Gitolite - ArchWiki

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Gitolite allows you to host Git repositories for multiple users easily and securely.

## Installation

Install the gitolite package.

## Configuration

Installing gitolite automatically adds the gitolite user to the system, with home directory `/var/lib/gitolite`.

### Admin SSH access

To give yourself admin access, copy your SSH public key to `/var/lib/gitolite/username.pub`, where `username` is your username.

    # install -o gitolite -g gitolite ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub /var/lib/gitolite/username.pub

Then run the Gitolite setup script as the gitolite user.

    # sudo -u gitolite gitolite setup -pk /var/lib/gitolite/username.pub

This puts your public key into the gitolite-admin keydir and gives your username RW+ access to the gitolite-admin repository

You can now remove the copy of your SSH public key

    # rm /var/lib/gitolite/username.pub

Now as your user you can check that everything went correctly

    $ ssh gitolite@hostname info

    hello username, this is gitolite@hostname running gitolite3 v3.6.2 on git 2.3.3

     R W    gitolite-admin
     R W    testing

Do not add repositories or users directly as gitolite on the server! The server must be managed by cloning the special gitolite-admin repository

    $ git clone gitolite@hostname:gitolite-admin

For reference see Gitolite.

### Create a repository

To create a repository, first check out the `gitolite-admin` repository as a client.

    $ git clone gitolite@server:gitolite-admin

Append a new repository to `gitolite-admin/conf/gitolite.conf`:

    repo repository_name
        RW+     =   @all

Commit and push the changes and gitolite will automatically generate the necessary files on the server.

### Adding http(s) access via Apache (with basic authentication)

We need to create an suEXEC wrapper script. To satisfy suEXEC's security requirements, the script and the directory containing it must be owned by `gitolite:gitolite` and below `/srv/http` in the directory hierarchy. For this example, we create the directory as `/srv/http/git/cgi-bin`.

    # install -o gitolite -g gitolite -d /srv/http/git/cgi-bin

Create an suEXEC wrapper for the gitolite shell with the contents below. For this example, we create it as `/srv/http/git/cgi-bin/gitolite-suexec-wrapper`.

    /srv/http/git/cgi-bin/gitolite-suexec-wrapper

    #!/usr/bin/bash
    #
    # suEXEC wrapper for gitolite-shell
    #

    export GIT_PROJECT_ROOT=/var/lib/gitolite/repositories
    export GITOLITE_HTTP_HOME=/var/lib/gitolite

    exec /usr/lib/gitolite/gitolite-shell

Make the wrapper executable and owned by `gitolite:gitolite`.

    # chown gitolite:gitolite /srv/http/git/cgi-bin/gitolite-suexec-wrapper
    # chmod 0755 /srv/http/git/cgi-bin/gitolite-suexec-wrapper

Create an empty password database file, owned by `gitolite:http`

    # install -o gitolite -g http -m 0640 /dev/null /srv/http/git/htpasswd

Apache's basic authentication mechanism is separate from ssh, and therefore requires a separate set of credentials. Create your web users using `htpasswd`.

    # htpasswd /srv/http/git/htpasswd username

Add the following to your Apache vhost configuration:

    SuexecUserGroup gitolite gitolite
    ScriptAlias /git/ /srv/http/git/cgi-bin/gitolite-suexec-wrapper/

    <Directory /srv/http/git/cgi-bin>
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <Location /git>
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "Git Access"
        AuthBasicProvider file
        AuthUserFile /srv/http/git/htpasswd
        Require valid-user
    </Location>

Restart `httpd.service`.

Finally, in the gitolite-admin repository you cloned in the previous section, edit `conf/gitolite.conf`, add an `R = daemon` access rule to all repositories you want to make available via http, and push the changes.

## Add users

### ssh users

Ask each user who will get access to send you an SSH public key. Rename each public key to `username.pub`, where `username` is the user name which will be used in `gitolite.conf`. Then move all new public keys to the `keydir` directory in the cloned `gitolite-admin` repository. You can also organize them into various sub-directories of `keydir` if you wish, since the entire tree is searched.

Finally commit and push the changes.

See the add/remove users in the official documentation for details.

To grant access rights to the new users, edit the configuration file (`conf/gitolite.conf` in the `gitolite-admin` repository). See the .conf file in the official documentation for details.

### http(s) users

User management for http(s) is more suitable for single-user setups. To add a new user or to change an existing user's password:

    # htpasswd /srv/http/git/htpasswd username

## Troubleshooting

In case you cannot log in with the gitolite account, it may be caused by the account being locked, and depending of your ssh configuration.

If you have done some SSH hardening, it may be the cause of this behavior, as noted in SSH and locked users Article and Unix & Linux StackExchange - How to unlock account for public key ssh authorization, but not for password authorization.

To solve this, you have to allow PAM in `sshd_config` or unlock the account by:

    # usermod -p '*' gitolite

    /etc/passwd

    ...
    gitolite:*:16199:0:99999:7:::
    ...

Warning: Do not leave the account in the state left by `passwd -u` (with a blank password field). Doing that will allow logins without entering a password!

## See also

- Gitolite Site
- SSH and locked users Article
- Unix & Linux StackExchange - How to unlock account for public key ssh authorization, but not for password authorization

Category:

- Version control system