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              [--access-hook=<path>] [--[no-]informative-errors]
  20              [--inetd |
  21               [--listen=<host-or-ipaddr>] [--port=<n>]
  22               [--user=<user> [--group=<group>]]]
  23              [--log-destination=(stderr|syslog|none)]
  24              [<directory>...]
  25
  26 DESCRIPTION
  27 -----------
  28 A really simple TCP Git daemon that normally listens on port "DEFAULT_GIT_PORT"
  29 aka 9418.  It waits for a connection asking for a service, and will serve
  30 that service if it is enabled.
  31
  32 It verifies that the directory has the magic file "git-daemon-export-ok", and
  33 it will refuse to export any Git directory that hasn't explicitly been marked
  34 for export this way (unless the `--export-all` parameter is specified). If you
  35 pass some directory paths as 'git daemon' arguments, the offers are limited to
  36 repositories within those directories.
  37
  38 By default, only `upload-pack` service is enabled, which serves
  39 'git fetch-pack' and 'git ls-remote' clients, which are invoked
  40 from 'git fetch', 'git pull', and 'git clone'.
  41
  42 This is ideally suited for read-only updates, i.e., pulling from
  43 Git repositories.
  44
  45 An `upload-archive` also exists to serve 'git archive'.
  46
  47 OPTIONS
  48 -------
  49 --strict-paths::
  50         Match paths exactly (i.e. don't allow "/foo/repo" when the real path is
  51         "/foo/repo.git" or "/foo/repo/.git") and don't do user-relative paths.
  52         'git daemon' will refuse to start when this option is enabled and no
  53         directory arguments are provided.
  54
  55 --base-path=<path>::
  56         Remap all the path requests as relative to the given path.
  57         This is sort of "Git root" - if you run 'git daemon' with
  58         '--base-path=/srv/git' on example.com, then if you later try to pull
  59         'git://example.com/hello.git', 'git daemon' will interpret the path
  60         as `/srv/git/hello.git`.
  61
  62 --base-path-relaxed::
  63         If --base-path is enabled and repo lookup fails, with this option
  64         'git daemon' will attempt to lookup without prefixing the base path.
  65         This is useful for switching to --base-path usage, while still
  66         allowing the old paths.
  67
  68 --interpolated-path=<pathtemplate>::
  69         To support virtual hosting, an interpolated path template can be
  70         used to dynamically construct alternate paths.  The template
  71         supports %H for the target hostname as supplied by the client but
  72         converted to all lowercase, %CH for the canonical hostname,
  73         %IP for the server's IP address, %P for the port number,
  74         and %D for the absolute path of the named repository.
  75         After interpolation, the path is validated against the directory
  76         list.
  77
  78 --export-all::
  79         Allow pulling from all directories that look like Git repositories
  80         (have the 'objects' and 'refs' subdirectories), even if they
  81         do not have the 'git-daemon-export-ok' file.
  82
  83 --inetd::
  84         Have the server run as an inetd service. Implies --syslog (may be
  85         overridden with `--log-destination=`).
  86         Incompatible with --detach, --port, --listen, --user and --group
  87         options.
  88
  89 --listen=<host-or-ipaddr>::
  90         Listen on a specific IP address or hostname.  IP addresses can
  91         be either an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address if supported.  If IPv6
  92         is not supported, then --listen=<hostname> is also not supported and
  93         --listen must be given an IPv4 address.
  94         Can be given more than once.
  95         Incompatible with `--inetd` option.
  96
  97 --port=<n>::
  98         Listen on an alternative port.  Incompatible with `--inetd` option.
  99
 100 --init-timeout=<n>::
 101         Timeout (in seconds) between the moment the connection is established
 102         and the client request is received (typically a rather low value, since
 103         that should be basically immediate).
 104
 105 --timeout=<n>::
 106         Timeout (in seconds) for specific client sub-requests. This includes
 107         the time it takes for the server to process the sub-request and the
 108         time spent waiting for the next client's request.
 109
 110 --max-connections=<n>::
 111         Maximum number of concurrent clients, defaults to 32.  Set it to
 112         zero for no limit.
 113
 114 --syslog::
 115         Short for `--log-destination=syslog`.
 116
 117 --log-destination=<destination>::
 118         Send log messages to the specified destination.
 119         Note that this option does not imply --verbose,
 120         thus by default only error conditions will be logged.
 121         The <destination> must be one of:
 122 +
 123 --
 124 stderr::
 125         Write to standard error.
 126         Note that if `--detach` is specified,
 127         the process disconnects from the real standard error,
 128         making this destination effectively equivalent to `none`.
 129 syslog::
 130         Write to syslog, using the `git-daemon` identifier.
 131 none::
 132         Disable all logging.
 133 --
 134 +
 135 The default destination is `syslog` if `--inetd` or `--detach` is specified,
 136 otherwise `stderr`.
 137
 138 --user-path::
 139 --user-path=<path>::
 140         Allow {tilde}user notation to be used in requests.  When
 141         specified with no parameter, a request to
 142         git://host/{tilde}alice/foo is taken as a request to access
 143         'foo' repository in the home directory of user `alice`.
 144         If `--user-path=<path>` is specified, the same request is
 145         taken as a request to access `<path>/foo` repository in
 146         the home directory of user `alice`.
 147
 148 --verbose::
 149         Log details about the incoming connections and requested files.
 150
 151 --reuseaddr::
 152         Use SO_REUSEADDR when binding the listening socket.
 153         This allows the server to restart without waiting for
 154         old connections to time out.
 155
 156 --detach::
 157         Detach from the shell. Implies --syslog.
 158
 159 --pid-file=<file>::
 160         Save the process id in 'file'.  Ignored when the daemon
 161         is run under `--inetd`.
 162
 163 --user=<user>::
 164 --group=<group>::
 165         Change daemon's uid and gid before entering the service loop.
 166         When only `--user` is given without `--group`, the
 167         primary group ID for the user is used.  The values of
 168         the option are given to `getpwnam(3)` and `getgrnam(3)`
 169         and numeric IDs are not supported.
 170 +
 171 Giving these options is an error when used with `--inetd`; use
 172 the facility of inet daemon to achieve the same before spawning
 173 'git daemon' if needed.
 174 +
 175 Like many programs that switch user id, the daemon does not reset
 176 environment variables such as `$HOME` when it runs git programs,
 177 e.g. `upload-pack` and `receive-pack`. When using this option, you
 178 may also want to set and export `HOME` to point at the home
 179 directory of `<user>` before starting the daemon, and make sure any
 180 Git configuration files in that directory are readable by `<user>`.
 181
 182 --enable=<service>::
 183 --disable=<service>::
 184         Enable/disable the service site-wide per default.  Note
 185         that a service disabled site-wide can still be enabled
 186         per repository if it is marked overridable and the
 187         repository enables the service with a configuration
 188         item.
 189
 190 --allow-override=<service>::
 191 --forbid-override=<service>::
 192         Allow/forbid overriding the site-wide default with per
 193         repository configuration.  By default, all the services
 194         may be overridden.
 195
 196 --[no-]informative-errors::
 197         When informative errors are turned on, git-daemon will report
 198         more verbose errors to the client, differentiating conditions
 199         like "no such repository" from "repository not exported". This
 200         is more convenient for clients, but may leak information about
 201         the existence of unexported repositories.  When informative
 202         errors are not enabled, all errors report "access denied" to the
 203         client. The default is --no-informative-errors.
 204
 205 --access-hook=<path>::
 206         Every time a client connects, first run an external command
 207         specified by the <path> with service name (e.g. "upload-pack"),
 208         path to the repository, hostname (%H), canonical hostname
 209         (%CH), IP address (%IP), and TCP port (%P) as its command-line
 210         arguments. The external command can decide to decline the
 211         service by exiting with a non-zero status (or to allow it by
 212         exiting with a zero status).  It can also look at the $REMOTE_ADDR
 213         and `$REMOTE_PORT` environment variables to learn about the
 214         requestor when making this decision.
 215 +
 216 The external command can optionally write a single line to its
 217 standard output to be sent to the requestor as an error message when
 218 it declines the service.
 219
 220 <directory>::
 221         The remaining arguments provide a list of directories. If any
 222         directories are specified, then the `git-daemon` process will
 223         serve a requested directory only if it is contained in one of
 224         these directories. If `--strict-paths` is specified, then the
 225         requested directory must match one of these directories exactly.
 226
 227 SERVICES
 228 --------
 229
 230 These services can be globally enabled/disabled using the
 231 command-line options of this command.  If finer-grained
 232 control is desired (e.g. to allow 'git archive' to be run
 233 against only in a few selected repositories the daemon serves),
 234 the per-repository configuration file can be used to enable or
 235 disable them.
 236
 237 upload-pack::
 238         This serves 'git fetch-pack' and 'git ls-remote'
 239         clients.  It is enabled by default, but a repository can
 240         disable it by setting `daemon.uploadpack` configuration
 241         item to `false`.
 242
 243 upload-archive::
 244         This serves 'git archive --remote'.  It is disabled by
 245         default, but a repository can enable it by setting
 246         `daemon.uploadarch` configuration item to `true`.
 247
 248 receive-pack::
 249         This serves 'git send-pack' clients, allowing anonymous
 250         push.  It is disabled by default, as there is _no_
 251         authentication in the protocol (in other words, anybody
 252         can push anything into the repository, including removal
 253         of refs).  This is solely meant for a closed LAN setting
 254         where everybody is friendly.  This service can be
 255         enabled by setting `daemon.receivepack` configuration item to
 256         `true`.
 257
 258 EXAMPLES
 259 --------
 260 We assume the following in /etc/services::
 261 +
 262 ------------
 263 $ grep 9418 /etc/services
 264 git             9418/tcp                # Git Version Control System
 265 ------------
 266
 267 'git daemon' as inetd server::
 268         To set up 'git daemon' as an inetd service that handles any
 269         repository within `/pub/foo` or `/pub/bar`, place an entry like
 270         the following into `/etc/inetd` all on one line:
 271 +
 272 ------------------------------------------------
 273         git stream tcp nowait nobody  /usr/bin/git
 274                 git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
 275                 /pub/foo /pub/bar
 276 ------------------------------------------------
 277
 278
 279 'git daemon' as inetd server for virtual hosts::
 280         To set up 'git daemon' as an inetd service that handles
 281         repositories for different virtual hosts, `www.example.com`
 282         and `www.example.org`, place an entry like the following into
 283         `/etc/inetd` all on one line:
 284 +
 285 ------------------------------------------------
 286         git stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git
 287                 git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
 288                 --interpolated-path=/pub/%H%D
 289                 /pub/www.example.org/software
 290                 /pub/www.example.com/software
 291                 /software
 292 ------------------------------------------------
 293 +
 294 In this example, the root-level directory `/pub` will contain
 295 a subdirectory for each virtual host name supported.
 296 Further, both hosts advertise repositories simply as
 297 `git://www.example.com/software/repo.git`.  For pre-1.4.0
 298 clients, a symlink from `/software` into the appropriate
 299 default repository could be made as well.
 300
 301
 302 'git daemon' as regular daemon for virtual hosts::
 303         To set up 'git daemon' as a regular, non-inetd service that
 304         handles repositories for multiple virtual hosts based on
 305         their IP addresses, start the daemon like this:
 306 +
 307 ------------------------------------------------
 308         git daemon --verbose --export-all
 309                 --interpolated-path=/pub/%IP/%D
 310                 /pub/192.168.1.200/software
 311                 /pub/10.10.220.23/software
 312 ------------------------------------------------
 313 +
 314 In this example, the root-level directory `/pub` will contain
 315 a subdirectory for each virtual host IP address supported.
 316 Repositories can still be accessed by hostname though, assuming
 317 they correspond to these IP addresses.
 318
 319 selectively enable/disable services per repository::
 320         To enable 'git archive --remote' and disable 'git fetch' against
 321         a repository, have the following in the configuration file in the
 322         repository (that is the file 'config' next to `HEAD`, 'refs' and
 323         'objects').
 324 +
 325 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 326         [daemon]
 327                 uploadpack = false
 328                 uploadarch = true
 329 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 330
 331
 332 ENVIRONMENT
 333 -----------
 334 'git daemon' will set REMOTE_ADDR to the IP address of the client
 335 that connected to it, if the IP address is available. REMOTE_ADDR will
 336 be available in the environment of hooks called when
 337 services are performed.
 338
 339 GIT
 340 ---
 341 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite