HTTP commands are sent as CGI requests having the following form:
GET /hgweb.cgi?cmd=foo¶m1=bar HTTP/1.1
Results are returned with the Content-Type application/mercurial-0.1.
The best way to explore the protocol is to run hg serve in a terminal, then try out the various commands. Errors, such as missing parameters, will be logged in the terminal window, including source references.
Available commands
The available commands can be seen marked with @wireprotocommand in mercurial/wireprotov1server.py, along with arguments.
lookup
Given a changeset reference (given by the key parameter), yields the changeset ID.
Returns a status code (1 on success, 0 on failure) and a result (the changeset ID or error message).
Examples:
$ curl 'https://www.mercurial-scm.org/repo/hello?cmd=lookup&key=0' 1 0a04b987be5ae354b710cefeba0e2d9de7ad41a9 $ curl 'https://www.mercurial-scm.org/repo/hello?cmd=lookup&key=33d290cc14ae48c8c18d2a2c9dfae99728ee0cff' 0 unknown revision '33d290cc14ae48c8c18d2a2c9dfae99728ee0cff' $ curl 'https://www.mercurial-scm.org/repo/hello?cmd=lookup&key=tip' 1 82e55d328c8ca4ee16520036c0aaace03a5beb65
heads
Returns a space separated list of changeset ID identifying all the heads in the repository. Takes no parameters
branches
changegroup
changegroupsubset
between
capabilities
Accepts no parameters. Returns a whitespace-separated list of other commands accepted by this server. For the unbundle command, produces the form unbundle=HG10GZ,HG10BZ,HG10UN if all three compression schemes are supported.
unbundle
Usage:
POST /hgweb.cgi?cmd=unbundle&heads=HEADS HTTP/1.1 content-type: application/octet-stream
This command allows for the upload of new changes to the repository. The body of the POST request must be a changegroup in BundleFormat. The returned output is the same as what the hg unbundle command would print to standard output if it was being run locally.