NAME¶

git-http-backend - Server side implementation of Git over HTTP

SYNOPSIS¶

git http-backend

DESCRIPTION¶

A simple CGI program to serve the contents of a Git repository to Git clients accessing the repository over http:// and https:// protocols. The program supports clients fetching using both the smart HTTP protocol and the backwards-compatible dumb HTTP protocol, as well as clients pushing using the smart HTTP protocol. It also supports Git’s more-efficient "v2" protocol if properly configured; see the discussion of GIT_PROTOCOL in the ENVIRONMENT section below.

It verifies that the directory has the magic file "git-daemon-export-ok", and it will refuse to export any Git directory that hasn’t explicitly been marked for export this way (unless the GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL environment variable is set).

By default, only the upload-pack service is enabled, which serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients, which are invoked from git fetch, git pull, and git clone. If the client is authenticated, the receive-pack service is enabled, which serves git send-pack clients, which is invoked from git push.

SERVICES¶

These services can be enabled/disabled using the per-repository configuration file:

http.getanyfile

http.uploadpack

http.receivepack

URL TRANSLATION¶

To determine the location of the repository on disk, git http-backend concatenates the environment variables PATH_INFO, which is set automatically by the web server, and GIT_PROJECT_ROOT, which must be set manually in the web server configuration. If GIT_PROJECT_ROOT is not set, git http-backend reads PATH_TRANSLATED, which is also set automatically by the web server.

EXAMPLES¶

All of the following examples map http://$hostname/git/foo/bar.git to /var/www/git/foo/bar.git.

Apache 2.x

SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /var/www/git
SetEnv GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL
ScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/
# This is not strictly necessary using Apache and a modern version of
# git-http-backend, as the webserver will pass along the header in the
# environment as HTTP_GIT_PROTOCOL, and http-backend will copy that into
# GIT_PROTOCOL. But you may need this line (or something similar if you
# are using a different webserver), or if you want to support older Git
# versions that did not do that copying.
#
# Having the webserver set up GIT_PROTOCOL is perfectly fine even with
# modern versions (and will take precedence over HTTP_GIT_PROTOCOL,
# which means it can be used to override the client's request).
SetEnvIf Git-Protocol ".*" GIT_PROTOCOL=$0

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} service=git-receive-pack [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /git-receive-pack$
RewriteRule ^/git/ - [E=AUTHREQUIRED:yes]
<LocationMatch "^/git/">


        Order Deny,Allow


        Deny from env=AUTHREQUIRED


        AuthType Basic


        AuthName "Git Access"


        Require group committers


        Satisfy Any


        ...
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch "^/git/.*/git-receive-pack$">


        AuthType Basic


        AuthName "Git Access"


        Require group committers


        ...
</LocationMatch>

<Location /git/private>


        AuthType Basic


        AuthName "Private Git Access"


        Require group committers


        ...
</Location>

ScriptAliasMatch \


        "(?x)^/git/(.*/(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/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1
ScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/

SetEnvIf Request_URI "^/git/([^/]*)" GIT_NAMESPACE=$1
ScriptAliasMatch ^/git/[^/]*(.*) /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/storage.git$1

Accelerated static Apache 2.x

SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /var/www/git
AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$          /var/www/git/$1
AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1
ScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/

SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /var/www/git
AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$          /var/www/git/$1
AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1
ScriptAliasMatch \


        "(?x)^/git/(.*/(HEAD | \


                        info/refs | \


                        objects/info/[^/]+ | \


                        git-(upload|receive)-pack))$" \


        /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1
ScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/

Lighttpd

alias.url += ( "/git" => "/usr/lib/git-core/git-http-backend" )
$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/git" {


        cgi.assign = ("" => "")


        setenv.add-environment = (


                "GIT_PROJECT_ROOT" => "/var/www/git",


                "GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL" => ""


        )
}

$HTTP["querystring"] =~ "service=git-receive-pack" {


        include "git-auth.conf"
}
$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/git/.*/git-receive-pack$" {


        include "git-auth.conf"
}

auth.require = (


        "/" => (


                "method" => "basic",


                "realm" => "Git Access",


                "require" => "valid-user"


               )
)
# ...and set up auth.backend here

$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/git/private" {


        include "git-auth.conf"
}

ENVIRONMENT¶

git http-backend relies upon the CGI environment variables set by the invoking web server, including:

The GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL environment variable may be passed to git-http-backend to bypass the check for the "git-daemon-export-ok" file in each repository before allowing export of that repository.

The GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUEST_BUFFER environment variable (or the http.maxRequestBuffer config option) may be set to change the largest ref negotiation request that git will handle during a fetch; any fetch requiring a larger buffer will not succeed. This value should not normally need to be changed, but may be helpful if you are fetching from a repository with an extremely large number of refs. The value can be specified with a unit (e.g., 100M for 100 megabytes). The default is 10 megabytes.

Clients may probe for optional protocol capabilities (like the v2 protocol) using the Git-Protocol HTTP header. In order to support these, the contents of that header must appear in the GIT_PROTOCOL environment variable. Most webservers will pass this header to the CGI via the HTTP_GIT_PROTOCOL variable, and git-http-backend will automatically copy that to GIT_PROTOCOL. However, some webservers may be more selective about which headers they’ll pass, in which case they need to be configured explicitly (see the mention of Git-Protocol in the Apache config from the earlier EXAMPLES section).

The backend process sets GIT_COMMITTER_NAME to $REMOTE_USER and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL to ${REMOTE_USER}@http.${REMOTE_ADDR}, ensuring that any reflogs created by git-receive-pack contain some identifying information of the remote user who performed the push.

All CGI environment variables are available to each of the hooks invoked by the git-receive-pack.

GIT¶

Part of the git(1) suite