Merge branch 'ds/refmap-doc'
[git.git] / credential.h
blob5772d5057727ac277fdcd9bfbe2b2b974f8f960a
1 #ifndef CREDENTIAL_H
2 #define CREDENTIAL_H
4 #include "string-list.h"
6 /**
7 * The credentials API provides an abstracted way of gathering username and
8 * password credentials from the user.
10 * Typical setup
11 * -------------
13 * ------------
14 * +-----------------------+
15 * | Git code (C) |--- to server requiring --->
16 * | | authentication
17 * |.......................|
18 * | C credential API |--- prompt ---> User
19 * +-----------------------+
20 * ^ |
21 * | pipe |
22 * | v
23 * +-----------------------+
24 * | Git credential helper |
25 * +-----------------------+
26 * ------------
28 * The Git code (typically a remote-helper) will call the C API to obtain
29 * credential data like a login/password pair (credential_fill). The
30 * API will itself call a remote helper (e.g. "git credential-cache" or
31 * "git credential-store") that may retrieve credential data from a
32 * store. If the credential helper cannot find the information, the C API
33 * will prompt the user. Then, the caller of the API takes care of
34 * contacting the server, and does the actual authentication.
36 * C API
37 * -----
39 * The credential C API is meant to be called by Git code which needs to
40 * acquire or store a credential. It is centered around an object
41 * representing a single credential and provides three basic operations:
42 * fill (acquire credentials by calling helpers and/or prompting the user),
43 * approve (mark a credential as successfully used so that it can be stored
44 * for later use), and reject (mark a credential as unsuccessful so that it
45 * can be erased from any persistent storage).
47 * Example
48 * ~~~~~~~
50 * The example below shows how the functions of the credential API could be
51 * used to login to a fictitious "foo" service on a remote host:
53 * -----------------------------------------------------------------------
54 * int foo_login(struct foo_connection *f)
55 * {
56 * int status;
57 * // Create a credential with some context; we don't yet know the
58 * // username or password.
60 * struct credential c = CREDENTIAL_INIT;
61 * c.protocol = xstrdup("foo");
62 * c.host = xstrdup(f->hostname);
64 * // Fill in the username and password fields by contacting
65 * // helpers and/or asking the user. The function will die if it
66 * // fails.
67 * credential_fill(&c);
69 * // Otherwise, we have a username and password. Try to use it.
71 * status = send_foo_login(f, c.username, c.password);
72 * switch (status) {
73 * case FOO_OK:
74 * // It worked. Store the credential for later use.
75 * credential_accept(&c);
76 * break;
77 * case FOO_BAD_LOGIN:
78 * // Erase the credential from storage so we don't try it again.
79 * credential_reject(&c);
80 * break;
81 * default:
82 * // Some other error occurred. We don't know if the
83 * // credential is good or bad, so report nothing to the
84 * // credential subsystem.
85 * }
87 * // Free any associated resources.
88 * credential_clear(&c);
90 * return status;
91 * }
92 * -----------------------------------------------------------------------
94 * Credential Helpers
95 * ------------------
97 * Credential helpers are programs executed by Git to fetch or save
98 * credentials from and to long-term storage (where "long-term" is simply
99 * longer than a single Git process; e.g., credentials may be stored
100 * in-memory for a few minutes, or indefinitely on disk).
102 * Each helper is specified by a single string in the configuration
103 * variable `credential.helper` (and others, see Documentation/git-config.txt).
104 * The string is transformed by Git into a command to be executed using
105 * these rules:
107 * 1. If the helper string begins with "!", it is considered a shell
108 * snippet, and everything after the "!" becomes the command.
110 * 2. Otherwise, if the helper string begins with an absolute path, the
111 * verbatim helper string becomes the command.
113 * 3. Otherwise, the string "git credential-" is prepended to the helper
114 * string, and the result becomes the command.
116 * The resulting command then has an "operation" argument appended to it
117 * (see below for details), and the result is executed by the shell.
119 * Here are some example specifications:
121 * ----------------------------------------------------
122 * # run "git credential-foo"
123 * foo
125 * # same as above, but pass an argument to the helper
126 * foo --bar=baz
128 * # the arguments are parsed by the shell, so use shell
129 * # quoting if necessary
130 * foo --bar="whitespace arg"
132 * # you can also use an absolute path, which will not use the git wrapper
133 * /path/to/my/helper --with-arguments
135 * # or you can specify your own shell snippet
136 * !f() { echo "password=`cat $HOME/.secret`"; }; f
137 * ----------------------------------------------------
139 * Generally speaking, rule (3) above is the simplest for users to specify.
140 * Authors of credential helpers should make an effort to assist their
141 * users by naming their program "git-credential-$NAME", and putting it in
142 * the $PATH or $GIT_EXEC_PATH during installation, which will allow a user
143 * to enable it with `git config credential.helper $NAME`.
145 * When a helper is executed, it will have one "operation" argument
146 * appended to its command line, which is one of:
148 * `get`::
150 * Return a matching credential, if any exists.
152 * `store`::
154 * Store the credential, if applicable to the helper.
156 * `erase`::
158 * Remove a matching credential, if any, from the helper's storage.
160 * The details of the credential will be provided on the helper's stdin
161 * stream. The exact format is the same as the input/output format of the
162 * `git credential` plumbing command (see the section `INPUT/OUTPUT
163 * FORMAT` in Documentation/git-credential.txt for a detailed specification).
165 * For a `get` operation, the helper should produce a list of attributes
166 * on stdout in the same format. A helper is free to produce a subset, or
167 * even no values at all if it has nothing useful to provide. Any provided
168 * attributes will overwrite those already known about by Git. If a helper
169 * outputs a `quit` attribute with a value of `true` or `1`, no further
170 * helpers will be consulted, nor will the user be prompted (if no
171 * credential has been provided, the operation will then fail).
173 * For a `store` or `erase` operation, the helper's output is ignored.
174 * If it fails to perform the requested operation, it may complain to
175 * stderr to inform the user. If it does not support the requested
176 * operation (e.g., a read-only store), it should silently ignore the
177 * request.
179 * If a helper receives any other operation, it should silently ignore the
180 * request. This leaves room for future operations to be added (older
181 * helpers will just ignore the new requests).
187 * This struct represents a single username/password combination
188 * along with any associated context. All string fields should be
189 * heap-allocated (or NULL if they are not known or not applicable).
190 * The meaning of the individual context fields is the same as
191 * their counterparts in the helper protocol.
193 * This struct should always be initialized with `CREDENTIAL_INIT` or
194 * `credential_init`.
196 struct credential {
199 * A `string_list` of helpers. Each string specifies an external
200 * helper which will be run, in order, to either acquire or store
201 * credentials. This list is filled-in by the API functions
202 * according to the corresponding configuration variables before
203 * consulting helpers, so there usually is no need for a caller to
204 * modify the helpers field at all.
206 struct string_list helpers;
208 unsigned approved:1,
209 configured:1,
210 quit:1,
211 use_http_path:1;
213 char *username;
214 char *password;
215 char *protocol;
216 char *host;
217 char *path;
220 #define CREDENTIAL_INIT { STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP }
222 /* Initialize a credential structure, setting all fields to empty. */
223 void credential_init(struct credential *);
226 * Free any resources associated with the credential structure, returning
227 * it to a pristine initialized state.
229 void credential_clear(struct credential *);
232 * Instruct the credential subsystem to fill the username and
233 * password fields of the passed credential struct by first
234 * consulting helpers, then asking the user. After this function
235 * returns, the username and password fields of the credential are
236 * guaranteed to be non-NULL. If an error occurs, the function will
237 * die().
239 void credential_fill(struct credential *);
242 * Inform the credential subsystem that the provided credentials
243 * were successfully used for authentication. This will cause the
244 * credential subsystem to notify any helpers of the approval, so
245 * that they may store the result to be used again. Any errors
246 * from helpers are ignored.
248 void credential_approve(struct credential *);
251 * Inform the credential subsystem that the provided credentials
252 * have been rejected. This will cause the credential subsystem to
253 * notify any helpers of the rejection (which allows them, for
254 * example, to purge the invalid credentials from storage). It
255 * will also free() the username and password fields of the
256 * credential and set them to NULL (readying the credential for
257 * another call to `credential_fill`). Any errors from helpers are
258 * ignored.
260 void credential_reject(struct credential *);
262 int credential_read(struct credential *, FILE *);
263 void credential_write(const struct credential *, FILE *);
265 /* Parse a URL into broken-down credential fields. */
266 void credential_from_url(struct credential *, const char *url);
268 int credential_match(const struct credential *have,
269 const struct credential *want);
271 #endif /* CREDENTIAL_H */