1GIT-HTTP-BACKEND(1) Git Manual GIT-HTTP-BACKEND(1)
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6 git-http-backend - Server side implementation of Git over HTTP
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9 git http-backend
10
12 A simple CGI program to serve the contents of a Git repository to Git
13 clients accessing the repository over http:// and https:// protocols.
14 The program supports clients fetching using both the smart HTTP
15 protocol and the backwards-compatible dumb HTTP protocol, as well as
16 clients pushing using the smart HTTP protocol. It also supports Git’s
17 more-efficient "v2" protocol if properly configured; see the discussion
18 of GIT_PROTOCOL in the ENVIRONMENT section below.
19 It verifies that the directory has the magic file
21 "git-daemon-export-ok", and it will refuse to export any Git directory
22 that hasn’t explicitly been marked for export this way (unless the
23 GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL environment variable is set).
24 By default, only the upload-pack service is enabled, which serves git
26 fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients, which are invoked from git fetch,
27 git pull, and git clone. If the client is authenticated, the
28 receive-pack service is enabled, which serves git send-pack clients,
29 which is invoked from git push.
30
32 These services can be enabled/disabled using the per-repository
33 configuration file:
34 http.getanyfile
36 This serves Git clients older than version 1.6.6 that are unable to
37 use the upload pack service. When enabled, clients are able to read
38 any file within the repository, including objects that are no
39 longer reachable from a branch but are still present. It is enabled
40 by default, but a repository can disable it by setting this
41 configuration value to false.
42 http.uploadpack
44 This serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients. It is enabled
45 by default, but a repository can disable it by setting this
46 configuration value to false.
47 http.receivepack
49 This serves git send-pack clients, allowing push. It is disabled by
50 default for anonymous users, and enabled by default for users
51 authenticated by the web server. It can be disabled by setting this
52 item to false, or enabled for all users, including anonymous users,
53 by setting it to true.
54
56 To determine the location of the repository on disk, git http-backend
57 concatenates the environment variables PATH_INFO, which is set
58 automatically by the web server, and GIT_PROJECT_ROOT, which must be
59 set manually in the web server configuration. If GIT_PROJECT_ROOT is
60 not set, git http-backend reads PATH_TRANSLATED, which is also set
61 automatically by the web server.
62
64 All of the following examples map http://$hostname/git/foo/bar.git to
65 /var/www/git/foo/bar.git.
66 Apache 2.x
68 Ensure mod_cgi, mod_alias, and mod_env are enabled, set
69 GIT_PROJECT_ROOT (or DocumentRoot) appropriately, and create a
70 ScriptAlias to the CGI:
71 SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /var/www/git
73 SetEnv GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL
74 ScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/
75 # This is not strictly necessary using Apache and a modern version of
77 # git-http-backend, as the webserver will pass along the header in the
78 # environment as HTTP_GIT_PROTOCOL, and http-backend will copy that into
79 # GIT_PROTOCOL. But you may need this line (or something similar if you
80 # are using a different webserver), or if you want to support older Git
81 # versions that did not do that copying.
82 #
83 # Having the webserver set up GIT_PROTOCOL is perfectly fine even with
84 # modern versions (and will take precedence over HTTP_GIT_PROTOCOL,
85 # which means it can be used to override the client's request).
86 SetEnvIf Git-Protocol ".*" GIT_PROTOCOL=$0
87 To enable anonymous read access but authenticated write access,
89 require authorization for both the initial ref advertisement (which
90 we detect as a push via the service parameter in the query string),
91 and the receive-pack invocation itself:
92 RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} service=git-receive-pack [OR]
94 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /git-receive-pack$
95 RewriteRule ^/git/ - [E=AUTHREQUIRED:yes]
96 <LocationMatch "^/git/">
98 Order Deny,Allow
99 Deny from env=AUTHREQUIRED
100 AuthType Basic
102 AuthName "Git Access"
103 Require group committers
104 Satisfy Any
105 ...
106 </LocationMatch>
107 If you do not have mod_rewrite available to match against the query
109 string, it is sufficient to just protect git-receive-pack itself,
110 like:
111 <LocationMatch "^/git/.*/git-receive-pack$">
113 AuthType Basic
114 AuthName "Git Access"
115 Require group committers
116 ...
117 </LocationMatch>
118 In this mode, the server will not request authentication until the
120 client actually starts the object negotiation phase of the push,
121 rather than during the initial contact. For this reason, you must
122 also enable the http.receivepack config option in any repositories
123 that should accept a push. The default behavior, if
124 http.receivepack is not set, is to reject any pushes by
125 unauthenticated users; the initial request will therefore report
126 403 Forbidden to the client, without even giving an opportunity for
127 authentication.
128 To require authentication for both reads and writes, use a Location
130 directive around the repository, or one of its parent directories:
131 <Location /git/private>
133 AuthType Basic
134 AuthName "Private Git Access"
135 Require group committers
136 ...
137 </Location>
138 To serve gitweb at the same url, use a ScriptAliasMatch to only
140 those URLs that git http-backend can handle, and forward the rest
141 to gitweb:
142 ScriptAliasMatch \
144 "(?x)^/git/(.*/(HEAD | \
145 info/refs | \
146 objects/(info/[^/]+ | \
147 [0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38} | \
148 pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}\.(pack|idx)) | \
149 git-(upload|receive)-pack))$" \
150 /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1
151 ScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/
153 To serve multiple repositories from different gitnamespaces(7) in a
155 single repository:
156 SetEnvIf Request_URI "^/git/([^/]*)" GIT_NAMESPACE=$1
158 ScriptAliasMatch ^/git/[^/]*(.*) /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/storage.git$1
159 Accelerated static Apache 2.x
161 Similar to the above, but Apache can be used to return static files
162 that are stored on disk. On many systems this may be more efficient
163 as Apache can ask the kernel to copy the file contents from the
164 file system directly to the network:
165 SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /var/www/git
167 AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$ /var/www/git/$1
169 AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1
170 ScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/
171 This can be combined with the gitweb configuration:
173 SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /var/www/git
175 AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$ /var/www/git/$1
177 AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1
178 ScriptAliasMatch \
179 "(?x)^/git/(.*/(HEAD | \
180 info/refs | \
181 objects/info/[^/]+ | \
182 git-(upload|receive)-pack))$" \
183 /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1
184 ScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/
185 Lighttpd
187 Ensure that mod_cgi, mod_alias, mod_auth, mod_setenv are loaded,
188 then set GIT_PROJECT_ROOT appropriately and redirect all requests
189 to the CGI:
190 alias.url += ( "/git" => "/usr/lib/git-core/git-http-backend" )
192 $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/git" {
193 cgi.assign = ("" => "")
194 setenv.add-environment = (
195 "GIT_PROJECT_ROOT" => "/var/www/git",
196 "GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL" => ""
197 )
198 }
199 To enable anonymous read access but authenticated write access:
201 $HTTP["querystring"] =~ "service=git-receive-pack" {
203 include "git-auth.conf"
204 }
205 $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/git/.*/git-receive-pack$" {
206 include "git-auth.conf"
207 }
208 where git-auth.conf looks something like:
210 auth.require = (
212 "/" => (
213 "method" => "basic",
214 "realm" => "Git Access",
215 "require" => "valid-user"
216 )
217 )
218 # ...and set up auth.backend here
219 To require authentication for both reads and writes:
221 $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/git/private" {
223 include "git-auth.conf"
224 }
225
227 git http-backend relies upon the CGI environment variables set by the
228 invoking web server, including:
229 • PATH_INFO (if GIT_PROJECT_ROOT is set, otherwise PATH_TRANSLATED)
231 • REMOTE_USER
233 • REMOTE_ADDR
235 • CONTENT_TYPE
237 • QUERY_STRING
239 • REQUEST_METHOD
241 The GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL environment variable may be passed to
243 git-http-backend to bypass the check for the "git-daemon-export-ok"
244 file in each repository before allowing export of that repository.
245 The GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUEST_BUFFER environment variable (or the
247 http.maxRequestBuffer config option) may be set to change the largest
248 ref negotiation request that git will handle during a fetch; any fetch
249 requiring a larger buffer will not succeed. This value should not
250 normally need to be changed, but may be helpful if you are fetching
251 from a repository with an extremely large number of refs. The value can
252 be specified with a unit (e.g., 100M for 100 megabytes). The default is
253 10 megabytes.
254 Clients may probe for optional protocol capabilities (like the v2
256 protocol) using the Git-Protocol HTTP header. In order to support
257 these, the contents of that header must appear in the GIT_PROTOCOL
258 environment variable. Most webservers will pass this header to the CGI
259 via the HTTP_GIT_PROTOCOL variable, and git-http-backend will
260 automatically copy that to GIT_PROTOCOL. However, some webservers may
261 be more selective about which headers they’ll pass, in which case they
262 need to be configured explicitly (see the mention of Git-Protocol in
263 the Apache config from the earlier EXAMPLES section).
264 The backend process sets GIT_COMMITTER_NAME to $REMOTE_USER and
266 GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL to ${REMOTE_USER}@http.${REMOTE_ADDR}, ensuring
267 that any reflogs created by git-receive-pack contain some identifying
268 information of the remote user who performed the push.
269 All CGI environment variables are available to each of the hooks
271 invoked by the git-receive-pack.
272
274 Part of the git(1) suite
275Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GIT-HTTP-BACKEND(1)