annotate tests/helpers-testrepo.sh @ 37048:fc5e261915b9

wireproto: require POST for all HTTPv2 requests

Wire protocol version 1 transfers argument data via request
headers by default. This has historically caused problems because
servers institute limits on the length of individual HTTP headers
as well as the total size of all request headers. Mercurial servers
can advertise the maximum length of an individual header. But
there's no guarantee any intermediate HTTP agents will accept
headers up to that length.

In the existing wire protocol, server operators typically also
key off the HTTP request method to implement authentication.
For example, GET requests translate to read-only requests and
can be allowed. But read-write commands must use POST and require
authentication. This has typically worked because the only wire
protocol commands that use POST modify the repo (e.g. the
"unbundle" command).

There is an experimental feature to enable clients to transmit
argument data via POST request bodies. This is technically a
better and more robust solution. But we can't enable it by default
because of servers assuming POST means write access.

In version 2 of the wire protocol, the permissions of a request
are encoded in the URL. And with it being a new protocol in a new
URL space, we're not constrained by backwards compatibility
requirements.

This commit adopts the technically superior mechanism of using
HTTP request bodies to send argument data by requiring POST for
all commands. Strictly speaking, it may be possible to send
request bodies on GET requests. But my experience is that not all
HTTP stacks support this. POST pretty much always works. Using POST
for read-only operations does sacrifice some RESTful design
purity. But this API cares about practicality, not about being
in Roy T. Fielding's REST ivory tower.

There's a chance we may relax this restriction in the future. But
for now, I want to see how far we can get with a POST only API.

Differential Revision: https://phab.mercurial-scm.org/D2837

# In most cases, the mercurial repository can be read by the bundled hg, but
# that isn't always true because third-party extensions may change the store
# format, for example. In which case, the system hg installation is used.
#
# We want to use the hg version being tested when interacting with the test
# repository, and the system hg when interacting with the mercurial source code
# repository.
#
# The mercurial source repository was typically orignally cloned with the
# system mercurial installation, and may require extensions or settings from
# the system installation.
syshg () {
    (
        syshgenv
        exec hg "$@"
    )
}

# Revert the environment so that running "hg" runs the system hg
# rather than the test hg installation.
syshgenv () {
    . "$HGTEST_RESTOREENV"
    HGPLAIN=1
    export HGPLAIN
}

# The test-repo is a live hg repository which may have evolution markers
# created, e.g. when a ~/.hgrc enabled evolution.
#
# Tests may be run using a custom HGRCPATH, which do not enable evolution
# markers by default.
#
# If test-repo includes evolution markers, and we do not enable evolution
# markers, hg will occasionally complain when it notices them, which disrupts
# tests resulting in sporadic failures.
#
# Since we aren't performing any write operations on the test-repo, there's
# no harm in telling hg that we support evolution markers, which is what the
# following lines for the hgrc file do:
cat >> "$HGRCPATH" << EOF
[experimental]
evolution = createmarkers
EOF

# Use the system hg command if the bundled hg can't read the repository with
# no warning nor error.
if [ -n "`hg id -R "$TESTDIR/.." 2>&1 >/dev/null`" ]; then
    alias testrepohg=syshg
    alias testrepohgenv=syshgenv
else
    alias testrepohg=hg
    alias testrepohgenv=:
fi