Subject: Re: Git dumb HTTP protocol should work without update-server-info

From: "brian m. carlson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2025 17:42:43 +0000

On 2025-09-07 at 17:23:28, Milan Hauth wrote:
> > HTTP push
> 
> im only talking about "read" operations:
> 
> git ls-remote
> git fetch
> git pull

Yes, as I said, reading directories is only possible with WebDAV since
HTTP doesn't offer native directory listing.  However, we don't use
WebDAV for fetches and other read operations and not all web servers
support it.  We get better web server support in many cases by requiring
that the server side do the work of updating the lists of packs and
refs.

Without some way to list directories, you cannot in the general case
iterate over the refs and packs in the file system without a manifest,
so creating a manifest is what update-server-info does.

This is also why most tools which provide HTTP access in the file system
require WebDAV, since it isn't very useful to have a file system where
you can't list directories.  (We abandoned directory-less file systems
in the early DOS and Macintosh days.)
-- 
brian m. carlson (they/them)
Toronto, Ontario, CA