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1Documentation Common to Pack and Http Protocols
2===============================================
3
4ABNF Notation
5-------------
6
7ABNF notation as described by RFC 5234 is used within the protocol documents,
8except the following replacement core rules are used:
9----
10 HEXDIG = DIGIT / "a" / "b" / "c" / "d" / "e" / "f"
11----
12
13We also define the following common rules:
14----
15 NUL = %x00
16 zero-id = 40*"0"
17 obj-id = 40*(HEXDIGIT)
18
19 refname = "HEAD"
20 refname /= "refs/" <see discussion below>
21----
22
23A refname is a hierarchical octet string beginning with "refs/" and
24not violating the 'git-check-ref-format' command's validation rules.
25More specifically, they:
26
27. They can include slash `/` for hierarchical (directory)
28 grouping, but no slash-separated component can begin with a
29 dot `.`.
30
31. They must contain at least one `/`. This enforces the presence of a
32 category like `heads/`, `tags/` etc. but the actual names are not
33 restricted.
34
35. They cannot have two consecutive dots `..` anywhere.
36
37. They cannot have ASCII control characters (i.e. bytes whose
38 values are lower than \040, or \177 `DEL`), space, tilde `~`,
6cf378f0 39 caret `^`, colon `:`, question-mark `?`, asterisk `*`,
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40 or open bracket `[` anywhere.
41
a58088ab 42. They cannot end with a slash `/` or a dot `.`.
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43
44. They cannot end with the sequence `.lock`.
45
46. They cannot contain a sequence `@{`.
47
48. They cannot contain a `\\`.
49
50
51pkt-line Format
52---------------
53
54Much (but not all) of the payload is described around pkt-lines.
55
56A pkt-line is a variable length binary string. The first four bytes
57of the line, the pkt-len, indicates the total length of the line,
58in hexadecimal. The pkt-len includes the 4 bytes used to contain
59the length's hexadecimal representation.
60
61A pkt-line MAY contain binary data, so implementors MUST ensure
62pkt-line parsing/formatting routines are 8-bit clean.
63
64A non-binary line SHOULD BE terminated by an LF, which if present
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65MUST be included in the total length. Receivers MUST treat pkt-lines
66with non-binary data the same whether or not they contain the trailing
67LF (stripping the LF if present, and not complaining when it is
68missing).
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70The maximum length of a pkt-line's data component is 65516 bytes.
71Implementations MUST NOT send pkt-line whose length exceeds 65520
72(65516 bytes of payload + 4 bytes of length data).
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73
74Implementations SHOULD NOT send an empty pkt-line ("0004").
75
76A pkt-line with a length field of 0 ("0000"), called a flush-pkt,
77is a special case and MUST be handled differently than an empty
78pkt-line ("0004").
79
80----
81 pkt-line = data-pkt / flush-pkt
82
83 data-pkt = pkt-len pkt-payload
84 pkt-len = 4*(HEXDIG)
85 pkt-payload = (pkt-len - 4)*(OCTET)
86
87 flush-pkt = "0000"
88----
89
90Examples (as C-style strings):
91
92----
93 pkt-line actual value
94 ---------------------------------
95 "0006a\n" "a\n"
96 "0005a" "a"
97 "000bfoobar\n" "foobar\n"
98 "0004" ""
99----