dereenigne.org

After getting sick of GitHub’s clunky closed-source interface, I decided to migrate my repositories to my own Debian-based server using the gitweb web interface.

Considering that I already have SSH access to the server, I only needed to provide read-only public access. As well as providing this access via the traditional 9418/tcp git protocol port, I wanted to provide access via HTTP too (I sometimes get caught behind firewalls which block 9418/tcp).

For vanity purposes, it was important that a single URL allowed both gitweb access and git cloning. Syntax highlighting for common programming languages is also a nice feature to have when migrating from github.

Finally, it was important that the configuration adhere where possible to the default Debian configuration files. I don’t want the whole thing to fall apart when I upgrade to the next stable release!

The configuration below fulfils all the above requirements.

First, install git and apache if not installed:

apt-get install git gitweb git-daemon-sysvinit apache2 highlight

git-daemon-sysvinit is not available in Squeeze due to a dependency issue. You may either use git-daemon-run instead, compile this package yourself and relax the dependency, or else install the latest version of git from squeeze-backports.

Apache2 Virtual Host - /etc/apache2/sites-available/git.dereenigne.org:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName git.dereenigne.org
DocumentRoot /usr/share/gitweb
SetEnv  GITWEB_CONFIG  /etc/gitweb.conf
SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /var/cache/git

<Directory /usr/share/gitweb>
  Options FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
  AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

  DirectoryIndex gitweb.cgi

  # Pretty gitweb URLs
  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteRule ^.* /gitweb.cgi/$0 [L,PT]
</Directory>

  # Enable git clone over HTTP
  ScriptAliasMatch \
          "(?x)^/(.*/(HEAD | \
          info/refs | \
          objects/(info/[^/]+ | \
          [0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38} | \
          pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}\.(pack|idx)) | \
          git-(upload|receive)-pack))$" \
          /usr/lib/git-core/git-http-backend/$1
</VirtualHost>

Enable the apache2 site:

a2ensite /etc/apache2/sites-available/git.dereenigne.org

Edit /etc/gitweb.conf:

# path to git projects (<project>.git)
$projectroot = "/var/cache/git";

@git_base_url_list = ("git://git.dereenigne.org", "http://git.dereenigne.org");

# directory to use for temp files
$git_temp = "/tmp";

$site_name = "git.dereenigne.org";

# require export flag
$export_ok = "git-daemon-export-ok";
$strict_export = 1;

# target of the home link on top of all pages
#$home_link = $my_uri || "/";

# html text to include at home page
#$home_text = "indextext.html";

# file with project list; by default, simply scan the projectroot dir.
#$projects_list = $projectroot;

# stylesheet to use
#$stylesheet = "gitweb.css";

# javascript code for gitweb
#$javascript = "gitweb.js";

# logo to use
#$logo = "git-logo.png";

# the 'favicon'
#$favicon = "git-favicon.png";

# enable git blame
$feature{'blame'}{'default'} = [1];

# enable pickaxe search
$feature{'pickaxe'}{'default'} = [1];

# enable snapshot downloads
$feature{'snapshot'}{'default'} = ['zip', 'tgz'];

# enable syntax highlighting
$feature{'highlight'}{'default'} = [1];

# enable pretty URLs
$feature{'pathinfo'}{'default'} = [1];

Edit /etc/default/git-daemon:

# Defaults for git-daemon initscript
# sourced by /etc/init.d/git-daemon
# installed at /etc/default/git-daemon by the maintainer scripts

#
# This is a POSIX shell fragment
#

GIT_DAEMON_ENABLE=true
GIT_DAEMON_USER=gitdaemon

GIT_DAEMON_BASE_PATH=/var/cache/git
GIT_DAEMON_DIRECTORY=/var/cache/git

# Additional options that are passed to the Daemon.
GIT_DAEMON_OPTIONS=""

Start the git daemon:

/etc/init.d/git-daemon start

To create a new project:

ssh myserver
mkdir /var/cache/git/myrepo.git
cd /var/cache/git/myrepo.git
git init --bare
echo "myrepo description" > description
touch git-daemon-export-ok

To push to this project:

git add remote myserver user@myserver:/var/cache/git/myrepo.git
git push myserver master

While this page is about Debian, the same commands can be used to set up a similar setup on Ubuntu.