All of the smart-http GET requests go through the http_get_*
functions, which will prompt for credentials and retry if we
see an HTTP 401.
POST requests, however, do not go through any central point.
Moreover, it is difficult to retry in the general case; we
cannot assume the request body fits in memory or is even
seekable, and we don't know how much of it was consumed
during the attempt.
Most of the time, this is not a big deal; for both fetching
and pushing, we make a GET request before doing any POSTs,
so typically we figure out the credentials during the first
request, then reuse them during the POST. However, some
servers may allow a client to get the list of refs from
receive-pack without authentication, and then require
authentication when the client actually tries to POST the
pack.
This is not ideal, as the client may do a non-trivial amount
of work to generate the pack (e.g., delta-compressing
objects). However, for a long time it has been the
recommended example configuration in git-http-backend(1) for
setting up a repository with anonymous fetch and
authenticated push. This setup has always been broken
without putting a username into the URL. Prior to commit
986bbc0, it did work with a username in the URL, because git
would prompt for credentials before making any requests at
all. However, post-986bbc0, it is totally broken. Since it
has been advertised in the manpage for some time, we should
make sure it works.
Unfortunately, it is not as easy as simply calling post_rpc
again when it fails, due to the input issue mentioned above.
However, we can still make this specific case work by
retrying in two specific instances:
1. If the request is large (bigger than LARGE_PACKET_MAX),
we will first send a probe request with a single flush
packet. Since this request is static, we can freely
retry it.
2. If the request is small and we are not using gzip, then
we have the whole thing in-core, and we can freely
retry.
That means we will not retry in some instances, including:
1. If we are using gzip. However, we only do so when
calling git-upload-pack, so it does not apply to
pushes.
2. If we have a large request, the probe succeeds, but
then the real POST wants authentication. This is an
extremely unlikely configuration and not worth worrying
about.
While it might be nice to cover those instances, doing so
would be significantly more complex for very little
real-world gain. In the long run, we will be much better off
when curl learns to internally handle authentication as a
callback, and we can cleanly handle all cases that way.
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
GIT - the stupid content tracker
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
"git" can mean anything, depending on your mood.
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not
actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a
mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the
dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually
works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations
and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License.
It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of
hackers around the net. It is currently maintained by Junio C Hamano.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
See Documentation/gittutorial.txt to get started, then see
Documentation/everyday.txt for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-commandname.txt for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with "man gittutorial" or "git help tutorial", and the
documentation of each command with "man git-commandname" or "git help
commandname".
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
("man gitcvs-migration" or "git help cvs-migration" if git is
installed).
Many Git online resources are accessible from http://git-scm.com/
including full documentation and Git related tools.
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git
mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature
requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read
Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission).
To subscribe to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in
the body to majordomo@vger.kernel.org. The mailing list archives are
available at http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=git and other archival
sites.
The messages titled "A note from the maintainer", "What's in
git.git (stable)" and "What's cooking in git.git (topics)" and
the discussion following them on the mailing list give a good
reference for project status, development direction and
remaining tasks.
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