view contrib/plan9/README @ 36858:01f6bba64424

hgweb: remove support for POST form data (BC)

Previously, we called out to cgi.parse(), which for POST requests
parsed multipart/form-data and application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Type requests for form data, combined it with query string
parameters, returned a union of the values.

As far as I know, nothing in Mercurial actually uses this mechanism
to submit data to the HTTP server. The wire protocol has its own
mechanism for passing parameters. And the web interface only does
GET requests. Removing support for parsing POST data doesn't break
any tests.

Another reason to not like this feature is that cgi.parse() may
modify the QUERY_STRING environment variable as a side-effect.
In addition, it merges both POST data and the query string into
one data structure. This prevents consumers from knowing whether
a variable came from the query string or POST data. That can matter
for some operations.

I suspect we use cgi.parse() because back when this code was
initially implemented, it was the function that was readily
available. In other words, I don't think there was conscious
choice to support POST data: we just got it because cgi.parse()
supported it.

Since nothing uses the feature and it is untested, let's remove
support for parsing POST form data. We can add it back in easily
enough if we need it in the future.

.. bc::

   Hgweb no longer reads form data in POST requests from
   multipart/form-data and application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   requests. Arguments should be specified as URL path components
   or in the query string in the URL instead.

Differential Revision: https://phab.mercurial-scm.org/D2774

Mercurial for Plan 9 from Bell Labs
===================================

This directory contains support for Mercurial on Plan 9 from Bell Labs
platforms. It is assumed that the version of Python running on these
systems supports the ANSI/POSIX Environment (APE). At the time of this
writing, the bichued/python port is the most commonly installed version
of Python on these platforms. If a native port of Python is ever made,
some minor modification will need to be made to support some of the more
esoteric requirements of the platform rather than those currently made
(cf. posix.py).

By default, installations will have the factotum extension enabled; this
extension permits factotum(4) to act as an authentication agent for
HTTP repositories. Additionally, an extdiff command named 9diff is
enabled which generates diff(1) compatible output suitable for use with
the plumber(4).

Commit messages are plumbed using E if no editor is defined; users must
update the plumbed file to continue, otherwise the hg process must be
interrupted.

Some work remains with regard to documentation. Section 5 manual page
references for hgignore and hgrc need to be re-numbered to section 6 (file
formats) and a new man page writer should be written to support the
Plan 9 man macro set. Until these issues can be resolved, manual pages
are elided from the installation.

Basic install:

  % mk install      # do a system-wide install
  % hg debuginstall # sanity-check setup
  % hg              # see help

A proto(2) file is included in this directory as an example of how a
binary distribution could be packaged, ostensibly with contrib(1).

See https://mercurial-scm.org/ for detailed installation
instructions, platform-specific notes, and Mercurial user information.