# Gitolite

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 you 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.

    # su - gitolite
    $ gitolite setup -pk 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 SSH public key you copied and exit the gitolite user shell

    $ rm username.pub
    $ exit

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! You MUST manage the server by cloning the special gitolite-admin repository

    $ git clone gitolite@hostname:gitolite-admin

For reference see Gitolite

### 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 a public key. On their workstation generate the pair of ssh keys:

    $ ssh-keygen

Rename each public key according to the user's name, with a .pub extension, like sitaram.pub or john-smith.pub. You can also use periods and underscores. Have the users send you the keys.

Copy all these *.pub files to keydir in your gitolite-admin repo clone. You can also organise them into various subdirectories of keydir if you wish, since the entire tree is searched.

Edit the config file (conf/gitolite.conf in your admin repo clone). See the gitolite.conf documentation (http://sitaramc.github.com/gitolite/admin.html#conf) for details on what goes in that file, syntax, etc. Just add new repos as needed, and add new users and give them permissions as required. The users names should be exactly the same as their keyfile names, but without the .pub extension

    $ nano conf/gitolite.conf

Commit and push the changes them:

    $ git commit -a
    $ git push

### 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

## Gitosis-like ssh usernames

If you want to distinguish users with the same login (like `username@server1`, `username@server2`) you may want to do the following (tested with gitolite 3.04-1):

- edit `/usr/lib/gitolite/triggers/post-compile/ssh-authkeys` and replace

    $user =~ s/(\@[^.]+)?\.pub$//;    # baz.pub, baz@home.pub -> baz

by

    $user =~ s/\.pub$//;              # baz@home.pub -> baz@home

- update authorized_keys file (for example, by pushing into the gitolite-admin repository)

## 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

    # nano /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