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2015-06-01Merge branch 'jk/http-backend-deadlock'Libravatar Junio C Hamano1-0/+9
Communication between the HTTP server and http_backend process can lead to a dead-lock when relaying a large ref negotiation request. Diagnose the situation better, and mitigate it by reading such a request first into core (to a reasonable limit). * jk/http-backend-deadlock: http-backend: spool ref negotiation requests to buffer t5551: factor out tag creation http-backend: fix die recursion with custom handler
2015-05-25http-backend: spool ref negotiation requests to bufferLibravatar Jeff King1-0/+9
When http-backend spawns "upload-pack" to do ref negotiation, it streams the http request body to upload-pack, who then streams the http response back to the client as it reads. In theory, git can go full-duplex; the client can consume our response while it is still sending the request. In practice, however, HTTP is a half-duplex protocol. Even if our client is ready to read and write simultaneously, we may have other HTTP infrastructure in the way, including the webserver that spawns our CGI, or any intermediate proxies. In at least one documented case[1], this leads to deadlock when trying a fetch over http. What happens is basically: 1. Apache proxies the request to the CGI, http-backend. 2. http-backend gzip-inflates the data and sends the result to upload-pack. 3. upload-pack acts on the data and generates output over the pipe back to Apache. Apache isn't reading because it's busy writing (step 1). This works fine most of the time, because the upload-pack output ends up in a system pipe buffer, and Apache reads it as soon as it finishes writing. But if both the request and the response exceed the system pipe buffer size, then we deadlock (Apache blocks writing to http-backend, http-backend blocks writing to upload-pack, and upload-pack blocks writing to Apache). We need to break the deadlock by spooling either the input or the output. In this case, it's ideal to spool the input, because Apache does not start reading either stdout _or_ stderr until we have consumed all of the input. So until we do so, we cannot even get an error message out to the client. The solution is fairly straight-forward: we read the request body into an in-memory buffer in http-backend, freeing up Apache, and then feed the data ourselves to upload-pack. But there are a few important things to note: 1. We limit the in-memory buffer to prevent an obvious denial-of-service attack. This is a new hard limit on requests, but it's unlikely to come into play. The default value is 10MB, which covers even the ridiculous 100,000-ref negotation in the included test (that actually caps out just over 5MB). But it's configurable on the off chance that you don't mind spending some extra memory to make even ridiculous requests work. 2. We must take care only to buffer when we have to. For pushes, the incoming packfile may be of arbitrary size, and we should connect the input directly to receive-pack. There's no deadlock problem here, though, because we do not produce any output until the whole packfile has been read. For upload-pack's initial ref advertisement, we similarly do not need to buffer. Even though we may generate a lot of output, there is no request body at all (i.e., it is a GET, not a POST). [1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/269020 Test-adapted-from: Dennis Kaarsemaker <dennis@kaarsemaker.net> Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-05-12doc: put example URLs and emails inside literal backticksLibravatar Jeff King1-2/+2
This makes sure that AsciiDoc does not turn them into links. Regular AsciiDoc does not catch these cases, but AsciiDoctor does treat them as links. Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2014-04-09Merge commit 'doc/http-backend: missing accent grave in literal mark-up'Libravatar Junio C Hamano1-1/+1
* commit '5df05146d5cb94628a3dfc53063c802ee1152cec': doc/http-backend: missing accent grave in literal mark-up
2014-04-09doc/http-backend: missing accent grave in literal mark-upLibravatar Thomas Ackermann1-1/+1
Signed-off-by: Thomas Ackermann <th.acker@arcor.de> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2014-01-27doc: remote author/documentation sections from more pagesLibravatar Michael Haggerty1-8/+0
We decided at 48bb914e (doc: drop author/documentation sections from most pages, 2011-03-11) to remove "author" and "documentation" sections from our documentation. Remove a few stragglers. Signed-off-by: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> Reviewed-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-04-13doc/http-backend: match query-string in apache half-auth exampleLibravatar Jeff King1-8/+24
When setting up a "half-auth" repository in which reads can be done anonymously but writes require authentication, it is best if the server can require authentication for both the ref advertisement and the actual receive-pack POSTs. This alleviates the need for the admin to set http.receivepack in the repositories, and means that the client is challenged for credentials immediately, instead of partway through the push process (and git clients older than v1.7.11.7 had trouble handling these challenges). Since detecting a push during the ref advertisement requires matching the query string, and this is non-trivial to do in Apache, we have traditionally punted and instructed users to just protect "/git-receive-pack$". This patch provides the mod_rewrite recipe to actually match the ref advertisement, which is preferred. While we're at it, let's add the recipe to our test scripts so that we can be sure that it works, and doesn't get broken (either by our changes or by changes in Apache). Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Acked-by: Jakub Narębski <jnareb@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-04-11doc/http-backend: give some lighttpd config examplesLibravatar Jeff King1-0/+55
The examples in the documentation are all for Apache. Let's at least cover the basics: an anonymous server, an authenticated server, and a "half auth" server with anonymous read and authenticated write. Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-04-11doc/http-backend: clarify "half-auth" repo configurationLibravatar Jeff King1-0/+9
When the http-backend is set up to allow anonymous read but authenticated write, the http-backend manual suggests catching only the "/git-receive-pack" POST of the packfile, not the initial "info/refs?service=git-receive-pack" GET in which we advertise refs. This does work and is secure, as we do not allow any write during the info/refs request, and the information in the ref advertisement is the same that you would get from a fetch. However, the configuration required by the server is slightly more complex. The default `http.receivepack` setting is to allow pushes if the webserver tells us that the user authenticated, and otherwise to return a 403 ("Forbidden"). That works fine if authentication is turned on completely; the initial request requires authentication, and http-backend realizes it is OK to do a push. But for this "half-auth" state, no authentication has occurred during the initial ref advertisement. The http-backend CGI therefore does not think that pushing should be enabled, and responds with a 403. The client cannot continue, even though the server would have allowed it to run if it had provided credentials. It would be much better if the server responded with a 401, asking for credentials during the initial contact. But git-http-backend does not know about the server's auth configuration (so a 401 would be confusing in the case of a true anonymous server). Unfortunately, configuring Apache to recognize the query string and apply the auth appropriately to receive-pack (but not upload-pack) initial requests is non-trivial. The site admin can work around this by just turning on http.receivepack explicitly in its repositories. Let's document this workaround. Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-02-01Documentation: the name of the system is 'Git', not 'git'Libravatar Thomas Ackermann1-1/+1
Signed-off-by: Thomas Ackermann <th.acker@arcor.de> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2011-07-11ref namespaces: documentationLibravatar Josh Triplett1-0/+8
Document the namespace mechanism in a new gitnamespaces(7) page. Reference it from receive-pack and upload-pack. Document the new --namespace option and GIT_NAMESPACE environment variable in git(1), and reference gitnamespaces(7). Add a sample Apache configuration to http-backend(1) to support namespaced repositories, and reference gitnamespaces(7). Signed-off-by: Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org> Signed-off-by: Jamey Sharp <jamey@minilop.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2010-03-30Documentation: Clarify support for smart HTTP backendLibravatar Greg Bacon1-1/+1
In the description of http.getanyfile, replace the vague "older Git clients" with the earliest release whose client is able to use the upload pack service. Signed-off-by: Greg Bacon <gbacon@dbresearch.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2010-01-31Fix typos in technical documentation.Libravatar Ralf Wildenhues1-1/+1
Signed-off-by: Ralf Wildenhues <Ralf.Wildenhues@gmx.de> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2010-01-20Merge remote branch 'remotes/trast-doc/for-next'Libravatar Junio C Hamano1-11/+11
* remotes/trast-doc/for-next: Documentation: spell 'git cmd' without dash throughout Documentation: format full commands in typewriter font Documentation: warn prominently against merging with dirty trees Documentation/git-merge: reword references to "remote" and "pull" Conflicts: Documentation/config.txt Documentation/git-config.txt Documentation/git-merge.txt
2010-01-10Documentation: spell 'git cmd' without dash throughoutLibravatar Thomas Rast1-11/+11
The documentation was quite inconsistent when spelling 'git cmd' if it only refers to the program, not to some specific invocation syntax: both 'git-cmd' and 'git cmd' spellings exist. The current trend goes towards dashless forms, and there is precedent in 647ac70 (git-svn.txt: stop using dash-form of commands., 2009-07-07) to actively eliminate the dashed variants. Replace 'git-cmd' with 'git cmd' throughout, except where git-shell, git-cvsserver, git-upload-pack, git-receive-pack, and git-upload-archive are concerned, because those really live in the $PATH.
2010-01-06Smart-http: check if repository is OK to export before serving itLibravatar Tarmigan Casebolt1-0/+10
Similar to how git-daemon checks whether a repository is OK to be exported, smart-http should also check. This check can be satisfied in two different ways: the environmental variable GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL may be set to export all repositories, or the individual repository may have the file git-daemon-export-ok. Acked-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Tarmigan Casebolt <tarmigan+git@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04http-backend: Use http.getanyfile to disable dumb HTTP servingLibravatar Shawn O. Pearce1-0/+8
Some repository owners may wish to enable smart HTTP, but disallow dumb content serving. Disallowing dumb serving might be because the owners want to rely upon reachability to control which objects clients may access from the repository, or they just want to encourage clients to use the more bandwidth efficient transport. If http.getanyfile is set to false the backend CGI will return with '403 Forbidden' when an object file is accessed by a dumb client. Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04http-backend: more explict LocationMatchLibravatar Mark Lodato1-1/+1
In the git-http-backend examples, only match git-receive-pack within /git/. Signed-off-by: Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04http-backend: add example for gitweb on same URLLibravatar Mark Lodato1-0/+33
In the git-http-backend documentation, add an example of how to set up gitweb and git-http-backend on the same URL by using a series of mod_alias commands. Signed-off-by: Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04http-backend: use mod_alias instead of mod_rewriteLibravatar Mark Lodato1-7/+3
In the git-http-backend documentation, use mod_alias exlusively, instead of using a combination of mod_alias and mod_rewrite. This makes the example slightly shorted and a bit more clear. Signed-off-by: Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04http-backend: reword some documentationLibravatar Mark Lodato1-4/+8
Clarify some of the git-http-backend documentation, particularly: * In the Description, state that smart/dumb HTTP fetch and smart HTTP push are supported, state that authenticated clients allow push, and remove the note that this is only suited for read-only updates. * At the start of Examples, state explicitly what URL is mapping to what location on disk. Signed-off-by: Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04http-backend: add GIT_PROJECT_ROOT environment varLibravatar Mark Lodato1-22/+17
Add a new environment variable, GIT_PROJECT_ROOT, to override the method of using PATH_TRANSLATED to find the git repository on disk. This makes it much easier to configure the web server, especially when the web server's DocumentRoot does not contain the git repositories, which is the usual case. Signed-off-by: Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04Smart fetch and push over HTTP: server sideLibravatar Shawn O. Pearce1-1/+38
Requests for $GIT_URL/git-receive-pack and $GIT_URL/git-upload-pack are forwarded to the corresponding backend process by directly executing it and leaving stdin and stdout connected to the invoking web server. Prior to starting the backend process the HTTP response headers are sent, thereby freeing the backend from needing to know about the HTTP protocol. Requests that are encoded with Content-Encoding: gzip are automatically inflated before being streamed into the backend. This is primarily useful for the git-upload-pack backend, which receives highly repetitive text data from clients that easily compresses to 50% of its original size. Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2009-11-04Git-aware CGI to provide dumb HTTP transportLibravatar Shawn O. Pearce1-0/+105
The git-http-backend CGI can be configured into any Apache server using ScriptAlias, such as with the following configuration: LoadModule cgi_module /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_cgi.so LoadModule alias_module /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_alias.so ScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/ Repositories are accessed via the translated PATH_INFO. The CGI is backwards compatible with the dumb client, allowing all older HTTP clients to continue to download repositories which are managed by the CGI. Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>