Re: Git dumb HTTP protocol should work without update-server-info

From: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date: Sep 7, 2025, 17:42 UTC
Message-ID: <aL3EE7dLMuj6ONZQ@fruit.crustytoothpaste.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAGiEHCvFnhZRXwNVRyzQ4ABi3p0Opdo8+draXoDu5p1R6HZn1Q@mail.gmail.com>

On 2025-09-07 at 17:23:28, Milan Hauth wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> > HTTP push
> 
> im only talking about "read" operations:
> 
> git ls-remote
> git fetch
> git pull

Yes, as I said, reading directories is only possible with WebDAV since HTTP doesn't offer native directory listing. However, we don't use WebDAV for fetches and other read operations and not all web servers support it. We get better web server support in many cases by requiring that the server side do the work of updating the lists of packs and refs.

Without some way to list directories, you cannot in the general case iterate over the refs and packs in the file system without a manifest, so creating a manifest is what update-server-info does.

This is also why most tools which provide HTTP access in the file system require WebDAV, since it isn't very useful to have a file system where you can't list directories. (We abandoned directory-less file systems in the early DOS and Macintosh days.)

-- 
brian m. carlson (they/them)
Toronto, Ontario, CA