In this tutorial we will learn how to create own git server.This time I have selected Gitolite for git server and gitweb to display git repositories.

Why Gitolite ?
Answer: Easy to setup,have user management through command line,very less memory and cpu usage.

Why Gitweb?
Answer: To display repositories in web interface and view can be manage from Gitolite also.

Operating System: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Arch : i686
Git Server IP Address: 10.10.0.16

To setup the gitolite and gitweb follow given below steps

Step 1: Login into your server and become superuser root

linux@ubuntu:~$sudo su -

Step 2: Now install git

# apt-get install git

Step 3: create user git with disabled password and login shell bash

root@ubuntu:~# adduser 
    --system 
    --shell /bin/bash 
    --gecos 'git version control' 
    --group 
    --disabled-password 
    --home /home/git 
    git

Step 6: Now login with user git

root@ubuntu:~# su -l git

Step 7: In git directory means /home/git get clone of gitolite with help of git command

git@ubuntu:~$ cd /home/git ; git clone git://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite

Step 7:Create a directory called bin in /home/bin (you are still log in as user git)

git@ubuntu:~$ mkdir $HOME/bin

Step 8: Now install the git (After git clone, the directory gitolite you can see in /home/git. It has the setup files)

git@ubuntu:~$ gitolite/install -ln

Step 9 : After hitting the command “gitolite/install -ln” , just check in bin directory.Is new gitolite file created itself or not

git@ubuntu:~$ ls bin/gitolite 
bin/gitolite
git@ubuntu:~$

Step 10: Now login into your linux system or pc from where you want to manage the Git Server as Git-Admin. Here we will create RSA key and this RSA key we will move to gitolite server.
If you already have RSA key in $HOME/.ssh ,you can skip this step.

Create RSA key, after hiting the command just press enter when it ask for passphrase.

linux@tuxworld:~$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "Git-Admin"
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/linux/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /home/linux/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/linux/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
9c:96:f3:4e:cb:8e:59:6b:76:05:87:cf:ff:7b:76:93 Git-Admin
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
|                 |
|                 |
|             .   |
|       . o  o .  |
|        S    =   |
|       . o    +  |
|          +  . ..|
|         Boo.  E=|
|        o+*.   oB|
+-----------------+
linux@tuxworld:~$

Step 11: Now from your system scp the key into git server.
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub username@git-server-FQDN-or-its-ip-address:~

linux@tuxworld:~$ scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub linux@10.10.0.16:~
linux@10.10.0.16's password: 
id_rsa.pub                                    100%  391     0.4KB/s   00:00    
linux@tuxworld:~$

Step 12: Now login back to git server and become superuser , move & rename the id_rsa.pub to /home/git as Git-Admin.pub,change its ownership and group to git and and then login with user git again

linux@tuxworld:~$ ssh linux@10.10.0.16
linux@10.10.0.16’s password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae i686)

* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/

System information as of Fri May 31 22:27:03 IST 2013

System load: 0.0 Processes: 68
Usage of /: 7.3% of 13.67GB Users logged in: 1
Memory usage: 8% IP address for eth0: 10.0.2.15
Swap usage: 0% IP address for eth1: 10.10.0.16

Graph this data and manage this system at https://landscape.canonical.com/

Last login: Fri May 31 22:02:48 2013 from 10.10.0.9
linux@ubuntu:~$
linux@ubuntu:~$ sudo su –
[sudo] password for linux:
root@ubuntu:~#
linux@ubuntu:~$ sudo mv id_rsa.pub /home/git/Git-Admin.pub ; sudo chown git:git /home/git/Git-Admin.pub
[sudo] password for linux:
linux@ubuntu:~$
root@ubuntu:~# su -l git
git@ubuntu:~$
git@ubuntu:~$
git@ubuntu:~$ whoami
git
git@ubuntu:~$

Step 13: Now setup the Git Admin. See the below files and directories are also created.

git@ubuntu:~$ bin/gitolite setup -pk Git-Admin.pub 
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/gitolite-admin.git/
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/testing.git/
WARNING: /home/git/.ssh missing; creating a new one
WARNING: /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys missing; creating a new one
git@ubuntu:~$

Step 14: See some more important files and folder are created but they are hidden.

git@ubuntu:~$ ls -la
total 48
drwxr-xr-x 7 git  git  4096 May 31 22:39 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 May 31 22:03 ..
-rw------- 1 git  git   160 May 31 22:31 .bash_history
drwxrwxr-x 2 git  git  4096 May 31 22:05 bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 git  git   391 May 31 22:23 Git-Admin.pub
drwxr-xr-x 5 git  git  4096 May 31 22:05 gitolite
drwxrwxr-x 6 git  git  4096 May 31 22:39 .gitolite
-rw-rw-r-- 1 git  git  5179 May 31 22:39 .gitolite.rc
-rw-rw-r-- 1 git  git    12 May 31 22:39 projects.list
drwxrwxr-x 4 git  git  4096 May 31 22:39 repositories
drwx------ 2 git  git  4096 May 31 22:39 .ssh
git@ubuntu:~$ 

Step 15: If you do “ls -la repositories” you can find two repo bydefault created.
One is for git admin purpose and second is testing repo

git@ubuntu:~$ ls -la repositories/
total 16
drwxrwxr-x 4 git git 4096 May 31 22:39 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 git git 4096 May 31 22:39 ..
drwxrwxr-x 8 git git 4096 May 31 22:39 gitolite-admin.git
drwxrwxr-x 7 git git 4096 May 31 22:39 testing.git
git@ubuntu:~$

Step 16: Login back to your system where you created for the Git-Admin RSA key.
In youremail@example.com replace with your email id.

linux@tuxworld:~$ sudo apt-get install git

linux@tuxworld:~$ cd ~/Desktop

linux@tuxworld:~$ git config --global user.name "Git-admin"
linux@tuxworld:~$ git config --global user.email "youremail@example.com"
linux@tuxworld:~$ 
linux@tuxworld:~$ git config --list
user.name=Git-admin
user.email=youremail@example.com
linux@tuxworld:~$ 

Now clone the gitolite-admin.git from git server

linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop$ git clone git@10.10.0.16:gitolite-admin.git
Cloning into 'gitolite-admin'...
remote: Counting objects: 6, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Receiving objects: 100% (6/6), 736 bytes, done.
remote: Total 6 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop$

Now gitolite-admin directory will be present after cloneing from git server.
The gitolite.conf is mainly use for User and group ACL for git server.
Now from your system you can easily manage the user group ACL. But for this you have to do “git push”

linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop$ 
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop$ cd gitolite-admin/
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop/gitolite-admin$ ls
conf  keydir
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop/gitolite-admin$ cd conf/
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop/gitolite-admin/conf$ 
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop/gitolite-admin/conf$ ls
gitolite.conf
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop/gitolite-admin/conf$ cat gitolite.conf 
repo gitolite-admin
    RW+     =   Git-Admin

repo testing
    RW+     =   @all
linux@tuxworld:~/Desktop/gitolite-admin/conf$ 

How to push new changes of gitolite.conf into git server from my system

Use the given below command to push the changes into Git Server.

Go to gitolite-admin cloned directory and change to conf directory also. Edit the changes in gitolite.conf and push the code with given below command.

$ cd ~/Desktop/gitolite-admin/conf
$ls -l gitolite.conf

$git add gitolite.conf
$git commit -m "first commit"
$git push origin master

Note: “git pull” command is for pull the Version files/directory from Git Server.

Install and Configure Gitweb

Step 18: Login back to git server and become super user root

$ sudo su -

root@ubuntu:~# apt-get install gitweb apache2

It will install gitweb in /usr/share.
In below details you can notice the index.cgi is symlink of gitweb.cgi

root@ubuntu:~# ls -l /usr/share/gitweb/
total 236
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 236227 Apr 11  2012 gitweb.cgi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     10 Apr 11  2012 index.cgi -> gitweb.cgi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   4096 May 31 22:04 static
root@ubuntu:~#

Step 19: Edit the /home/git/.gitolite.rc and change the UMASK value as 0027


root@ubuntu:~# vi /home/git/.gitolite.rc

# configuration variables for gitolite

# This file is in perl syntax. But you do NOT need to know perl to edit it --
# just mind the commas, use single quotes unless you know what you're doing,
# and make sure the brackets and braces stay matched up!

# (Tip: perl allows a comma after the last item in a list also!)

# HELP for commands can be had by running the command with "-h".

# HELP for all the other FEATURES can be found in the documentation (look for
# "list of non-core programs shipped with gitolite" in the master index) or
# directly in the corresponding source file.

%RC = (

# ------------------------------------------------------------------

# default umask gives you perms of '0700'; see the rc file docs for
# how/why you might change this
UMASK => 0027,

# look for "git-config" in the documentation


Then save and exit by pressing esc key first then typing :wq and hit enter


Step 20: This one is important ,now edit /etc/gitweb.conf file and change the given below two lines only

root@ubuntu:~# vi /etc/gitweb.conf

$projectroot = "/home/git/repositories/";
$projects_list = $projectroot;

NOTE: Below given step is deleted and should not be followed with new gitweb version 1:1.7.9.5-1. If you have older version you can try this step.

Step 20:Edit /usr/share/gitweb/gitweb.cgi and change the value of $projectroot as “/home/git/repositories” and $projects_list as “/home/git/projects.list”

root@ubuntu:~# vi /usr/share/gitweb/gitweb.cgi
our $projectroot = “/home/git/repositories/”;
our $projects_list = “/home/git/projects.list”;

edit /etc/gitweb.conf file and change the given below two lines only

root@ubuntu:~# vi /etc/gitweb.conf
$projectroot = “/home/git/repositories/”;
$projects_list = “/home/git/projects.list”;

Step 21: Now restart the apache2 and open the web browser and type http://git-server-ip/gitweb . In my practical case I will type http://10.10.0.16/gitweb

Note: gitweb apache config file is located in /etc/apache2/conf.d/gitweb

root@ubuntu:~# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Securing Gitweb with htpasswd

With above screenshot we can see the gitweb web page is accessable to all. To configure it more secure and make as ,it will ask user name and password, we will use htpasswd in apache.

configure htpasswd access in gitweb. Edit the file /etc/apache2/conf.d/gitweb

root@ubuntu:~# vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/gitweb 
Alias /gitweb /usr/share/gitweb


  Options FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
  AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
    	AllowOverride None
	Order allow,deny
	Allow from all
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Git Access"
    Require valid-user
    AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/gitweb-htpasswd


root@ubuntu:~# 

Create htpasswd username and passwd.
in below eg. admin is user name.

root@ubuntu:~# htpasswd -mc /etc/apache2/gitweb-htpasswd admin
New password: 
Re-type new password: 
Adding password for user admin
root@ubuntu:~# 

Now restart the apache2

root@ubuntu:~# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now open the browser and type once again http://gitserver-ip-address/gitweb
eg. http://10.10.0.16/gitweb