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diff --git a/credential.h b/credential.h
index 6b0cd16be2..5772d50577 100644
--- a/credential.h
+++ b/credential.h
@@ -3,8 +3,208 @@
#include "string-list.h"
+/**
+ * The credentials API provides an abstracted way of gathering username and
+ * password credentials from the user.
+ *
+ * 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).
+ *
+ * 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 Documentation/git-config.txt).
+ * 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 Documentation/git-credential.txt 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).
+ *
+ */
+
+
+/**
+ * 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.
+ *
+ * This struct should always be initialized with `CREDENTIAL_INIT` or
+ * `credential_init`.
+ */
struct credential {
+
+ /**
+ * A `string_list` of helpers. Each string specifies an external
+ * helper which will be run, in order, to either acquire or store
+ * credentials. 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.
+ */
struct string_list helpers;
+
unsigned approved:1,
configured:1,
quit:1,
@@ -19,16 +219,52 @@ struct credential {
#define CREDENTIAL_INIT { STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP }
+/* Initialize a credential structure, setting all fields to empty. */
void credential_init(struct credential *);
+
+/**
+ * Free any resources associated with the credential structure, returning
+ * it to a pristine initialized state.
+ */
void credential_clear(struct credential *);
+/**
+ * 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().
+ */
void credential_fill(struct credential *);
+
+/**
+ * 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.
+ */
void credential_approve(struct credential *);
+
+/**
+ * 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.
+ */
void credential_reject(struct credential *);
int credential_read(struct credential *, FILE *);
void credential_write(const struct credential *, FILE *);
+
+/* Parse a URL into broken-down credential fields. */
void credential_from_url(struct credential *, const char *url);
+
int credential_match(const struct credential *have,
const struct credential *want);