Chapter_4

Git on the Server

1 - The Protocols

• bare repository refers to a repo without a working directory
  • The repo on the collaboration server for instance
• Local Protocol
  • Refers to a locally available filesystem
  • Can be shared with an NFS mount for example
  • git clone <path/to/file> Directly copies the files
  • git clone file://<path/to/file> Uses the network protocol (which is less efficient locally)
    • the file:// method will strip extraneous files (such as after a migration)
  • git remote add <local proj> <path/to/file>
  • File based protocols are simple and use existing file permissions
  • Often more difficult to share if you are not on the same network
  • Often slower than an ssh based request
  • Every user has full shell access to the directory so it is risky in that aspect
• HTTP Protocol
  • Smart HTTP
    • New since 1.6.6
    • Similar to SSH or git protocols
    • Runs over standard HTTPS ports and uses standard auth
    • Often the preferred protocol now since it is a single URL
  • Dumb HTTP
    • simple setup
    • Shove the git repo under HTTP root and setup a post-update hook (which comes with your default install)
  • Simple to use and doesn't require SSH keys (could be a con for advanced users)
  • Can serve read-only over HTTPS
  • Sometimes more tricky to setup than SSH
• SSH Protocol
  • git clone ssh://<user>@<server>/<project>.git
  • Easy to use if you are already using SSH and have it setup to the server
  • Doesn't support anonymous access
  • People must have ssh access to the machine
    • Really? How does GitHub use SSH keys then? Surely I don't have ssh access
• Git Protocol
  • Daemon listening on 9418
  • No Auth
  • Needs a git-daemon-export-ok file
  • extremely fast
  • Often paired with SSH or HTTPS for pushing

2 - Getting Git on a Server

• git clone --bare <project> <project>.git Clones into a new bare repo (without the working directory)
• Copy the new directory to your server
  • At this point the SSH protocol is ready, if SSH is set up on the server
• git init --bare --shared sets up group write perms

3 - Generating Your SSH Public Key

• Skipping, this just goes over ssh-keygen

4 - Setting up the Server

• Skipping, this goes over saving public key's to the .authorized_keys folder as well as setting up SSH server

5 - Git Daemon

• git daemon --reuseaddr --base-path=<path/to/repo> <path>/<to>/<repo>
  • --reuseaddr allows server to restart without waiting for old connections to timeout
  • --base-path allows cloning without the pull path
  • Uses port 9418 so you may need to punch a hole in your firewall
  • Can use systemd to daemonize the above command
  • In the valid repo's to get served you need to run touch git-daemon-export-ok to enable daemon access

6 - Smart HTTP

• CGI script, so requires the use of some CGI server (Just apache?)
• Need to set up .htpasswd in the git repo
  • Not the only way to have Apache authenticate though

7 - GitWeb

• GitWeb is a basic CGI Script that visualizes your repo
• git instaweb --httpd=webrick sets up a local webserver and sends your browser to it
• For a more permanent solution you'll need to set up the CGI script to be hosted like the Smart HTTP protocol

8 - GitLab

• Skipping... You can find an ami from Bitnami and run through the setup if you really want

9 - Third Party Hosting

• GitHub!
• https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/GitHosting

10 - Summary

• Useful Commands
  • git clone --bare <project> <project>.git
  • git init --bare --shared