This is ghub.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.1 from ghub.texi.
Copyright (C) 2017-2018 Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li>
You can redistribute this document and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
any later version.
This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
INFO-DIR-SECTION Emacs
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Ghub: (ghub). Minuscule client library for the Github API.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
File: ghub.info, Node: Top, Next: Introduction, Up: (dir)
Ghub User and Developer Manual
******************************
Ghub is a library that provides basic support for using the Github API
from Emacs packages. It abstracts access to API resources using only a
handful of functions that are not resource-specific.
Ghub handles the creation, storage and use of access tokens using a
setup wizard to make it easier for users to get started and to reduce
the support burden imposed on package maintainers. It also comes with a
comprehensive manual to address the cases when things don’t just work as
expected or in case you don’t want to use the wizard.
Ghub is intentionally limited to only provide these two essential
features — basic request functions and guided setup — to avoid being too
opinionated, which would hinder wide adoption. It is assumed that wide
adoption would make life easier for users and maintainers alike, because
then all packages that talk to the Github API could be configured the
same way.
This manual is for Ghub version 2.0.1 (v2.0.1-10-g85b5ae3+1).
Copyright (C) 2017-2018 Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li>
You can redistribute this document and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
any later version.
This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
* Menu:
* Introduction::
* Getting Started::
* Using Ghub in Personal Scripts::
* Using Ghub in a Package::
* API::
* Gitlab Support::
— The Detailed Node Listing —
Getting Started
* Setting the Username::
* Interactively Creating and Storing a Token::
* Manually Creating and Storing a Token::
* How Ghub uses Auth-Source::
API
* Making Requests::
* Authentication::
* Configuration Variables::
File: ghub.info, Node: Introduction, Next: Getting Started, Prev: Top, Up: Top
1 Introduction
**************
Ghub is a library that provides basic support for using the Github API
from Emacs packages. It abstracts access to API resources using only a
handful of functions that are not resource-specific.
Ghub handles the creation, storage and use of access tokens using a
setup wizard to make it easier for users to get started and to reduce
the support burden imposed on package maintainers. It also comes with a
comprehensive manual to address the cases when things don’t just work as
expected or in case you don’t want to use the wizard.
Ghub is intentionally limited to only provide these two essential
features — basic request functions and guided setup — to avoid being too
opinionated, which would hinder wide adoption. It is assumed that wide
adoption would make life easier for users and maintainers alike, because
then all packages that talk to the Github API could be configured the
same way.
Fancier interfaces can be implemented on top of Ghub, and one such
wrapper — named simply Ghub+ — has already been implemented. The
benefit of basing various opinionated interfaces on top of a single
library that provides only the core functionality is that choosing the
programming interface no longer dictates how access tokens are handled.
Users can then use multiple packages that access the Github API without
having to learn the various incompatible ways packages expect the
appropriate token to be made available to them.
Ghub uses the built-in ‘auth-source’ library to store access tokens.
That library is very flexible and supports multiple backends, which
means that it is up to the user how secrets are stored. They can, among
other things, choose between storing secrets in plain text for ease of
use, or encrypted for better security.
Previously (as in until this library is widely adopted) it was up to
package authors to decide if things should be easy or secure. (Note
that ‘auth-source’ defaults to "easy" — you have been warned.)
Ghub expects package authors to use a dedicated access token instead
of sharing a single token between all packages that rely on it. That
means that users cannot configure Ghub once and later start using a new
package without any additional setup. But Ghub helps with that.
When the user invokes some command that ultimately results in
‘ghub-request’ being called and the appropriate token is not available
yet, then the user is guided through the process of creating and storing
a new token, and at the end of that process the request is carried out
as if the token had been available to begin with.
File: ghub.info, Node: Getting Started, Next: Using Ghub in Personal Scripts, Prev: Introduction, Up: Top
2 Getting Started
*****************
Each package that uses Ghub uses its own token. Despite that, chances
are good that after successfully configuring one package you can just
start using another package pretty much instantly.
If the necessary token is not available when a package makes an API
request, then a setup wizard pops up, and after answering a few
questions you are good to go. Even the request that caused the wizard
to be summoned should succeed and for most users this should be true
even when configuring the very first token.
However, in some situations some manual configuration is necessary
*before* using the wizard, or the wizard cannot be used at all:
• If you don’t want to use the wizard then you don’t have to and can
create tokens manually as described in *note Manually Creating and
Storing a Token::.
• If you want to access Gitlab.com or another Gitlab instance, then
you have to create the token manually as describe in *note Manually
Creating and Storing a Token::. Also see *note Gitlab Support::.
• If you want to access a Github Enterprise instance, then you have
to tell Ghub about that before the wizard makes its appearance by
setting the Git variable ‘github.host’. You also have to tell Ghub
your username for that instance using the variable
‘github.HOST.user’ even if it is the same as on Github.com.
• If the variable ‘github.user’ (or ‘github.HOST.user’ for an
Enterprise instance) is unset when the wizard is first summoned,
then you are asked to provide your username. That value is then
stored *globally* to avoid having to ask you that question once per
repository. If you have multiple accounts on Github.com (or an
Enterprise instance), then you have to explicitly tell Ghub about
that. This can be done by setting the repository-local values of
the appropriate variable *before* the wizard is invoked.
• You might forget to do the above, which is why it is important to
carefully read the output of the wizard. If it turns out that you
forgot to set a variable, then you must abort, set the variable,
and repeat the request to trigger the wizard again.
• The setup wizard should work even if you have enabled two-factor
authentication. However if your Github Enterprise instance
enforces Single Sign-On as an additional security measure, then you
are out of luck and have to create the token manually as described
in *note Manually Creating and Storing a Token::.
The variables mentioned above — and others — are documented in *note
Configuration Variables:: and the setup wizard is documented in *note
Interactively Creating and Storing a Token::.
* Menu:
* Setting the Username::
* Interactively Creating and Storing a Token::
* Manually Creating and Storing a Token::
* How Ghub uses Auth-Source::
File: ghub.info, Node: Setting the Username, Next: Interactively Creating and Storing a Token, Up: Getting Started
2.1 Setting the Username
========================
If you haven’t set the Git variable ‘github.user’ yet when making a
request, then you will be asked:
Git variable `github.user' is unset. Set to:
You are expected to provide your Github username here. The provided
value will be saved globally (using ‘git config --global github.user
USERNAME’).
If you need to identify as another user in a particular repository,
then you have to set that variable locally, *before* making a request:
cd /path/to/repo
git config github.user USERNAME
For Github Enterprise instances you have to specify where the API can
be accessed *before* you try to access it and a different variable has
to be used to set the username. For example if the API is available at
‘https://example.com/api/v3’, then you should do this:
# Do this once
git config --global github.example.com/api/v3.user EMPLOYEE
# Do this for every corporate repository
cd /path/to/repo
git config github.host example.com/api/v3
If you do not set ‘github.example.com/api/v3.user’, then you will be
asked to provide the value when trying to make a request, but you do
have to manually set ‘github.host’, or Ghub assumes that you are trying
to access ‘api.github.com’.
File: ghub.info, Node: Interactively Creating and Storing a Token, Next: Manually Creating and Storing a Token, Prev: Setting the Username, Up: Getting Started
2.2 Interactively Creating and Storing a Token
==============================================
Ghub uses a different token for every package as well as for every
machine from which you access the Github API (and obviously also for
every Github instance and user). This allows packages to only request
the scopes that they actually need and also gives users the opportunity
to refuse access to certain scopes if they expect to not use the
features that need them.
Usually you don’t have to worry about creating and storing a token
yourself and can just make a request. Note however that you don’t have
to use the setup wizard described below. Alternatively you can perform
the setup manually as described in the next section.
If you make a request and the required token is not available yet,
then the setup wizard will first ask you something like this:
Such a Github API token is not available:
Host: api.github.com
User: USERNAME
Package: PACKAGE
Scopes requested in `PACKAGE-github-token-scopes':
repo
Store on Github as:
"Emacs package PACKAGE @ LOCAL-MACHINE"
Store locally according to option `auth-sources':
("~/.authinfo" "~/.authinfo.gpg" "~/.netrc")
If in doubt, then abort and first view the section of the Ghub
documentation called "Manually Creating and Storing a Token".
Create and store such a token? (yes or no)
If you don’t have any doubts, then answer "yes". Lets address some
of the doubts that you might have:
• ‘Host’ usually is "api.github.com" and that is usually what you
want. If you are trying to access a Github Enterprise instance,
then it should be something else and you have to set the value
manually before the setup wizard is summoned, as described in the
parent section.
• ‘User’ should be your Github.com (or Github Enterprise instance)
username. If it is something else and it doesn’t look like a
simple typo, then you should read the parent section again. In
either case you have to abort.
• ‘Package’ should be the name of the package you are using to access
the Github API.
If it is ‘ghub’, then the package author disregarded that
convention and you should probably report a bug in the issue
tracker of that package.
Or you yourself are using ‘ghub-request’ or one of its wrappers
directly, in which case this is expected and perfectly fine. In
that case you might however want to abort and change the value of
the variable ‘ghub-github-token-scopes’ before triggering the
wizard again.
• Each ‘PACKAGE’ has to specify the tokens that it needs using a
variable named ‘PACKAGE-github-token-scopes’. The doc-string of
that variable should document why the various scopes are needed.
The meaning of the various scopes are documented at
<https://magit.vc/goto/f63aeb0a>.
• The value of ‘auth-sources’ is shown. The default value causes
secrets to be stored in plain text. Because this might be
unexpected, Ghub additionally displays a warning when appropriate.
WARNING: The token will be stored unencrypted in "~/.authinfo".
If you don't want that, you have to abort and customize
the `auth-sources' option.\n\n" (car auth-sources))
Whether that is something that needs fixing, is up to you. If your
answer is yes, then you should abort and see *note How Ghub uses
Auth-Source:: for instructions on how to save the token more
securely.
• When creating a token it is necessary to provide a token
description. Ghub uses descriptions that have the form "Emacs
package PACKAGE @ LOCAL-MACHINE".
Github uses the token description to identify the token, not merely
as something useful to humans. Token descriptions therefore have
to be unique and in rare cases you get an additional prompt, asking
you something like:
A token named "Emacs package PACKAGE @ LOCAL-MACHINE"
already exists on Github. Replace it?
You might see this message when you have lost the old token and
want to replace it with a new one, in which case you should
obviously just proceed.
Or two of your computers have the same hostname, which is bad
practice because it gains you nothing but leads to issues such as
this. Or you are dual-booting on this machine and use the same
hostname in all operating systems, which is a somewhat reasonable
thing to do, but never-the-less leads to issues like this.
In either case you will have to use something other than the value
returned by ‘system-name’ to identify the current machine or
operating system. Or you can continue to identify different things
using the same identifier, in which case you have to manually
distribute the token.
The former is recommended and also easier to do, using the variable
‘ghub-override-system-name’. See *note Configuration Variables::
for details.
After the above prompt you are also asked for you username and
password. If you have enabled two-factor authentication, then you also
have to provide the authentication code at least twice. If you make
sure the code is still good for a while when asked for it first, then
you can just press ‘RET’ at the later prompt(s).
File: ghub.info, Node: Manually Creating and Storing a Token, Next: How Ghub uses Auth-Source, Prev: Interactively Creating and Storing a Token, Up: Getting Started
2.3 Manually Creating and Storing a Token
=========================================
If you cannot or don’t want to use the wizard then you have to (1)
figure out what scopes a package wants, (2) create such a token using
the web interface and (3) store the token where Ghub expects to find it.
A package named ‘PACKAGE’ has to specify the scopes that it wants in
the variable named ‘PACKAGE-ghub-token-scopes’. The doc-string of such
variables should document what the various scopes are needed for.
To create or edit a token go to <https://github.com/settings/tokens>.
For Gitlab.com use <https://gitlab.com/profile/personal_access_tokens>.
Finally store the token in a place where Ghub looks for it, as
described in *note How Ghub uses Auth-Source::.
If you store the token in a file like ‘~/.authinfo’, then note that
‘auth-source’’s parsing of that file is brittle. Make sure the file
ends with a newline character, that there are no empty or invalid lines,
and that all comments are prefixed with ‘#’.
File: ghub.info, Node: How Ghub uses Auth-Source, Prev: Manually Creating and Storing a Token, Up: Getting Started
2.4 How Ghub uses Auth-Source
=============================
Please see *note (auth)Top:: for all the gory details about Auth-Source.
Some Ghub-specific information and important notes follow.
The variable ‘auth-sources’ controls how and where Auth-Source stores
new secrets and where it looks for known secrets. The default value is
‘("~/.authinfo" "~/.authinfo.gpg" "~/.netrc")’, which means that it
looks in all of these files in order to find secrets and that it stores
new secrets in ‘~/.authinfo’ because that is the first element of the
list. It doesn’t matter which files already do or don’t exist when
storing a new secret, the first file is always used.
Secrets are stored in ‘~/.authinfo’ in plain text. If you don’t want
that (good choice), then you have to customize ‘auth-sources’, e.g. by
flipping the positions of the first two elements.
Auth-Source also supports storing secrets in various key-chains.
Refer to its documentation for more information.
Some Auth-Source backends only support storing three values per
entry, the "machine", the "login" and the "password". Because Ghub uses
separate tokens for each package, it has to squeeze four values into
those three slots, and it does that by using "USERNAME^PACKAGE" as the
"login".
Assuming your username is "ziggy",the package is named "stardust",
and you want to access *Github.com* an entry in one of the three
mentioned files would then look like this:
machine api.github.com login ziggy^stardust password 012345abcdef...
Assuming your username is "ziggy",the package is named "stardust",
and you want to access *Gitlab.com* an entry in one of the three
mentioned files would then look like this:
machine gitlab.com/api/v4 login ziggy^stardust password 012345abcdef...
File: ghub.info, Node: Using Ghub in Personal Scripts, Next: Using Ghub in a Package, Prev: Getting Started, Up: Top
3 Using Ghub in Personal Scripts
********************************
You can use ‘ghub-request’ and its wrapper functions in your personal
scripts, of course. Unlike when you use Ghub from a package that you
distribute for others to use, you don’t have to specify a package in
personal scripts.
;; This is perfectly acceptable in personal scripts ...
(ghub-get "/user")
;; ... and actually equal to
(ghub-get "/user" nil :auth 'ghub)
;; In packages you have to specify the package using AUTH.
(ghub-get "/user" nil :auth 'foobar)
When you do not specify the ‘AUTH’ argument, then a request is made
on behalf of the ‘ghub’ package itself. Like for any package that uses
Ghub, ‘ghub’ has to declare what scopes it needs, using, in this case,
the variable ‘ghub-github-token-scopes’.
The default value of that variable is ‘(repo)’ and you might want to
add additional scopes. You can later add additional scopes to an
existing token, using the web interface at
<https://github.com/settings/tokens>.
If you do that, then you might want to also set the variable
accordingly, but note that Ghub only consults that when *creating* a new
token. If you want to know a token’s effective scopes use the command
‘ghub-token-scopes’, described in the next section.
File: ghub.info, Node: Using Ghub in a Package, Next: API, Prev: Using Ghub in Personal Scripts, Up: Top
4 Using Ghub in a Package
*************************
Every package should use its own token. This allows you as the author
of some package to only request access to API scopes that are actually
needed, which in turn might make it easier for users to trust your
package not to do unwanted things.
The scopes used by ‘PACKAGE’ have to be defined using the variable
‘PACKAGE-github-token-scopes’, and you have to tell ‘ghub-request’ on
behalf of which package a request is being made by passing the symbol
‘PACKAGE’ as the value of its ‘AUTH’ argument.
(ghub-request "GET" "/user" nil :auth 'PACKAGE)
-- Variable: PACKAGE-github-token-scopes
This variable defines the token scopes requested by the package
named ‘PACKAGE’. The doc-string should explain what the various
scopes are needed for to prevent users from giving ‘PACKAGE’ fewer
permissions than it absolutely needs and also to give them greater
confidence that ‘PACKAGE’ is only requesting the permissions that
it actually needs.
The value of this variable does not necessarily correspond to the
scopes that the respective token actually gives access to. There
is nothing that prevents users from changing the value *after*
creating the token or from editing the token’s scopes later on.
So it is pointless to check the value of this variable before
making a request. You also should not query the API to reliably
determine the supported tokens before making a query. Doing the
latter would mean that every request becomes two requests and that
the first request would have to be done using the user’s password
instead of a token.
-- Command: ghub-token-scopes
Because we cannot be certain that the user hasn’t messed up the
scopes, Ghub provides this command to make it easy to debug such
issues without having to rely on users being thoughtful enough to
correctly determine the used scopes manually.
Just tell users to run ‘M-x ghub-token-scopes’ and to provide the
correct values for the ‘HOST’, ‘USERNAME’ and ‘PACKAGE’ when
prompted, and to then post the output.
It is to be expected that users will occasionally mess that up so
this command outputs not only the scopes but also the user input so
that you can have greater confidence in the validity of the user’s
answer.
Scopes for USERNAME^PACKAGE@HOST: (SCOPE...)
File: ghub.info, Node: API, Next: Gitlab Support, Prev: Using Ghub in a Package, Up: Top
5 API
*****
This section describes the Ghub API. In other words it describes the
public functions and variables provided by the Ghub library and not the
Github API that can be accessed by using those functions. The latter is
documented at <https://developer.github.com/v3>.
* Menu:
* Making Requests::
* Authentication::
* Configuration Variables::
File: ghub.info, Node: Making Requests, Next: Authentication, Up: API
5.1 Making Requests
===================
-- Function: ghub-request method resource &optional params &key query
payload headers unpaginate noerror reader username auth host
callback errorback url value error extra method*
This function makes a request for ‘RESOURCE’ using ‘METHOD’.
‘PARAMS’, ‘QUERY’, ‘PAYLOAD’ and/or ‘HEADERS’ are alists holding
additional request data. The response body is returned and the
response header is stored in the variable ‘ghub-response-headers’.
• ‘METHOD’ is the HTTP method, given as a string.
• ‘RESOURCE’ is the resource to access, given as a string
beginning with a slash.
• ‘PARAMS’, ‘QUERY’, ‘PAYLOAD’ and ‘HEADERS’ are alists and are
used to specify request data. All these arguments are alists
that resemble the JSON expected and returned by the Github
API. The keys are symbols and the values stored in the ‘cdr’
(not the ‘cadr’) can be strings, integers, or lists of strings
and integers.
The Github API documentation is vague on how data has to be
transmitted and for a particular resource usually just talks
about "parameters". Generally speaking when the ‘METHOD’ is
"HEAD" or "GET", then they have to be transmitted as a query,
otherwise as a payload.
• Use ‘PARAMS’ to automatically transmit like ‘QUERY’ or
‘PAYLOAD’ would depending on ‘METHOD’.
• Use ‘QUERY’ to explicitly transmit data as a query.
• Use ‘PAYLOAD’ to explicitly transmit data as a payload.
Instead of an alist, ‘PAYLOAD’ may also be a string, in
which case it gets encoded as UTF-8 but is otherwise
transmitted as-is.
• Use ‘HEADERS’ for those rare resources that require that
the data is transmitted as headers instead of as a query
or payload. When that is the case, then the Github API
documentation usually mentions it explicitly.
• If ‘SILENT’ is non-nil, then progress reports and the like are
not messaged.
• If ‘UNPAGINATE’ is t, then this function make as many requests
as necessary to get all values. If ‘UNPAGINATE’ is a natural
number, then it gets at most that many pages. For any other
non-nil value it raises an error.
• If ‘NOERROR’ is non-nil, then no error is raised if the
request fails and ‘nil’ is returned instead. If ‘NOERROR’ is
‘return’, then the error payload is returned instead of ‘nil’.
• If ‘READER’ is non-nil, then it is used to read and return
from the response buffer. The default is
‘ghub--read-json-payload’. For the very few resources that do
not return JSON, you might want to use ‘ghub--decode-payload’.
• If ‘USERNAME’ is non-nil, then the request is made on behalf
of that user. It is better to specify the user using the Git
variable ‘github.user’ for "api.github.com", or
‘github.HOST.user’ if connecting to a Github Enterprise
instance.
• Each package that uses Ghub should use its own token. If
‘AUTH’ is ‘nil’ or unspecified, then the generic ‘ghub’ token
is used instead. This is only acceptable for personal
utilities. A packages that is distributed to other users
should always use this argument to identify itself, using a
symbol matching its name.
Package authors who find this inconvenient should write a
wrapper around this function and possibly for the
method-specific functions as well.
Beside ‘nil’, some other symbols have a special meaning too.
‘none’ means to make an unauthorized request. ‘basic’ means
to make a password based request. If the value is a string,
then it is assumed to be a valid token. ‘basic’ and an
explicit token string are only intended for internal and
debugging uses.
If ‘AUTH’ is a package symbol, then the scopes are specified
using the variable ‘AUTH-github-token-scopes’. It is an error
if that is not specified. See ‘ghub-github-token-scopes’ for
an example.
• If ‘HOST’ is non-nil, then connect to that Github instance.
This defaults to "api.github.com". When a repository is
connected to a Github Enterprise instance, then it is better
to specify that using the Git variable ‘github.host’ instead
of using this argument.
• If ‘FORGE’ is ‘gitlab’, then connect to Gitlab.com or,
depending on ‘HOST’, to another Gitlab instance. This is only
intended for internal use. Instead of using this argument you
should use function ‘glab-request’ and other ‘glab-*’
functions.
• If ‘CALLBACK’ and/or ‘ERRORBACK’ is non-nil, then this
function makes one or more asynchronous requests and calls
‘CALLBACK’ or ‘ERRORBACK’ when finished. If an error
occurred, then it calls ‘ERRORBACK’, or if that is ‘nil’, then
‘CALLBACK’. When no error occurred then it calls ‘CALLBACK’.
When making asynchronous requests, then no errors are
signaled, regardless of the value of ‘NOERROR’.
Both callbacks are called with four arguments.
• For ‘CALLBACK’, the combined value of the retrieved
pages. For ‘ERRORBACK’, the error that occured when
retrieving the last page.
• The headers of the last page as an alist.
• Status information provided by ‘url-retrieve’. Its
‘:error’ property holds the same information as the first
argument to ‘ERRORBACK’.
• A ‘ghub--req’ struct, which can be passed to
‘ghub-continue’ (which see) to retrieve the next page, if
any.
-- Function: ghub-continue args
If there is a next page, then this function retrieves that.
This function is only intended to be called from callbacks. If
there is a next page, then that is retrieve and the buffer that the
result will be loaded into is returned, or t if the process has
already completed. If there is no next page, then return nil.
Callbacks are called with four arguments (see ‘ghub-request’). The
forth argument is a ‘ghub--req’ struct, intended to be passed to
this function. A callbacks may use the struct’s ‘extra’ slot to
pass additional information to the callback that will be called
after the next request. Use the function ‘ghub-req-extra’ to get
and set the value of that slot.
As an example, using ‘ghub-continue’ in a callback like so:
(ghub-get "/users/tarsius/repos" nil
:callback (lambda (value _headers _status req)
(unless (ghub-continue req)
(setq my-value value))))
is equivalent to:
(ghub-get "/users/tarsius/repos" nil
:unpaginate t
:callback (lambda (value _headers _status _req)
(setq my-value value)))
To demonstrate how to pass information from one callback to the
next, here we record when we start fetching each page:
(ghub-get "/users/tarsius/repos" nil
:extra (list (current-time))
:callback (lambda (value _headers _status req)
(push (current-time) (ghub-req-extra req))
(unless (ghub-continue req)
(setq my-times (ghub-req-extra req))
(setq my-value value))))
-- Variable: ghub-response-headers
A select few Github API resources respond by transmitting data in
the response header instead of in the response body. Because there
are so few of these inconsistencies, ‘ghub-request’ always returns
the response body.
To access the response headers use this variable after
‘ghub-request’ has returned.
-- Function: ghub-response-link-relations headers
This function returns an alist of the link relations in ‘HEADERS’,
or if optional ‘HEADERS’ is nil, then those in
‘ghub-response-headers’.
-- Variable: ghub-override-system-name
If non-nil, the value of this variable is used to override the
value returned by ‘system-name’ for the purpose of identifying the
local machine, which is necessary because Ghub uses separate tokens
for each machine. Also see *note Configuration Variables::.
-- Variable: ghub-github-token-scopes
-- Variable: PACKAGE-github-token-scopes
Such a variable defines the token scopes requested by the
respective package ‘PACKAGE’ given by the first word in the
variable name. ‘ghub’ itself is treated like any other package.
Also see *note Using Ghub in a Package::.
-- Function: ghub-head resource &optional params &key query payload
headers unpaginate noerror reader username auth host callback
errorback
-- Function: ghub-get resource &optional params &key query payload
headers unpaginate noerror reader username auth host callback
errorback
These functions are simple wrappers around ‘ghub-request’. Their
signature is identical to that of the latter, except that they do
not have an argument named ‘METHOD’. The HTTP method is instead
given by the second word in the function name.
As described in the documentation for ‘ghub-request’, it depends on
the used method whether the value of the ‘PARAMS’ argument is used
as the query or the payload. For the "HEAD" and "GET" methods it
is used as the query.
-- Function: ghub-put resource &optional params &key query payload
headers unpaginate noerror reader username auth host callback
errorback
-- Function: ghub-post resource &optional params &key query payload
headers unpaginate noerror reader username auth host callback
errorback
-- Function: ghub-patch resource &optional params &key query payload
headers unpaginate noerror reader username auth host callback
errorback
-- Function: ghub-delete resource &optional params &key query payload
headers unpaginate noerror reader username auth host callback
errorback
These functions are simple wrappers around ‘ghub-request’. Their
signature is identical to that of the latter, except that they do
not have an argument named ‘METHOD’. The HTTP method is instead
given by the second word in the function name.
As described in the documentation for ‘ghub-request’, it depends on
the used method whether the value of the ‘PARAMS’ argument is used
as the query or the payload. For the "PUT", "POST", "PATCH" and
"DELETE" methods it is used as the payload.
-- Function: ghub-wait resource &optional duration &key username auth
host
Some API requests result in an immediate successful response even
when the requested action has not actually been carried out yet.
An example is the request for the creation of a new repository,
which doesn’t cause the repository to immediately become available.
The Github API documentation usually mentions this when describing
an affected resource.
If you want to do something with some resource right after making a
request for its creation, then you might have to wait for it to
actually be created. This function can be used to do so. It
repeatedly tries to access the resource until it becomes available
or until the timeout exceeds. In the latter case it signals
‘ghub-error’.
‘RESOURCE’ specifies the resource that this function waits for.
‘DURATION’ specifies the maximum number of seconds to wait for,
defaulting to 64 seconds. Emacs will block during that time, but
the user can abort using ‘C-g’.
The first attempt is made immediately and will often succeed. If
not, then another attempt is made after two seconds, and each
subsequent attempt is made after waiting as long as we already
waited between all preceding attempts combined.
See ‘ghub-request’’s documentation above for information about the
other arguments.
-- Function: ghub-graphql graphql &optional variables &key username
auth host callback
This function makes a GraphQL request using ‘GRAPHQL’ and
‘VARIABLES’ as inputs. ‘GRAPHQL’ is a GraphQL string. ‘VARIABLES’
is a JSON-like alist. The other arguments behave as for
‘ghub-request’ (which see).
The response is returned as a JSON-like alist. Even if the
response contains ‘errors’, this function does not raise an error.
Cursor-handling is likewise left to the caller.
File: ghub.info, Node: Authentication, Next: Configuration Variables, Prev: Making Requests, Up: API
5.2 Authentication
==================
-- Command: ghub-create-token
This command creates a new token using the values it reads from the
user and then stores it according to the variable ‘auth-sources’.
It can also be called non-interactively, but you shouldn’t do that
yourself.
This is useful if you want to fully setup things before attempting
to make the initial request, if you want to provide fewer than the
requested scopes or customize ‘auth-sources’ first, or if something
has gone wrong when using the wizard that is used when making a
request without doing this first. (Note that instead of using this
command you can also just repeat the initial request after making
the desired adjustments — that is easier.)
This command reads, in order, the ‘HOST’ (Github instance), the
‘USERNAME’, the ‘PACKAGE’, and the ‘SCOPES’ in the minibuffer,
providing reasonable default choices. ‘SCOPES’ defaults to the
scopes that ‘PACKAGE’ requests using the variable
‘PACKAGE-github-token-scopes’.
-- Command: ghub-token-scopes
Users are free to give a token access to fewer scopes than what the
respective package requested. That can, of course, lead to issues,
and package maintainers have to be able to quickly determine if
such a (mis-)configuration is the root cause when users report
issues.
This command reads the required values in the minibuffer and then
shows a message containing these values along with the scopes of
the respective token. It also returns the scopes (only) when
called non-interactively. Also see *note Using Ghub in a
Package::.
File: ghub.info, Node: Configuration Variables, Prev: Authentication, Up: API
5.3 Configuration Variables
===========================
The username and, unless you only use Github.com itself, the Github
Enterprise instance have to be configured using Git variables. In rare
cases it might also be necessary to specify the identity of the local
machine, which is done using a lisp variable.
-- Variable: github.user
The Github.com username. This should be set globally and if you
have multiple Github.com user accounts, then you should set this
locally only for those repositories that you want to access using
the secondary identity.
-- Variable: github.HOST.user
This variable serves the same purpose as ‘github.user’ but for the
Github Enterprise instance identified by ‘HOST’.
The reason why separate variables are used is that this makes it
possible to set both values globally instead of having to set one
of the values locally in each and every repository that is
connected to the Github Enterprise instance, not Github.com.
-- Variable: github.host
This variable should only be set locally for a repository and
specifies the Github Enterprise edition that that repository is
connected to. You should not set this globally because then each
and every repository becomes connected to the specified Github
Enterprise instance, including those that should actually be
connected to Github.com.
When this is undefined, then "api.github.com" is used (defined in
the constant ‘ghub-default-host’, which you should never attempt to
change.)
-- Variable: ghub-override-system-name
Ghub uses a different token for each quadruple ‘(USERNAME PACKAGE
HOST LOCAL-MACHINE)’. Theoretically it could reuse tokens to some
extent but that would be more difficult to implement, less
flexible, and less secure (though slightly more convenient).
A token is identified on the respective Github instance (Github.com
or a Github Enterprise instance) using the pair ‘(PACKAGE .
LOCAL-MACHINE)’, or more precisely the string "Emacs package
PACKAGE @ LOCAL-MACHINE". ‘USERNAME’ and ‘HOST’ do not have to be
encoded because the token is stored for ‘USERNAME’ on ‘HOST’ and
cannot be used by another user and/or on another instance.
There is one potential problem though; for any given ‘(PACKAGE .
LOCAL-MACHINE)’ there can only be one token identified by "Emacs
package PACKAGE @ LOCAL-MACHINE"; Github does not allow multiple
tokens with the same description because it uses the description as
the identifier (it could use some hash instead, but alas it does
not).
If you have multiple machines and some of them have the same name,
then you should probably change that as this is not how things
ought to be. However if you dual-boot, then it might make sense to
give that machine the same name regardless of what operating system
you have booted into.
You could use the same token on both operating systems, but setting
that up might be somewhat difficult because it is not possible to
download an existing token from Github. You could, of course,
locally copy the token, but that is inconvenient and would make it
harder to only revoke the token used on your infected Windows
installation without also revoking it for your totally safe *BSD
installation.
Alternatively you can set this variable to a unique value, that
will then be used to identify the local machine instead of the
value returned by ‘system-name’.
File: ghub.info, Node: Gitlab Support, Prev: API, Up: Top
6 Gitlab Support
****************
Support for Gitlab.com and other Gitlab instances is implemented in the
library ‘glab.el’. This library is build on top of ‘ghub.el’ and is
maintained in the same repository, but it is distributed as a separate
package.
When accessing Gitlab.com or another Gitlab instance, use
‘glab-request’ instead of ‘ghub-request’, ‘glab-get’ instead of
‘ghub-get’, etc. Likewise use the Git variables in the ‘gitlab’ group
instead of those in the ‘github’ group, i.e. ‘gitlab.user’,
‘gitlab.HOST.user’ and ‘gitlab.host’.
The Gitlab API cannot be used to create tokens, so Glab cannot
provide a setup wizard like Ghub does. As a consequence, if the user
makes a request and the necessary token cannot be found, then that
results in an error.
You have to manually create and store the necessary tokens. Tokens
can be created at <https://gitlab.com/profile/personal_access_tokens>,
or the equivalent URL for another Gitlab instance. To store the token
locally, follow the instructions in *note Manually Creating and Storing
a Token:: and *note How Ghub uses Auth-Source::.
Packages that use Glab can define ‘PACKAGE-gitlab-token-scopes’ for
documentation purposes. But unlike ‘PACKAGE-github-token-scopes’, which
is used by the setup wizard, this is optional.
And a random hint: where you would use ‘user/repo’ when accessing
Github, you have to use ‘user%2Frepo’ when accessing Gitlab, e.g.:
(glab-get "/projects/python-mode-devs%2Fpython-mode")
Tag Table:
Node: Top763
Node: Introduction2838
Node: Getting Started5562
Node: Setting the Username8620
Node: Interactively Creating and Storing a Token10045
Node: Manually Creating and Storing a Token15710
Node: How Ghub uses Auth-Source16933
Node: Using Ghub in Personal Scripts18866
Node: Using Ghub in a Package20322
Node: API22940
Node: Making Requests23391
Node: Authentication37080
Node: Configuration Variables38925
Node: Gitlab Support42645
End Tag Table
Local Variables:
coding: utf-8
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