[RFC/PATCH] Documentation/remote-helpers: explain capabilities first

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 18, 2011, 17:45 UTC
Message-ID: <20110318174504.GA22332@elie>

The current remote helper documentation is from the perspective of git, so to speak: it presents a full menu of commands for a person invoking a remote helper to choose from. In practice, that's less useful than it could be, since the daunted novice remote-helper author probably just wanted a list of commands she needs to implement to get started. So preface the command list with an overview of each capability, its purpose, and what commands it requires.

As a side effect, this makes it a little clearer that git doesn't just choose arbitrary commands to run, even if the remote helper advertises all capabilities --- instead, there are well defined command sequences for various tasks.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
No documentation for "export" and "gitdir" yet (by the way: would it
make sense to export the GIT_DIR environment variable so a round trip
for the 'gitdir' capability would eventually be unnecessary?).

The current documentation left me lost, so I wrote this (which still probably leaves one lost). Thoughts?

 Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt |  101 +++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 files changed, 76 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt b/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt
index 87cd11f..e7a3985 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-remote-helpers.txt
@@ -29,16 +29,87 @@ commands generally concern facilities like discovering and updating
 remote refs, transporting objects between the object database and
 the remote repository, and updating the local object store.
 
-Helpers supporting the 'fetch' capability can discover refs from the
-remote repository and transfer objects reachable from those refs to
-the local object store. Helpers supporting the 'push' capability can
-transfer local objects to the remote repository and update remote refs.
-
 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'.
 
+CAPABILITIES
+------------
+
+Different remote helpers expect to communicate with git in different
+ways.  These are declared to git through the helper's response to the
+`capabilities` command (see COMMANDS, below).
+
+'option'::
+	Can accept settings like `verbosity` (how much output to write
+	to stderr) and `depth` (how much history is wanted in the case
+	of a shallow clone) that affect how other commands are carried
+	out.
++
+Supported commands: 'option'.
+
+Capabilities for Pushing
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+'connect'::
+	Can attempt to connect to 'git receive-pack' (for pushing),
+	'git upload-pack', etc for communication using the
+	packfile protocol.
++
+Supported commands: 'connect'.
+
+'push'::
+	Can discover remote refs and push local commits and the
+	history leading up to them to new or existing remote refs.
++
+Supported commands: 'list for-push', 'push'.
+
+If a helper advertises both 'connect' and 'push', git will use
+'connect' if possible and fall back to 'push' if the helper requests
+so when connecting (see the 'connect' command under COMMANDS).
+
+Capabilities for Fetching
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+'connect'::
+	Can try to connect to 'git upload-pack' (for fetching),
+	'git receive-pack', etc for communication using the
+	packfile protocol.
++
+Supported commands: 'connect'.
+
+'fetch'::
+	Can discover remote refs and transfer objects reachable from
+	them to the local object store.
++
+Supported commands: 'list', 'fetch'.
+
+'import'::
+	Can discover remote refs and output objects reachable from
+	them as a stream in fast-import format.
++
+Supported commands: 'list', 'import'.
+
+If a helper advertises 'connect', git will use it if possible and
+fall back to another capability if the helper requests so when
+connecting (see the 'connect' command under COMMANDS).
+When choosing between 'fetch' and 'import', git prefers 'fetch'.
+Other frontends may have some other order of preference.
+
+'refspec' <refspec>::
+	This modifies the 'import' capability.
++
+A helper advertising
+`refspec refs/heads/{asterisk}:refs/svn/origin/branches/{asterisk}`
+in its capabilities is saying that, when it handles
+`import refs/heads/topic`, the stream it outputs will update the
+`refs/svn/origin/branches/topic` ref.
++
+This capability can be advertised multiple times.  The first
+applicable refspec takes precedence.  The left-hand of refspecs
+advertised with this capability must cover all refs reported by
+the list command.  If no 'refspec' capability is advertised,
+there is an implied `refspec {asterisk}:{asterisk}`.
+
 INVOCATION
 ----------
 
@@ -167,26 +238,6 @@ completing a valid response for the current command.
 Additional commands may be supported, as may be determined from
 capabilities reported by the helper.
 
-CAPABILITIES
-------------
-
-'fetch'::
-'option'::
-'push'::
-'import'::
-'connect'::
-	This helper supports the corresponding command with the same name.
-
-'refspec' 'spec'::
-	When using the import command, expect the source ref to have
-	been written to the destination ref. The earliest applicable
-	refspec takes precedence. For example
-	"refs/heads/*:refs/svn/origin/branches/*" means that, after an
-	"import refs/heads/name", the script has written to
-	refs/svn/origin/branches/name. If this capability is used at
-	all, it must cover all refs reported by the list command; if
-	it is not used, it is effectively "*:*"
-
 REF LIST ATTRIBUTES
 -------------------

-- 
1.7.4.1