I coding a PHP script that has to check if exists a GitHub repo that the user enters. But I don't know how can I do it. I think the main matter is to know which HTTP code gives GitHub, but I can't find anything like that in cURL PHP documentation. How can I do it?
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Check out the GitHub API, that might be the best way to proceed.
svick
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1I've already checked, but there's no way of doing that through the API. – Carlos Precioso Jun 04 '11 at 15:51
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1Of course there is, but you have to use the old version: [Repositories API](http://develop.github.com/p/repo.html). – svick Jun 04 '11 at 16:03
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Thanks, upvote for that, I didn't noticed, but I'll use Berry's answer. – Carlos Precioso Jun 04 '11 at 16:05
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HTTP in istelf is a rather simple protocol, so just check if you get a 404. That'd mean it doesn't exist. As an alternative to cURL, you might want to consider using get_headers, that's less intensive to write.
Berry Langerak
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Assuming you're looking for a *public* repo. If you're checking a *private* repo and don't provide auth for a user that has access to it, you'll get a 404. – Tekkub Jun 04 '11 at 21:54
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@Tekkub Fair enough. If you want to do that, the Github API would be your better chance. – Berry Langerak Jun 06 '11 at 07:41
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You can provide a token as password to allow cURL to authenticate if you have two-factor-authentication turned on. – Henry Blyth Jan 20 '14 at 19:27
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If the repository is private or does not exist, you should get a 404 http status header. Check against the headers that are returned by a cURL request for the HTTP status header.
damianb
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http://stackoverflow.com/questions/408405/easy-way-to-test-a-url-for-404-in-php this looks relevant - check the #1 answer – damianb Jun 04 '11 at 15:57
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Thanks @Obsidian_ , but #1 answer (of this question) already gave me a better way of doing it. – Carlos Precioso Jun 04 '11 at 16:01
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no prob -- I was assuming you were using cURL already for a reason. P: – damianb Jun 04 '11 at 16:01
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Yeah, but I was only using it for this check, so I don't mind the change. – Carlos Precioso Jun 04 '11 at 16:03
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The 404 check is bad because it will return the same 404 and error message if the request straight up fails due to, eg auth issues. Therefore it could incorrectly tell your program that the repo doesn't exist, when it does, but you just couldn't access github API.
