[jc: trying to resend this message I sent late last night, because vger did not seem to have relayed it to the list for some unknown reason.] Some people noticed that they have trouble going to remote site over ssh transport using 'next' version of git. A brief git transport primer may be helpful to understand what is going on. When you run "git fetch" (and remember, "git pull" runs it before it runs "git merge") against a remote over ssh transport, it asks the other side to run "git-upload-pack" program. We have always used the dashed form "git-upload-pack" to make this request. Similarly, "git push" (and "git send-pack") runs "git-receive-pack" and "git archive --remote" runs "git-upload-archive" on the other end. We have promised to move most of the git-$foobar programs out of the end users' $PATH starting from 1.6.0. After git-upload-pack moves outside $PATH, however, asking the shell invoked via ssh on the other and to run git-upload-pack won't find it, because the program is not found anywhere on $PATH. Hence, change to ask for "git upload-pack" is eventually necessary. We cannot avoid it. Now, when the remote side runs pre-1.6.0 software, and the ssh daemon on it runs a real shell, asking for "git upload-pack" (i.e. dashless form) does not have any problem. "git" will be on your $PATH and it always knows where "git-upload-pack" is found, and it will run the program you wanted to run just fine. However, when the remote side does not let you run a real shell, this is problematic. For example, your login shell can be set to "git-shell" (git restricted shell), which refuses to run anything but git-upload-pack, git-receive-pack, or git-upload-archive. Specifically, it does not allow you to run "git" itself with arbitrary arguments. Asking such a server to run "git upload-pack" will not work. gitosis is another example of such a server. Both git-shell and gitosis already have patches to prepare them to accept requests in either forms. It is still possible to connect to older remote end with new clients, but you have to explicitly ask for "git-upload-pack" by using --upload-pack= option when running "git fetch", which is a bit cumbersome. Hence, we have to wait before people can update their servers, and then update the client side to start asking for "git upload-pack" and friends with dashless form. The patch to prepare the client side for this was prepared and queued in "next" a few days ago. Consider this glitch as a part of proving the change while in next. You have a real-world opportunity to make sure that the workaround to use --upload-pack= actually works with older remote end and send in success reports ;-) In other words, Sorry, I screwed up. I've cut v1.5.4.6 and v1.5.5.5 releases tonight (they are tagged and pushed out already), both of which contain updates to "git-shell" so that it accepts both dashed and non-dashed forms, to make it easier for people to update their servers. At the same time, the change to the client side has been reverted from 'next' for now. Cooking and proving the client side change in next will still be needed, but we'll postpone it for now. Also, 1.6.0 will still install git-upload-pack and friends that are needed on the server side in $(bindir) that is on your $PATH, so that older clients will still work. So the timeline will be: * Futureproofed "git-shell" and gitosis are released. People slowly start deploying them. Both old and (unreleased yet) new clients will be able to talk to them. * 1.6.0 installs git-upload-pack and friends in $(bindir) on your $PATH. Both old clients and 1.6.0 clients will ask for git-upload-pack and the real shell will still be able to find them. * 6 months after 1.6.0 ships, these futureproofed "git-shell" and gitosis will be in widespread use and nobody runs older servers anymore. A major release after this happens will change the client to start asking for "git upload-pack" (dashless form). You would need --upload-pack=git-upload-pack option to talk to ancient servers when this happens (and past few days were preview of this). * 12 months after that major release ships, these new clients will be in widespread use and nobody runs older clients anymore. A major release after this happens will stop installing git-upload-pack and friends in $(bindir). Older clients (like v1.5.0) would use --upload-pack="git upload-pack" to talk to new servers. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
