6 git-receive-pack - Receive what is pushed into the repository
12 'git receive-pack' <git-dir>
16 Invoked by 'git send-pack' and updates the repository with the
17 information fed from the remote end.
19 This command is usually not invoked directly by the end user.
20 The UI for the protocol is on the 'git send-pack' side, and the
21 program pair is meant to be used to push updates to a remote
22 repository. For pull operations, see linkgit:git-fetch-pack[1].
24 The command allows for the creation and fast-forwarding of sha1 refs
25 (heads/tags) on the remote end (strictly speaking, it is the
26 local end 'git-receive-pack' runs, but to the user who is sitting at
27 the send-pack end, it is updating the remote. Confused?)
29 There are other real-world examples of using update and
30 post-update hooks found in the Documentation/howto directory.
32 'git-receive-pack' honours the receive.denyNonFastForwards config
33 option, which tells it if updates to a ref should be denied if they
34 are not fast-forwards.
36 A number of other receive.* config options are available to tweak
37 its behavior, see linkgit:git-config[1].
42 The repository to sync into.
44 --http-backend-info-refs::
45 Used by linkgit:git-http-backend[1] to serve up
46 `$GIT_URL/info/refs?service=git-receive-pack` requests. See
47 `--http-backend-info-refs` in linkgit:git-upload-pack[1].
51 Before any ref is updated, if $GIT_DIR/hooks/pre-receive file exists
52 and is executable, it will be invoked once with no parameters. The
53 standard input of the hook will be one line per ref to be updated:
55 sha1-old SP sha1-new SP refname LF
57 The refname value is relative to $GIT_DIR; e.g. for the master
58 head this is "refs/heads/master". The two sha1 values before
59 each refname are the object names for the refname before and after
60 the update. Refs to be created will have sha1-old equal to 0\{40},
61 while refs to be deleted will have sha1-new equal to 0\{40}, otherwise
62 sha1-old and sha1-new should be valid objects in the repository.
64 When accepting a signed push (see linkgit:git-push[1]), the signed
65 push certificate is stored in a blob and an environment variable
66 `GIT_PUSH_CERT` can be consulted for its object name. See the
67 description of `post-receive` hook for an example. In addition, the
68 certificate is verified using GPG and the result is exported with
69 the following environment variables:
71 `GIT_PUSH_CERT_SIGNER`::
72 The name and the e-mail address of the owner of the key that
73 signed the push certificate.
76 The GPG key ID of the key that signed the push certificate.
78 `GIT_PUSH_CERT_STATUS`::
79 The status of GPG verification of the push certificate,
80 using the same mnemonic as used in `%G?` format of `git log`
81 family of commands (see linkgit:git-log[1]).
83 `GIT_PUSH_CERT_NONCE`::
84 The nonce string the process asked the signer to include
85 in the push certificate. If this does not match the value
86 recorded on the "nonce" header in the push certificate, it
87 may indicate that the certificate is a valid one that is
88 being replayed from a separate "git push" session.
90 `GIT_PUSH_CERT_NONCE_STATUS`::
92 "git push --signed" sent a nonce when we did not ask it to
95 "git push --signed" did not send any nonce header.
97 "git push --signed" sent a bogus nonce.
99 "git push --signed" sent the nonce we asked it to send.
101 "git push --signed" sent a nonce different from what we
102 asked it to send now, but in a previous session. See
103 `GIT_PUSH_CERT_NONCE_SLOP` environment variable.
105 `GIT_PUSH_CERT_NONCE_SLOP`::
106 "git push --signed" sent a nonce different from what we
107 asked it to send now, but in a different session whose
108 starting time is different by this many seconds from the
109 current session. Only meaningful when
110 `GIT_PUSH_CERT_NONCE_STATUS` says `SLOP`.
111 Also read about `receive.certNonceSlop` variable in
112 linkgit:git-config[1].
114 This hook is called before any refname is updated and before any
115 fast-forward checks are performed.
117 If the pre-receive hook exits with a non-zero exit status no updates
118 will be performed, and the update, post-receive and post-update
119 hooks will not be invoked either. This can be useful to quickly
120 bail out if the update is not to be supported.
122 See the notes on the quarantine environment below.
126 Before each ref is updated, if $GIT_DIR/hooks/update file exists
127 and is executable, it is invoked once per ref, with three parameters:
129 $GIT_DIR/hooks/update refname sha1-old sha1-new
131 The refname parameter is relative to $GIT_DIR; e.g. for the master
132 head this is "refs/heads/master". The two sha1 arguments are
133 the object names for the refname before and after the update.
134 Note that the hook is called before the refname is updated,
135 so either sha1-old is 0\{40} (meaning there is no such ref yet),
136 or it should match what is recorded in refname.
138 The hook should exit with non-zero status if it wants to disallow
139 updating the named ref. Otherwise it should exit with zero.
141 Successful execution (a zero exit status) of this hook does not
142 ensure the ref will actually be updated, it is only a prerequisite.
143 As such it is not a good idea to send notices (e.g. email) from
144 this hook. Consider using the post-receive hook instead.
148 After all refs were updated (or attempted to be updated), if any
149 ref update was successful, and if $GIT_DIR/hooks/post-receive
150 file exists and is executable, it will be invoked once with no
151 parameters. The standard input of the hook will be one line
152 for each successfully updated ref:
154 sha1-old SP sha1-new SP refname LF
156 The refname value is relative to $GIT_DIR; e.g. for the master
157 head this is "refs/heads/master". The two sha1 values before
158 each refname are the object names for the refname before and after
159 the update. Refs that were created will have sha1-old equal to
160 0\{40}, while refs that were deleted will have sha1-new equal to
161 0\{40}, otherwise sha1-old and sha1-new should be valid objects in
164 The `GIT_PUSH_CERT*` environment variables can be inspected, just as
165 in `pre-receive` hook, after accepting a signed push.
167 Using this hook, it is easy to generate mails describing the updates
168 to the repository. This example script sends one mail message per
169 ref listing the commits pushed to the repository, and logs the push
170 certificates of signed pushes with good signatures to a logger
175 # mail out commit update information.
176 while read oval nval ref
178 if expr "$oval" : '0*$' >/dev/null
180 echo "Created a new ref, with the following commits:"
181 git rev-list --pretty "$nval"
184 git rev-list --pretty "$nval" "^$oval"
186 mail -s "Changes to ref $ref" commit-list@mydomain
188 # log signed push certificate, if any
189 if test -n "${GIT_PUSH_CERT-}" && test ${GIT_PUSH_CERT_STATUS} = G
192 echo expected nonce is ${GIT_PUSH_NONCE}
193 git cat-file blob ${GIT_PUSH_CERT}
194 ) | mail -s "push certificate from $GIT_PUSH_CERT_SIGNER" push-log@mydomain
199 The exit code from this hook invocation is ignored, however a
200 non-zero exit code will generate an error message.
202 Note that it is possible for refname to not have sha1-new when this
203 hook runs. This can easily occur if another user modifies the ref
204 after it was updated by 'git-receive-pack', but before the hook was able
205 to evaluate it. It is recommended that hooks rely on sha1-new
206 rather than the current value of refname.
210 After all other processing, if at least one ref was updated, and
211 if $GIT_DIR/hooks/post-update file exists and is executable, then
212 post-update will be called with the list of refs that have been updated.
213 This can be used to implement any repository wide cleanup tasks.
215 The exit code from this hook invocation is ignored; the only thing
216 left for 'git-receive-pack' to do at that point is to exit itself
219 This hook can be used, for example, to run `git update-server-info`
220 if the repository is packed and is served via a dumb transport.
224 exec git update-server-info
228 QUARANTINE ENVIRONMENT
229 ----------------------
231 When `receive-pack` takes in objects, they are placed into a temporary
232 "quarantine" directory within the `$GIT_DIR/objects` directory and
233 migrated into the main object store only after the `pre-receive` hook
234 has completed. If the push fails before then, the temporary directory is
237 This has a few user-visible effects and caveats:
239 1. Pushes which fail due to problems with the incoming pack, missing
240 objects, or due to the `pre-receive` hook will not leave any
241 on-disk data. This is usually helpful to prevent repeated failed
242 pushes from filling up your disk, but can make debugging more
245 2. Any objects created by the `pre-receive` hook will be created in
246 the quarantine directory (and migrated only if it succeeds).
248 3. The `pre-receive` hook MUST NOT update any refs to point to
249 quarantined objects. Other programs accessing the repository will
250 not be able to see the objects (and if the pre-receive hook fails,
251 those refs would become corrupted). For safety, any ref updates
252 from within `pre-receive` are automatically rejected.
257 linkgit:git-send-pack[1], linkgit:gitnamespaces[7]
261 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite