[PATCH 1/5] Documentation/remote-helpers: Rewrite description
From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <hidden>
Date: 2016-06-15 22:48:40
Subsystem:
documentation, the rest · Maintainers:
Jonathan Corbet, Linus Torvalds
Rewrite the description section to describe what exactly remote helpers are and the need for them. Also mention the curl family of remote helpers as an example. Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <redacted> --- Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++------ 1 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt b/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt
index 1b5f61a..15214ae 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ git-remote-helpers(1) NAME ---- -git-remote-helpers - Helper programs for interoperation with remote git +git-remote-helpers - Helper programs to interact with remote repositories SYNOPSIS --------
@@ -12,11 +12,31 @@ SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION ----------- -These programs are normally not used directly by end users, but are -invoked by various git programs that interact with remote repositories -when the repository they would operate on will be accessed using -transport code not linked into the main git binary. Various particular -helper programs will behave as documented here. +Remote helper programs are normally not used directly by end users, +but are invoked by git when it needs to interact with remote +repositories. They implement a subset of the capabilities documented +here, and conform to the "remote helper protocol". When git needs +needs to interact with a repository served by a remote helper, it +spawns the helper as an independent process and interacts with it over +the specified protocol. git sends commands to the helper +over standard input, and receives the result written to standard +output by the helper over a pipe. Because a remote helper runs as +an independent process to interact with remote repositories, there +is no need to re-link git when adding a new helper nor need to link +the helper with the implementation of git. + +All the capabilities of remote helpers have to do with discovering and +updating remote refs, transporting objects between local and remote, +and updating the local object store. Using the 'fetch' capability, +they can discover refs on the remote, transfer objects from the remote +reachable via those refs to local, and update the local object +store. Using the 'push' capability, they can transfer objects from +local to remote, and update the corresponding refs as necessary. + +Git comes with a "curl" family of remote helpers, that handle various +transport protocols, such as 'git-remote-http', 'git-remote-https', +'git-remote-ftp' and 'git-remote-ftps'. They implement the capabilities +'fetch', 'option', and 'push'. COMMANDS --------
--
1.7.0.4