cURL in git for windows does not support HTTP/2 anymore

cURL in git for windows does not support HTTP/2 anymore

[Lars Eriksen - DSV]

 Thank you for filling out a Git bug report!
Please answer the following questions to help us understand your issue.

What did you do before the bug happened? (Steps to reproduce your issue)
Upgraded to a recent git for windows found here: https://git-scm.com/downloads

What did you expect to happen? (Expected behavior)
The embedded curl should be able to use HTTP/2 against our backend.

What happened instead? (Actual behavior)
After updating git for windows curl is unable to authenticate to our backend that requires HTTP/2. curl --version shows it is not compiled in. It worked in the prior version, 2.39.0.windows.2

What's different between what you expected and what actually happened?
I expected curl to be able to run as before when contacting our backend in our maintenance scripts. I'm not allowed to install a custom curl on our corporate network, and the windows version does not support HTTP/2 either. But the git version used to.

Anything else you want to add:

Please review the rest of the bug report below.
You can delete any lines you don't wish to share.


[System Info]
git version:
git version 2.49.0.windows.1
cpu: x86_64
built from commit: cca1f38702730b35f52c29efd62864b85e85ddcc
sizeof-long: 4
sizeof-size_t: 8
shell-path: D:/git-sdk-64-build-installers/usr/bin/sh
feature: fsmonitor--daemon
libcurl: 8.12.1
OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.2.4 11 Feb 2025
zlib: 1.3.1
uname: Windows 10.0 20348
compiler info: gnuc: 14.2
libc info: no libc information available
$SHELL (typically, interactive shell): C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\bash.exe


[Enabled Hooks]
not run from a git repository - no hooks to show

DSV internal

Re: cURL in git for windows does not support HTTP/2 anymore

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Lars,

On Thu, 24 Apr 2025, Lars Eriksen - DSV wrote:

> What did you do before the bug happened? (Steps to reproduce your issue)
> Upgraded to a recent git for windows found here: https://git-scm.com/downloads
> 
> What did you expect to happen? (Expected behavior)
> The embedded curl should be able to use HTTP/2 against our backend.
> 
> What happened instead? (Actual behavior)
> After updating git for windows curl is unable to authenticate to our backend that requires HTTP/2. curl --version shows it is not compiled in. It worked in the prior version, 2.39.0.windows.2

Careful: `curl.exe` does not necessarily show the same capabilities as are
in effect when using Git. The reason is that the default SSL/TLS backend
is Secure Channel, whereas Git can be configured to use OpenSSL instead.

And looking at the most recent build of Git for Windows' cURL, I see in
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-for-windows-automation/actions/runs/14221753030/job/39851304688#step:16:1230
that the OpenSSL version is compiled with HTTP/2 support whereas
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-for-windows-automation/actions/runs/14221753030/job/39851304688#step:16:2854
shows that the Secure Channel version is compiled without HTTP/2 support.

When you configure `http.sslBackend = openssl`, does it work then?

Ciao,
Johannes

P.S.: The bug reporting template of `git bugreport` sadly omits useful
hints such as including the contents of `/etc/install-options.txt`, where
others could easily see whether you chose the Secure Channel or the
OpenSSL backend as Git's default.

> 
> What's different between what you expected and what actually happened?
> I expected curl to be able to run as before when contacting our backend in our maintenance scripts. I'm not allowed to install a custom curl on our corporate network, and the windows version does not support HTTP/2 either. But the git version used to.
> 
> Anything else you want to add:
> 
> Please review the rest of the bug report below.
> You can delete any lines you don't wish to share.
> 
> 
> [System Info]
> git version:
> git version 2.49.0.windows.1
> cpu: x86_64
> built from commit: cca1f38702730b35f52c29efd62864b85e85ddcc
> sizeof-long: 4
> sizeof-size_t: 8
> shell-path: D:/git-sdk-64-build-installers/usr/bin/sh
> feature: fsmonitor--daemon
> libcurl: 8.12.1
> OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.2.4 11 Feb 2025
> zlib: 1.3.1
> uname: Windows 10.0 20348
> compiler info: gnuc: 14.2
> libc info: no libc information available
> $SHELL (typically, interactive shell): C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\bash.exe
> 
> 
> [Enabled Hooks]
> not run from a git repository - no hooks to show
> 
> DSV internal
> 
> 

RE: cURL in git for windows does not support HTTP/2 anymore

[Lars Eriksen - DSV]

I'm sorry for the confusion, but the problem is not within the git command itself. This works fine. But we use the distributed curl command for POSTing data in a custom script when we deploy to production.
So the problem is with how the curl command is built for windows. It used to be built with HTTP/2 support, now it is not.

Best regards,

Lars Eriksen, Senior IT Developer, Regional IT Services, Business Services, Northern & Western Europe, Denmark

lars.eriksen@dsv.com  |  Mobile +45 22423380  |  http://www.dsv.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2025 2:52 PM
To: Lars Eriksen - DSV <lars.eriksen@dsv.com>
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: cURL in git for windows does not support HTTP/2 anymore

External email:Be careful with links and attachments


Hi Lars,

On Thu, 24 Apr 2025, Lars Eriksen - DSV wrote:

> What did you do before the bug happened? (Steps to reproduce your
> issue) Upgraded to a recent git for windows found here:
> https://git-/
> scm.com%2Fdownloads&data=05%7C02%7Clars.eriksen%40dsv.com%7Cdcb13a0b68
> a34bf77c0608dd832ede41%7C4a90c23a3ece4ef2b857522f23b8204c%7C0%7C0%7C63
> 8810959515529466%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiO
> iIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C
> %7C%7C&sdata=OwOqEgoRvwGZjDPsVIIDOUZ9HSWuC7IKHVbfiPzKP8Q%3D&reserved=0
>
> What did you expect to happen? (Expected behavior) The embedded curl
> should be able to use HTTP/2 against our backend.
>
> What happened instead? (Actual behavior) After updating git for
> windows curl is unable to authenticate to our backend that requires
> HTTP/2. curl --version shows it is not compiled in. It worked in the
> prior version, 2.39.0.windows.2

Careful: `curl.exe` does not necessarily show the same capabilities as are in effect when using Git. The reason is that the default SSL/TLS backend is Secure Channel, whereas Git can be configured to use OpenSSL instead.

And looking at the most recent build of Git for Windows' cURL, I see in
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-for-windows-automation/actions/runs/14221753030/job/39851304688#step:16:1230
that the OpenSSL version is compiled with HTTP/2 support whereas
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-for-windows-automation/actions/runs/14221753030/job/39851304688#step:16:2854
shows that the Secure Channel version is compiled without HTTP/2 support.

When you configure `http.sslBackend = openssl`, does it work then?

Ciao,
Johannes

P.S.: The bug reporting template of `git bugreport` sadly omits useful hints such as including the contents of `/etc/install-options.txt`, where others could easily see whether you chose the Secure Channel or the OpenSSL backend as Git's default.

>
> What's different between what you expected and what actually happened?
> I expected curl to be able to run as before when contacting our backend in our maintenance scripts. I'm not allowed to install a custom curl on our corporate network, and the windows version does not support HTTP/2 either. But the git version used to.
>
> Anything else you want to add:
>
> Please review the rest of the bug report below.
> You can delete any lines you don't wish to share.
>
>
> [System Info]
> git version:
> git version 2.49.0.windows.1
> cpu: x86_64
> built from commit: cca1f38702730b35f52c29efd62864b85e85ddcc
> sizeof-long: 4
> sizeof-size_t: 8
> shell-path: D:/git-sdk-64-build-installers/usr/bin/sh
> feature: fsmonitor--daemon
> libcurl: 8.12.1
> OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.2.4 11 Feb 2025
> zlib: 1.3.1
> uname: Windows 10.0 20348
> compiler info: gnuc: 14.2
> libc info: no libc information available $SHELL (typically,
> interactive shell): C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\bash.exe
>
>
> [Enabled Hooks]
> not run from a git repository - no hooks to show
>
> DSV internal
>
>

DSV internal

RE: cURL in git for windows does not support HTTP/2 anymore

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Lars,

On Fri, 25 Apr 2025, Lars Eriksen - DSV wrote:

> I'm sorry for the confusion, but the problem is not within the git
> command itself. This works fine. But we use the distributed curl command
> for POSTing data in a custom script when we deploy to production.
>
> So the problem is with how the curl command is built for windows. It
> used to be built with HTTP/2 support, now it is not.

I am sorry, but Git for Windows is not really intended as a distribution
model for the `curl.exe` command, it merely is shipped in Git for Windows
because some scripts require it.

Have you tried using the `curl.exe` in `C:\Windows\system32`? If that does
not work, you may need to switch to MSYS2 (which is a proper software
distribution, not a hard-baked one like Git for Windows that includes bits
and pieces necessary to run Git commands).

Ciao,
Johannes

RE: cURL in git for windows does not support HTTP/2 anymore

[Lars Eriksen - DSV]

Hi Johannes

The curl found in Windows has the same problem, but I got the server team to install an independently built curl. This is what is allowed for us.
It is a fair assumption that the one found within git is only intended to function with git commands, but it has worked well for us up until now. So you can ignore my request.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

On Fri, 25 Apr 2025, Lars Eriksen - DSV wrote:

> I'm sorry for the confusion, but the problem is not within the git
> command itself. This works fine. But we use the distributed curl
> command for POSTing data in a custom script when we deploy to production.
>
> So the problem is with how the curl command is built for windows. It
> used to be built with HTTP/2 support, now it is not.

I am sorry, but Git for Windows is not really intended as a distribution model for the `curl.exe` command, it merely is shipped in Git for Windows because some scripts require it.

Have you tried using the `curl.exe` in `C:\Windows\system32`? If that does not work, you may need to switch to MSYS2 (which is a proper software distribution, not a hard-baked one like Git for Windows that includes bits and pieces necessary to run Git commands).

Ciao,
Johannes

DSV internal