band-64k' capability from + protocol version 1. This means that each packet, during the + packfile data stream, is made up of a leading 4-byte pkt-line + length (typical of the pkt-line format), followed by a 1-byte + stream code, followed by the actual data. + + The stream code can be one of: + 1 - pack data + 2 - progress messages + 3 - fatal error message just before stream aborts + + server-option +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +If advertised, indicates that any number of server specific options can be +included in a request. This is done by sending each option as a +"server-option=<option>" capability line in the capability-list section of +a request. + +The provided options must not contain a NUL or LF character. |