Documentation/git-daemon.txt

   1 git-daemon(1)
   2 =============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-daemon - A really simple server for git repositories
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 [verse]
  11 'git daemon' [--verbose] [--syslog] [--export-all]
  12              [--timeout=<n>] [--init-timeout=<n>] [--max-connections=<n>]
  13              [--strict-paths] [--base-path=<path>] [--base-path-relaxed]
  14              [--user-path | --user-path=<path>]
  15              [--interpolated-path=<pathtemplate>]
  16              [--reuseaddr] [--detach] [--pid-file=<file>]
  17              [--enable=<service>] [--disable=<service>]
  18              [--allow-override=<service>] [--forbid-override=<service>]
  19              [--inetd | [--listen=<host_or_ipaddr>] [--port=<n>] [--user=<user> [--group=<group>]]
  20              [<directory>...]
  21
  22 DESCRIPTION
  23 -----------
  24 A really simple TCP git daemon that normally listens on port "DEFAULT_GIT_PORT"
  25 aka 9418.  It waits for a connection asking for a service, and will serve
  26 that service if it is enabled.
  27
  28 It verifies that the directory has the magic file "git-daemon-export-ok", and
  29 it will refuse to export any git directory that hasn't explicitly been marked
  30 for export this way (unless the '--export-all' parameter is specified). If you
  31 pass some directory paths as 'git daemon' arguments, you can further restrict
  32 the offers to a whitelist comprising of those.
  33
  34 By default, only `upload-pack` service is enabled, which serves
  35 'git fetch-pack' and 'git ls-remote' clients, which are invoked
  36 from 'git fetch', 'git pull', and 'git clone'.
  37
  38 This is ideally suited for read-only updates, i.e., pulling from
  39 git repositories.
  40
  41 An `upload-archive` also exists to serve 'git archive'.
  42
  43 OPTIONS
  44 -------
  45 --strict-paths::
  46         Match paths exactly (i.e. don't allow "/foo/repo" when the real path is
  47         "/foo/repo.git" or "/foo/repo/.git") and don't do user-relative paths.
  48         'git daemon' will refuse to start when this option is enabled and no
  49         whitelist is specified.
  50
  51 --base-path=<path>::
  52         Remap all the path requests as relative to the given path.
  53         This is sort of "GIT root" - if you run 'git daemon' with
  54         '--base-path=/srv/git' on example.com, then if you later try to pull
  55         'git://example.com/hello.git', 'git daemon' will interpret the path
  56         as '/srv/git/hello.git'.
  57
  58 --base-path-relaxed::
  59         If --base-path is enabled and repo lookup fails, with this option
  60         'git daemon' will attempt to lookup without prefixing the base path.
  61         This is useful for switching to --base-path usage, while still
  62         allowing the old paths.
  63
  64 --interpolated-path=<pathtemplate>::
  65         To support virtual hosting, an interpolated path template can be
  66         used to dynamically construct alternate paths.  The template
  67         supports %H for the target hostname as supplied by the client but
  68         converted to all lowercase, %CH for the canonical hostname,
  69         %IP for the server's IP address, %P for the port number,
  70         and %D for the absolute path of the named repository.
  71         After interpolation, the path is validated against the directory
  72         whitelist.
  73
  74 --export-all::
  75         Allow pulling from all directories that look like GIT repositories
  76         (have the 'objects' and 'refs' subdirectories), even if they
  77         do not have the 'git-daemon-export-ok' file.
  78
  79 --inetd::
  80         Have the server run as an inetd service. Implies --syslog.
  81         Incompatible with --detach, --port, --listen, --user and --group
  82         options.
  83
  84 --listen=<host_or_ipaddr>::
  85         Listen on a specific IP address or hostname.  IP addresses can
  86         be either an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address if supported.  If IPv6
  87         is not supported, then --listen=hostname is also not supported and
  88         --listen must be given an IPv4 address.
  89         Can be given more than once.
  90         Incompatible with '--inetd' option.
  91
  92 --port=<n>::
  93         Listen on an alternative port.  Incompatible with '--inetd' option.
  94
  95 --init-timeout=<n>::
  96         Timeout (in seconds) between the moment the connection is established
  97         and the client request is received (typically a rather low value, since
  98         that should be basically immediate).
  99
 100 --timeout=<n>::
 101         Timeout (in seconds) for specific client sub-requests. This includes
 102         the time it takes for the server to process the sub-request and the
 103         time spent waiting for the next client's request.
 104
 105 --max-connections=<n>::
 106         Maximum number of concurrent clients, defaults to 32.  Set it to
 107         zero for no limit.
 108
 109 --syslog::
 110         Log to syslog instead of stderr. Note that this option does not imply
 111         --verbose, thus by default only error conditions will be logged.
 112
 113 --user-path::
 114 --user-path=<path>::
 115         Allow {tilde}user notation to be used in requests.  When
 116         specified with no parameter, requests to
 117         git://host/{tilde}alice/foo is taken as a request to access
 118         'foo' repository in the home directory of user `alice`.
 119         If `--user-path=path` is specified, the same request is
 120         taken as a request to access `path/foo` repository in
 121         the home directory of user `alice`.
 122
 123 --verbose::
 124         Log details about the incoming connections and requested files.
 125
 126 --reuseaddr::
 127         Use SO_REUSEADDR when binding the listening socket.
 128         This allows the server to restart without waiting for
 129         old connections to time out.
 130
 131 --detach::
 132         Detach from the shell. Implies --syslog.
 133
 134 --pid-file=<file>::
 135         Save the process id in 'file'.  Ignored when the daemon
 136         is run under `--inetd`.
 137
 138 --user=<user>::
 139 --group=<group>::
 140         Change daemon's uid and gid before entering the service loop.
 141         When only `--user` is given without `--group`, the
 142         primary group ID for the user is used.  The values of
 143         the option are given to `getpwnam(3)` and `getgrnam(3)`
 144         and numeric IDs are not supported.
 145 +
 146 Giving these options is an error when used with `--inetd`; use
 147 the facility of inet daemon to achieve the same before spawning
 148 'git daemon' if needed.
 149
 150 --enable=<service>::
 151 --disable=<service>::
 152         Enable/disable the service site-wide per default.  Note
 153         that a service disabled site-wide can still be enabled
 154         per repository if it is marked overridable and the
 155         repository enables the service with a configuration
 156         item.
 157
 158 --allow-override=<service>::
 159 --forbid-override=<service>::
 160         Allow/forbid overriding the site-wide default with per
 161         repository configuration.  By default, all the services
 162         are overridable.
 163
 164 --informative-errors::
 165 --no-informative-errors::
 166         When informative errors are turned on, git-daemon will report
 167         more verbose errors to the client, differentiating conditions
 168         like "no such repository" from "repository not exported". This
 169         is more convenient for clients, but may leak information about
 170         the existence of unexported repositories.  When informative
 171         errors are not enabled, all errors report "access denied" to the
 172         client. The default is --no-informative-errors.
 173
 174 <directory>::
 175         A directory to add to the whitelist of allowed directories. Unless
 176         --strict-paths is specified this will also include subdirectories
 177         of each named directory.
 178
 179 SERVICES
 180 --------
 181
 182 These services can be globally enabled/disabled using the
 183 command line options of this command.  If a finer-grained
 184 control is desired (e.g. to allow 'git archive' to be run
 185 against only in a few selected repositories the daemon serves),
 186 the per-repository configuration file can be used to enable or
 187 disable them.
 188
 189 upload-pack::
 190         This serves 'git fetch-pack' and 'git ls-remote'
 191         clients.  It is enabled by default, but a repository can
 192         disable it by setting `daemon.uploadpack` configuration
 193         item to `false`.
 194
 195 upload-archive::
 196         This serves 'git archive --remote'.  It is disabled by
 197         default, but a repository can enable it by setting
 198         `daemon.uploadarch` configuration item to `true`.
 199
 200 receive-pack::
 201         This serves 'git send-pack' clients, allowing anonymous
 202         push.  It is disabled by default, as there is _no_
 203         authentication in the protocol (in other words, anybody
 204         can push anything into the repository, including removal
 205         of refs).  This is solely meant for a closed LAN setting
 206         where everybody is friendly.  This service can be
 207         enabled by setting `daemon.receivepack` configuration item to
 208         `true`.
 209
 210 EXAMPLES
 211 --------
 212 We assume the following in /etc/services::
 213 +
 214 ------------
 215 $ grep 9418 /etc/services
 216 git             9418/tcp                # Git Version Control System
 217 ------------
 218
 219 'git daemon' as inetd server::
 220         To set up 'git daemon' as an inetd service that handles any
 221         repository under the whitelisted set of directories, /pub/foo
 222         and /pub/bar, place an entry like the following into
 223         /etc/inetd all on one line:
 224 +
 225 ------------------------------------------------
 226         git stream tcp nowait nobody  /usr/bin/git
 227                 git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
 228                 /pub/foo /pub/bar
 229 ------------------------------------------------
 230
 231
 232 'git daemon' as inetd server for virtual hosts::
 233         To set up 'git daemon' as an inetd service that handles
 234         repositories for different virtual hosts, `www.example.com`
 235         and `www.example.org`, place an entry like the following into
 236         `/etc/inetd` all on one line:
 237 +
 238 ------------------------------------------------
 239         git stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git
 240                 git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
 241                 --interpolated-path=/pub/%H%D
 242                 /pub/www.example.org/software
 243                 /pub/www.example.com/software
 244                 /software
 245 ------------------------------------------------
 246 +
 247 In this example, the root-level directory `/pub` will contain
 248 a subdirectory for each virtual host name supported.
 249 Further, both hosts advertise repositories simply as
 250 `git://www.example.com/software/repo.git`.  For pre-1.4.0
 251 clients, a symlink from `/software` into the appropriate
 252 default repository could be made as well.
 253
 254
 255 'git daemon' as regular daemon for virtual hosts::
 256         To set up 'git daemon' as a regular, non-inetd service that
 257         handles repositories for multiple virtual hosts based on
 258         their IP addresses, start the daemon like this:
 259 +
 260 ------------------------------------------------
 261         git daemon --verbose --export-all
 262                 --interpolated-path=/pub/%IP/%D
 263                 /pub/192.168.1.200/software
 264                 /pub/10.10.220.23/software
 265 ------------------------------------------------
 266 +
 267 In this example, the root-level directory `/pub` will contain
 268 a subdirectory for each virtual host IP address supported.
 269 Repositories can still be accessed by hostname though, assuming
 270 they correspond to these IP addresses.
 271
 272 selectively enable/disable services per repository::
 273         To enable 'git archive --remote' and disable 'git fetch' against
 274         a repository, have the following in the configuration file in the
 275         repository (that is the file 'config' next to 'HEAD', 'refs' and
 276         'objects').
 277 +
 278 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 279         [daemon]
 280                 uploadpack = false
 281                 uploadarch = true
 282 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 283
 284
 285 ENVIRONMENT
 286 -----------
 287 'git daemon' will set REMOTE_ADDR to the IP address of the client
 288 that connected to it, if the IP address is available. REMOTE_ADDR will
 289 be available in the environment of hooks called when
 290 services are performed.
 291
 292 GIT
 293 ---
 294 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite