path: root/Documentation/technical/protocol-v2.txt

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
  * '0002' Response End Packet (response-end-pkt) - indicates the end of a
    response for stateless connections

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`, as well as the
`GIT_PROTOCOL` definition in `git.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".
The server may need to be configured to allow this environment variable
to pass.

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).

Uses the `--http-backend-info-refs` option to
linkgit:git-upload-pack[1].

The server may need to be configured to pass this header's contents via
the `GIT_PROTOCOL` variable. See the discussion in `git-http-backend.txt`.

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
		      delim-pkt
		      command-args
		      flush-pkt
    command = PKT-LINE("command=" key LF)
    command-args = *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 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. Multiple instances may be
	given, in which case references matching any prefix will be
	shown. Note that this is purely for optimization; a server MAY
	show refs not matching the prefix if it chooses, and clients
	should filter the result themselves.

If the 'unborn' feature is advertised the following argument can be
included in the client's request.

    unborn
	The server will send information about HEAD even if it is a symref
	pointing to an unborn branch in the form "unborn HEAD
	symref-target:<target>".

The output of ls-refs is as follows:

    output = *ref
	     flush-pkt
    obj-id-or-unborn = (obj-id | "unborn")
    ref = PKT-LINE(obj-id-or-unborn 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 (aka 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. When communicating
	with other processes, senders SHOULD translate scaled integers
	(e.g. "1k") into a fully-expanded form (e.g. "1024") to aid
	interoperability with older receivers that may not understand
	newly-invented scaling suffixes. However, receivers SHOULD
	accept the following suffixes: 'k', 'm', and 'g' for 1024,
	1048576, and 1073741824, respectively.

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.

If the 'sideband-all' feature is advertised, the following argument can be
included in the client's request:

    sideband-all
	Instruct the server to send the whole response multiplexed, not just
	the packfile section. All non-flush and non-delim PKT-LINE in the
	response (not only in the packfile section) will then start with a byte
	indicating its sideband (1, 2, or 3), and the server may send "0005\2"
	(a PKT-LINE of sideband 2 with no payload) as a keepalive packet.

If the 'packfile-uris' feature is advertised, the following argument
can be included in the client's request as well as the potential
addition of the 'packfile-uris' section in the server's response as
explained below.

    packfile-uris <comma-separated list of protocols>
	Indicates to the server that the client is willing to receive
	URIs of any of the given protocols in place of objects in the
	sent packfile. Before performing the connectivity check, the
	client should download from all given URIs. Currently, the
	protocols supported are "http" and "https".

If the 'wait-for-done' feature is advertised, the following argument
can be included in the client's request.

    wait-for-done
	Indicates to the server that it should never send "ready", but
	should wait for the client to say "done" before sending the
	packfile.

The response of `fetch` is broken into a number of sections separated by
delimiter packets (0001), with each section beginning with its section
header. Most sections are sent only when the packfile is sent.

    output = acknowledgements flush-pkt |
	     [acknowledgments delim-pkt] [shallow-info delim-pkt]
	     [wanted-refs delim-pkt] [packfile-uris delim-pkt]
	     packfile flush-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-uris = PKT-LINE("packfile-uris" LF) *packfile-uri
    packfile-uri = PKT-LINE(40*(HEXDIGIT) SP *%x20-ff LF)

    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 (thus requiring the server to send a packfile),
	  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.

    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-uris section
	* This section is only included if the client sent
	  'packfile-uris' and the server has at least one such URI to
	  send.

	* Always begins with the section header "packfile-uris".

	* For each URI the server sends, it sends a hash of the pack's
	  contents (as output by git index-pack) followed by the URI.

	* The hashes are 40 hex characters long. When Git upgrades to a new
	  hash algorithm, this might need to be updated. (It should match
	  whatever index-pack outputs after "pack\t" or "keep\t".

    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.

 object-format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The server can advertise the `object-format` capability with a value `X` (in the
form `object-format=X`) to notify the client that the server is able to deal
with objects using hash algorithm X.  If not specified, the server is assumed to
only handle SHA-1.  If the client would like to use a hash algorithm other than
SHA-1, it should specify its object-format string.

session-id=<session id>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The server may advertise a session ID that can be used to identify this process
across multiple requests. The client may advertise its own session ID back to
the server as well.

Session IDs should be unique to a given process. They must fit within a
packet-line, and must not contain non-printable or whitespace characters. The
current implementation uses trace2 session IDs (see
link:api-trace2.html[api-trace2] for details), but this may change and users of
the session ID should not rely on this fact.

object-info
~~~~~~~~~~~

`object-info` is the command to retrieve information about one or more objects.
Its main purpose is to allow a client to make decisions based on this
information without having to fully fetch objects. Object size is the only
information that is currently supported.

An `object-info` request takes the following arguments:

	size
	Requests size information to be returned for each listed object id.

	oid <oid>
	Indicates to the server an object which the client wants to obtain
	information for.

The response of `object-info` is a list of the requested object ids
and associated requested information, each separated by a single space.

	output = info flush-pkt

	info = PKT-LINE(attrs) LF)
		*PKT-LINE(obj-info LF)

	attrs = attr | attrs SP attrs

	attr = "size"

	obj-info = obj-id SP obj-size