Subject: wishlist; unify behavior while cloning non-bare repos over http to be in line with ssh/local

From: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 6 May 2016 09:18:55 -0400

Dear Git Folks,

Originally this issue was mentioned in previous thread [1], and I have decided
to bring it into a separate thread.  ATM there is a dichotomy in git behavior
between cloning non-bare repos:  if I clone over ssh or just locally by
providing url without trailing /.git, git senses for /.git and works just fine
with ssh or local repositories, but fails for "dummy" http ones, the demo
script is here [2] which produces output listed below.  From which you can see
that  cloning using http URL to the repository without /.git fails (git version
2.8.1, Debian).  As it was noted in [1], concern could have been to not
traverse website since could lead to dangerous places.  But .git is under
originating url directory, as well as info/ or HEAD or any other object
accessed by git, so IMHO this concern is not a concern.

So do you think that cloning from  http urls could be adjusted so git senses
for presence of .git/ subdirectory if originating url is missing necessary
/info/refs?.... ?  That would make behavior uniform and help us and users in
many use-cases IMHO (in particular with relative paths to submodules as in
[1])

Thank you in advance, and please maintain CC

$> /tmp/democlone
Initiating repo
cloning via ssh: localhost:/tmp/repo1
Cloning into 'repo1-ssh'...
remote: Counting objects: 3, done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
SUCCESS
cloning locally: /tmp/repo1
Cloning into 'repo1-local'...
done.
SUCCESS
starting local http server
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8080 ...
cloning via http: http://localhost:8080/repo1
Cloning into 'repo1-http-failed'...
127.0.0.1 - - [06/May/2016 09:13:41] code 404, message File not found
127.0.0.1 - - [06/May/2016 09:13:41] "GET /repo1/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1" 404 -
fatal: repository 'http://localhost:8080/repo1/' not found
FAILED
doing with /.git: http://localhost:8080/repo1/.git
Cloning into 'repo1-http'...
127.0.0.1 - - [06/May/2016 09:13:41] "GET /repo1/.git/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1" 200 -
127.0.0.1 - - [06/May/2016 09:13:41] "GET /repo1/.git/HEAD HTTP/1.1" 200 -
127.0.0.1 - - [06/May/2016 09:13:41] "GET /repo1/.git/objects/36/31fa81eb6422349035c915a5a11b177688f491 HTTP/1.1" 200 -
127.0.0.1 - - [06/May/2016 09:13:41] "GET /repo1/.git/objects/12/ddeb87cc045cd67063e95125fbeb014bd1d9b1 HTTP/1.1" 200 -
127.0.0.1 - - [06/May/2016 09:13:41] "GET /repo1/.git/objects/e6/9de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391 HTTP/1.1" 200 -
Checking connectivity... done.
SUCCESS

[1] problems serving non-bare repos with submodules over http
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/292032
[2] http://www.onerussian.com/tmp/democlone
-- 
Yaroslav O. Halchenko
Center for Open Neuroscience     http://centerforopenneuroscience.org
Dartmouth College, 419 Moore Hall, Hinman Box 6207, Hanover, NH 03755
Phone: +1 (603) 646-9834                       Fax: +1 (603) 646-1419
WWW:   http://www.linkedin.com/in/yarik