annotate contrib/chg/README @ 37557:734515aca84d

wireproto: define and implement HTTP handshake to upgrade protocol

When clients connect to repositories over HTTP, they issue a request
to the well-known URL "?cmd=capabilities" to fetch the repository
capabilities. This is the handshake portion of the HTTP protocol.

This commit defines a mechanism to use that HTTP request to return
information about modern server features.

If a client sends an X-HgUpgrade-* header containing a list of
client-supported API names, the server responds with a response
containing information about available services. This includes
the normal capabilities string. So if the server doesn't support
any newer services, the client can easily fall back.

By advertising supported services from clients, server operators
can see and log what client support exists in the wild. This will
also help with debugging.

The response contains the base path to API services. We know there
are potential issues with the <repo>/api/ URL space conflicting with
hgwebdir and subrepos. By making the API URL dynamic from the
perspective of the client, the URL for APIs is not subject to backwards
compatibility concerns - at least as long as a ?cmd=capabilities request
is made.

We've also defined the ``cbor`` client capability for the X-HgProto-*
header. This MUST be sent in order to get the modern response from
"?cmd=capabilities". During implementation, I initially always sent
an application/mercurial-cbor response. However, the handshake
mechanism will be more future compatible if the client is in charge
of which formats to request. We already perform content negotiation
from X-HgProto-*, so keying off this for the capabilities response
feels appropriate.

In addition, I initially used application/cbor. However, it is
conceivable that a non-Mercurial server could serve application/cbor.
To rule out this possibility, I've invented a new media type that
is Mercurial specific and can't be confused for generic CBOR.

Differential Revision: https://phab.mercurial-scm.org/D3242

cHg
===

A fast client for Mercurial command server running on Unix.

Install:

 $ make
 $ make install

Usage:

 $ chg help                 # show help of Mercurial
 $ alias hg=chg             # replace hg command
 $ chg --kill-chg-daemon    # terminate background server

Environment variables:

Although cHg tries to update environment variables, some of them cannot be
changed after spawning the server. The following variables are specially
handled:

 * configuration files are reloaded automatically by default.
 * CHGHG or HG specifies the path to the hg executable spawned as the
   background command server.

The following variables are available for testing:

 * CHGDEBUG enables debug messages.
 * CHGSOCKNAME specifies the socket path of the background cmdserver.
 * CHGTIMEOUT specifies how many seconds chg will wait before giving up
   connecting to a cmdserver. If it is 0, chg will wait forever. Default: 60