9.3 KiB
Mindstab.net's Guide to Setting up a Git Server
Last Updated 2009 07
I've found documentation on the setup of git servers and public repositories kind of lacking, so here is my best attempt at documenting what works for me. Feel free to comment with bugs or enhancements please.
##Contents##
- Setting Up A Local Repository
- Setting Up A Remote Repository
- Managing Multiple Developers, Repositories and Branches
- Comments
1. Setting Up A Local Repository
Alice is going to start developing a project and she wants to add source control to it. There are a couple of reasons to set up a local repository that Alice likes including branch control, so that she can revert her code to previous releases, fix, patch or merge a bug fix, roll a release, and then pop back to the current development branch.
1.1 From Scratch
To set up a git repository for her project, Alice does the following:
alice@home $ mkdir proj
alice@home $ cd proj
alice@home $ git init
The project directory is now an empty git repository. As she creates files, she can add them to the respository with
alice@home $ git add newfile.src
And when she's done work or at least reached some break point, she can commit the new files, and all changes with
alice@home $ git commit -a
1.2 From An Existing Project
Also, occasionally Alice gets excited and starts coding before creating a repository. To create a repository from an already started project is as simple as
alice@home $ cd ~/proj
alice@home $ git init
and either
alice@home $ git add .
to add all the files, or
alice@home $ git add file1 file2 file3
to add just some of the files, both followed by
alice@home $ git commit -a
for the initial commit of the code to the new repository.
2. Setting Up A Remote Repository
Some times Alice needs her repositories to be remote and internet accessible. Sometimes she needs to work on them from several locations, and sometimes she wants her project's code to always be accessible to the public.
There are two primary methods for making remote git repositories accessible online. The first method is over ssh, which developers can use to both read and write to the repository and the second is through a dedicated git server which the public can use for read only access.
2.1 Remote Repository For Developer Only (ssh)
If Alice's project is personal and she just needs a central repository to access from a few locations like both work and home, she can set up a repository on any unix machine she has access to as follows.
Alice needs to create a bare repository clone of her working code and then transfer it to the server she will be using as the repository host
alice@home $ git clone --bare ~/proj proj.git
alice@home $ tar -czf proj.git.tar.gz proj.git
alice@home $ scp proj.git.tar.gz alice@server.com:~
Then, on the server
alice@server $ tar -xzf proj.git.tar.gz
alice@server $ mv proj.git proj
Now Alice can create working copies of the repository from anywhere, like work, and work on the code as normal as follows
alice@work $ git clone ssh://alice@server.com/home/alice/proj
alice@work $ cd proj
...
alice@work $ commit -a
However all this does is create a local clone of the repository and commit the changes to the new local clone. To push changes to the local repository back to the central repository, Alice does
alice@work $ git push
(As a note, Alice will also need to perform this clone of the remote repository at home so that her repository is aware of the remote repository, or she can use 'git remote add' to make her current original repository aware of the remote one)
When Alice gets home she can check out the latest changes with a simple
alice@home $ git pull
which pulls all the latest changes from the remote repository. Then she can develop, commit and push her changes and then the next day at work she can pull all those changes.
2.2 Remote Repository For Public Access (git://)
Now, to allow public read only access of the repository over the git:// protocol the steps of setting up a remote repository are all the same, however there are additional steps that need to be taken.
At a minimum, Alice needs to setup the git daemon on the server and tell each git repository that she wants to be publically accessible that it is so.
Setting up the a basic git daemon is up to Alice and her server's distribution, but once it is installed and running, it will try to export any directory on the server filesystem that is a) a git repository, and is b) flagged to be publically accessible.
To make her repositories accessible, Alice does the following
alice@server $ touch ~/proj/git-daemon-export-ok
Now when Bob hears about Alice's project, he can check out a copy of the repository himself as follows
bob@home $ git clone git://server.com/home/alice/proj
Bob actually ends up with the a full clone of the repository and can work with the code, and if he wants he can make changes and commit them to his local clone of the repository as normal. However, the one thing Bob cannot do is 'push' his changes back to the central repository.
He can, however, even stay up to date with the repository with git pull
bob@home $ git pull
and he'll always get the latest changes.
2.3 Shared Multi-Developer Public Repository
(Note: This is for those more used to CVS and Subversion style source control. Defacto and "proper" git style is outlined in section 3. Managing Multiple Developers, Repositories and Branches.)
Alice happens to have root access to her server and wants to set up a multiple developer git repository.
First she creates a git user group and makes a root git directory.
root@server # groupadd git
root@server # mkdir /git
Then Alice configures the git daemon to only export repositories in /git in the git-daemon's config file
GITDAEMON_OPTS="--syslog --verbose /git"
Now Alice creates a shared repository. She untars the git repository like normal, but sets its group to git and makes sure it'll stick by setting the stick bit, and then she makes it "shared" which means all the files are writeable by the group git.
root@server # cd /git
root@server # tar -xzf proj.git.tar.gz
root@server # mv proj.git proj
root@server # chgrp -R git proj
root@server # chmod g+ws proj -R
root@server # cd proj
root@server # git config core.sharedRepository true
And of course if Alice wants it to be publically viewable
root@server # touch git-daemon-export-ok
Now Alice has a git repository that several developers on the server can all use. Anyone in the git group can commit to the repository.
Alice's friend Charlie wants to develop for the project so Alice gives him an account on the server. Charlie can then start developing just like normal
charlie@home $ git clone ssh://charlie@server.com/git/proj
charlie@home $ cd proj
...
charlie@home $ git commit -a
charlie@home $ git push
Alice can get these changes at home, and any she's made from work with a simple
alice@home $ git pull
And if the repository was made public and exportable then Bob can checkout the code and keep up to date too
bob@home $ git clone git://server.com:/git/proj
bob@home $ cd proj
...
bob@home $ git pull
3. Managing Multiple Developers, Repositories and Branches
The proper way to use git with multiple developers is for each developer to have their own repository and branches and have a central manager who pulls from all the other branches and merges the code together before release. This is how Linux works (git was created by Linux's creator Linus).
Note: I know this is the proper way but I haven't really had any experience with it, so until I get time to play with it unfortunately this part of the document will be empty. Check out the official git manual for a good idea of how this should be managed, especially chapter 4 Sharing Development.
Comments
Anon posted on 2010 10
Section 2.3:
root@server # chmod g+ws proj -R
this makes all files setgid when i think you really only wanted directories to be g+s
root@server # find proj -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod g+w
root@server # find proj -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod g+ws
is probably better…