Fw: How do I git-push to an FTP server?

On the git-users mailing list we're trying someone to help with running `git push` over FTP. That person is runnig Git 1.7.9.5 on Ubuntu 12.04.

Below is the trace captured while trying to perform such a faulty push. The oddity (in my eyes) is that after uploading the files, Git executes `git http-push` which manual page does not mention FTP at all.

So I'd like to ask experts on Git transports for any advice in this situation.

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 05:07:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: August Karlstrom <fusio...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
To: git...-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
Cc: August Karlstrom <fusio...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
Subject: Re: [git-users] How do I git-push to an FTP server?

Den fredagen den 5:e oktober 2012 kl. 11:38:43 UTC+2 skrev Konstantin Khomoutov:

Thanks for the input, Konstantin. Below is the output (with identifying info removed). I can't see what caused "Uploading to a URL without a file name" at the end.

$ GIT_TRACE=1 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1 git push
trace: built-in: git 'push'
trace: run_command: 'git-remote-ftp' 'origin' 
'ftp://my-ftp-server/git/test.git'
* About to connect() to my-ftp-server port 21 (#0)
*   Trying my-ftp-ip... * Connected to my-ftp-server (my-ftp-ip) port
21 (#0)
< 220---------- Welcome to Pure-FTPd [privsep] [TLS] ---------- 
< 220-You are user number 6 of 400 allowed. 
< 220-Local time is now 11:23. Server port: 21. 
< 220-This is a private system - No anonymous login 
< 220 You will be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity. 

< 331 User my-username OK. Password required 

< 230-User my-username has group access to: my-group < 230 OK. Current restricted directory is /

< 257 "/" is your current location 
* Entry path is '/'

< 250 OK. Current directory is /git 

< 250 OK. Current directory is /git/test.git 

< 250 OK. Current directory is /git/test.git/info 

* Connect data stream passively
< 500 Unknown command 
* disabling EPSV usage

< 227 Entering Passive Mode ([not shown]) 
*   Trying my-ftp-ip... * Connecting to my-ftp-ip (my-ftp-ip) port 63983

< 200 TYPE is now 8-bit binary 

< 213 59 

< 150 Accepted data connection 
* Maxdownload = -1
* Getting file with size: 59
* Remembering we are in dir "git/test.git/info/"
< 226-File successfully transferred 
< 226 0.000 seconds (measured here), 1.34 Mbytes per second 
* Connection #0 to host my-ftp-server left intact
* Re-using existing connection! (#0) with host my-ftp-server
* Connected to my-ftp-server (my-ftp-ip) port 21 (#0)

< 250 OK. Current directory is / 

< 250 OK. Current directory is /git 

< 250 OK. Current directory is /git/test.git 

* Connect data stream passively
< 227 Entering Passive Mode ([not shown]) 
*   Trying my-ftp-ip... * Connecting to my-ftp-ip (my-ftp-ip) port 63462

< 213 23 

< 150 Accepted data connection 
* Maxdownload = -1
* Getting file with size: 23
* Remembering we are in dir "git/test.git/"
< 226-File successfully transferred 
< 226 0.000 seconds (measured here), 0.63 Mbytes per second 
* Connection #0 to host my-ftp-server left intact
trace: run_command: 'http-push' '--helper-status' 
'ftp://my-ftp-server/git/test.git/'
'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master' trace: exec: 'git' 'http-push'
'--helper-status' 'ftp://my-ftp-server/git/test.git/'
'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master' trace: exec: 'git-http-push'
'--helper-status' 'ftp://my-ftp-server/git/test.git/'
'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master' trace: run_command:
'git-http-push' '--helper-status' 'ftp://my-ftp-server/git/test.git/'
'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master'
* About to connect() to my-ftp-server port 21 (#0)
*   Trying my-ftp-ip... * Connected to my-ftp-server (my-ftp-ip) port
21 (#0)
< 220---------- Welcome to Pure-FTPd [privsep] [TLS] ---------- 
< 220-You are user number 7 of 400 allowed. 
< 220-Local time is now 11:23. Server port: 21. 
< 220-This is a private system - No anonymous login 
< 220 You will be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity. 

< 331 User my-username OK. Password required 

< 230-User my-username has group access to: my-group < 230 OK. Current restricted directory is /

< 257 "/" is your current location 
* Entry path is '/'
* Uploading to a URL without a file name!
* Closing connection #0
error: Cannot access URL ftp://my-ftp-server/git/test.git/, return code
3 fatal: git-http-push failed

I don't think vanilla git supports pushing over ftp.

There are plugins like https://github.com/resmo/git-ftp tho.

Philippe

On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Philippe Vaucher <philippe.vaucher-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:

At least according to the documentation[1], "Git natively supports [...] ftp".

This could need some clarification if pushing over ftp is not supported.

[1] http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-push.html#URLS

On Fri, 5 Oct 2012 15:46:33 +0200 Philippe Vaucher <philippe.vaucher-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:

git-ftp's functionality is completely orthogonal to `git push` -- this script allows to sync a tree referenced by the specified Git commit with a remote directory accessible via FTP, transferring only new and modified files and deleting disappeared files and directories. IOW, git-ftp is a (very handy) Git-powered *deployment* tool, not a backend for `git push` or something like that.

Thomas Ferris Nicolaisen <tfnico-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> writes:

The commit 5ce4f4e (Documentation/urls: Rewrite to accomodate <transport>::<address>, 2010-04-06) that came from

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/145196/focus=145205

was supposed to be just a clarification of the document, but it added ftp to the list without justification. Its earlier round is this

    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/143499

and it did not mention ftp; I wonder why we missed this addition during the review process.

The ftp transport might have worked for fetching in the distant past for "dumb and slow" commit walking fetches, but it was never supposed to work with any kind of pushes as far as I know. I wouldn't be surprised if the dumb and slow commit walking fetch no longer works with ftp.

Junio C Hamano wrote:

Hm, my bad.  Would this fix the problem?

-- 8< --
From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 20:57:15 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] Documentation/urls: git does not natively support ftp

5ce4f4e (Documentation/urls: Rewrite to accomodate <transport>::<address>, 2010-04-06) added ftp[s] to the list of supported protocols without justification. Fix this.

Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/urls.txt | 5 ++---
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:

[...]

Perhaps the initial list should not be exhaustive, in which case we could say:

	Git natively supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols.  The
	following syntaxes may be used with them:

	...

	Git also has (less efficient) support for fetching and pushing
	over rsync protocol and fetching over ftp or ftps, using the
	same "protocol://host/path/to/repo.git/" syntax.

Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> writes:

Yeah, that, possibly with "These are deprecated; do not use them.", would be a better way forward. As we deprecated "rsync" long time ago, perhaps we should remove it at Git 2.0 or somewhere around that.

By the way, that old patch by Ram in question was *not* incorrect per-se back then when dumb http was still more prevalent option between the two http transports. Fetching over dumb http and dumb ftp were both equally bad ;-) It just has become less relevant as more people start equating http with the smart http, where there is no equivalent "smart ftp".

Junio C Hamano wrote:

I see.  Will we remove ftp[s] support too?  I hope this is in order.

-- 8< --
From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 20:57:15 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] Documentation/urls: mark rsync and ftp[s] as deprecated

Fetching and pushing over rsync, and fetching over ftp or ftps are deprecated, and will soon be removed. Add a note saying this.

Helped-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/urls.txt | 11 +++++++----
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:

I don't see why that would be desirable, as long as libcurl continues to support it for free.

[...]

I thought the real rationale was to avoid creating the illusion of supporting push over ftp. Having a paper trail to comfort people who notice when rsync support vanishes is just an added bonus.

[...]

I'd suggest dropping ", and will soon be removed." or replacing it with ". Don't use them." to avoid the question of how soon "soon" is.

With that change and with a clearer commit message, this will probably be good to go imho.

Thanks, Jonathan

Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> writes:

Yup; thanks.

Junio C Hamano <gitster-e+AXbWqSrlAAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> writes:

Let's do this, then.

-- >8 --
From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
Subject: Git url doc: mark ftp/ftps as read-only and deprecate them

It is not even worth mentioning their removal; just discourage people from using them.

Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
Helped-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster-e+AXbWqSrlAAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
---
 Documentation/urls.txt | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Junio C Hamano wrote:

I think it would be nicer to start with the important info (git supports ssh, git, http, https) and deal with less important parts like rsync support later in the document, but this looks like a good minimal fix. Thanks for pushing it to completion.

For what it's worth,
Reviewed-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>

Thanks.