Subject: Re: Introduction - An Outreachy 2020 Applicant

From: Jonathan Nieder <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2020 20:10:59 -0700

Richard Sharpe wrote:
> Amanda Shafack wrote:

>> Good day.
>>
>> I'm Amanda Shafack, an Outreachy 2020 applicant who wishes to
>> contribute to the "Add Git protocol support to Wireshark" project.
>>
>> I have some experience coding in C and I hope to enhance
>> my skill set by contributing to this project.
>>
>> In addition, I'm fascinated by network protocols and it's really
>> exciting to get my hands around these concepts in a real-world
>> project.
>>
>> I'm currently going through the project description and contribution
>> guidelines.
>
> Welcome. There are many helpful people on the list.
>
> It would be useful if you can point us to a protocol description
> document but that can wait until help is needed. It may be that all
> the online resources are sufficient, but if not, do not hesitate to
> use this list to ask questions.

There's an overview of Git's HTTP protocol in the Pro Git book:

  https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Transfer-Protocols

The official protocol spec in git.git (https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git)
is split between a few files:

  Documentation/technical/protocol-common.txt:
    conventions for protocol docs

  Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt:
    overview of Git protocol

  Documentation/technical/protocol-capabilities.txt:
    optional capabilities

  Documentation/technical/protocol-v2:
    protocol v2, the new default (more about this is at
    https://opensource.googleblog.com/2018/05/introducing-git-protocol-version-2.html)

  Documentation/technical/http-protocol.txt:
    how this works with http

  Documentation/technical/pack-format.txt:
    packed representation of Git objects (used both on disk and over
    the wire)

Amanda, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask
(#git-devel on IRC is the best place for that, and email works as
well).  I am there around 15:00-24:00 UTC most days.  In addition to
working on your initial starter contributions, we can start to put
together a plan for the project.

Richard, to set expectations: the internship period for accepted
interns starts in December: https://www.outreachy.org/apply/project-selection/.
Until then, potential interns are often not free full time, so we
focus on smaller contributions that help get their feet wet in the
codebase.

Excited,
Jonathan