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[PATCH] Prompt for a username when an HTTP request 401s

From
Scott Chacon <schacon@gmail.com>
Date
Apr 1, 2010, 22:14 UTC
Message-ID
<m2wd411cc4a1004011514w6d350ac7l15ab6bb1a6be8d89@mail.gmail.com>

When an HTTP request returns a 401, Git will currently fail with a confusing message saying that it got a 401, which is not very descriptive.

Currently if a user wants to use Git over HTTP, they have to use one URL with the username in the URL (e.g. "http://user@host.com/repo.git") for write access and another without the username for unauthenticated read access (unless they want to be prompted for the password each time). However, since the HTTP servers will return a 401 if an action requires authentication, we can prompt for username and password if we see this, allowing us to use a single URL for both purposes.

This patch changes http_request to prompt for the username and password, then return HTTP_REAUTH so http_get_strbuf can try again. If it gets a 401 even when a user/pass is supplied, http_request will now return HTTP_NOAUTH which remote_curl can then use to display a more intelligent error message that is less confusing.

Signed-off-by: Scott Chacon <schacon@gmail.com>
---
Updated the comments style and the commit message for Junio.
 http.c        |   22 ++++++++++++++++++++--
 http.h        |    2 ++
 remote-curl.c |    2 ++
 3 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 4814217..51253e1 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -815,7 +815,21 @@ static int http_request(const char *url, void
*result, int target, int options)
 			ret = HTTP_OK;
 		else if (missing_target(&results))
 			ret = HTTP_MISSING_TARGET;
-		else
+		else if (results.http_code == 401) {
+			if (user_name) {
+				ret = HTTP_NOAUTH;
+			} else {
+				/*
+				 * git_getpass is needed here because its very likely stdin/stdout are
+				 * pipes to our parent process.  So we instead need to use /dev/tty,
+				 * but that is non-portable.  Using git_getpass() can at least be stubbed
+				 * on other platforms with a different implementation if/when necessary.
+				 */
+				user_name = xstrdup(git_getpass("Username: "));
+				init_curl_http_auth(slot->curl);
+				ret = HTTP_REAUTH;
+			}
+		} else
 			ret = HTTP_ERROR;
 	} else {
 		error("Unable to start HTTP request for %s", url);
@@ -831,7 +845,11 @@ static int http_request(const char *url, void
*result, int target, int options)

 int http_get_strbuf(const char *url, struct strbuf *result, int options)
 {
-	return http_request(url, result, HTTP_REQUEST_STRBUF, options);
+	int http_ret = http_request(url, result, HTTP_REQUEST_STRBUF, options);
+	if (http_ret == HTTP_REAUTH) {
+		http_ret = http_request(url, result, HTTP_REQUEST_STRBUF, options);
+	}
+	return http_ret;
 }

 /*
diff --git a/http.h b/http.h
index 5c9441c..2dd03e8 100644
--- a/http.h
+++ b/http.h
@@ -126,6 +126,8 @@ extern char *get_remote_object_url(const char
*url, const char *hex,
 #define HTTP_MISSING_TARGET	1
 #define HTTP_ERROR		2
 #define HTTP_START_FAILED	3
+#define HTTP_REAUTH	4
+#define HTTP_NOAUTH	5

 /*
  * Requests an url and stores the result in a strbuf.
diff --git a/remote-curl.c b/remote-curl.c
index b76bfcb..0782756 100644
--- a/remote-curl.c
+++ b/remote-curl.c
@@ -132,6 +132,8 @@ static struct discovery* discover_refs(const char *service)
 	case HTTP_MISSING_TARGET:
 		die("%s not found: did you run git update-server-info on the"
 		    " server?", refs_url);
+	case HTTP_NOAUTH:
+		die("Authentication failed");
 	default:
 		http_error(refs_url, http_ret);
 		die("HTTP request failed");
-- 
1.7.0.1
Next: Junio C Hamano
Message 1 of 4 in “Prompt for a username when an HTTP request 401s”
  1. Prompt for a username when an HTTP request 401sScott Chacon, Apr 1, 2010
  2. Junio C HamanoApr 2, 2010
  3. Scott ChaconApr 2, 2010
  4. Junio C HamanoApr 2, 2010

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