GIT-DAEMON(1)GIT-DAEMON(1)NAMEgit-daemon - A really simple server for git repositories
SYNOPSIS
git daemon [--verbose] [--syslog] [--export-all]
[--timeout=<n>] [--init-timeout=<n>] [--max-connections=<n>]
[--strict-paths] [--base-path=<path>] [--base-path-relaxed]
[--user-path | --user-path=<path>]
[--interpolated-path=<pathtemplate>]
[--reuseaddr] [--detach] [--pid-file=<file>]
[--enable=<service>] [--disable=<service>]
[--allow-override=<service>] [--forbid-override=<service>]
[--inetd | [--listen=<host_or_ipaddr>] [--port=<n>] [--user=<user> [--group=<group>]]
[<directory>...]
DESCRIPTION
A really simple TCP git daemon that normally listens on port
"DEFAULT_GIT_PORT" aka 9418. It waits for a connection asking for a
service, and will serve that service if it is enabled.
It verifies that the directory has the magic file "git-dae-
mon-export-ok", and it will refuse to export any git directory that
hasn’t explicitly been marked for export this way (unless the
--export-all parameter is specified). If you pass some directory paths
as git daemon arguments, you can further restrict the offers to a
whitelist comprising of those.
By default, only 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.
This is ideally suited for read-only updates, i.e., pulling from git
repositories.
An upload-archive also exists to serve git archive.
OPTIONS--strict-paths
Match paths exactly (i.e. don’t allow "/foo/repo" when the
real path is "/foo/repo.git" or "/foo/repo/.git") and
don’t do user-relative paths. git daemon will refuse to
start when this option is enabled and no whitelist is specified.
--base-path=<path>
Remap all the path requests as relative to the given path. This
is sort of "GIT root" - if you run git daemon with
--base-path=/srv/git on example.com, then if you later try to
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pull git://example.com/hello.git, git daemon will interpret the
path as /srv/git/hello.git.
--base-path-relaxed
If --base-path is enabled and repo lookup fails, with this
option git daemon will attempt to lookup without prefixing the
base path. This is useful for switching to --base-path usage,
while still allowing the old paths.
--interpolated-path=<pathtemplate>
To support virtual hosting, an interpolated path template can be
used to dynamically construct alternate paths. The template sup-
ports %H for the target hostname as supplied by the client but
converted to all lowercase, %CH for the canonical hostname, %IP
for the server’s IP address, %P for the port number, and
%D for the absolute path of the named repository. After interpo-
lation, the path is validated against the directory whitelist.
--export-all
Allow pulling from all directories that look like GIT reposito-
ries (have the objects and refs subdirectories), even if they do
not have the git-daemon-export-ok file.
--inetd
Have the server run as an inetd service. Implies --syslog.
Incompatible with --port, --listen, --user and --group options.
--listen=<host_or_ipaddr>
Listen on a specific IP address or hostname. IP addresses can be
either an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address if supported. If IPv6
is not supported, then --listen=hostname is also not supported
and --listen must be given an IPv4 address. Incompatible with
--inetd option.
--port=<n>
Listen on an alternative port. Incompatible with --inetd option.
--init-timeout=<n>
Timeout between the moment the connection is established and the
client request is received (typically a rather low value, since
that should be basically immediate).
--timeout=<n>
Timeout for specific client sub-requests. This includes the time
it takes for the server to process the sub-request and the time
spent waiting for the next client’s request.
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--max-connections=<n>
Maximum number of concurrent clients, defaults to 32. Set it to
zero for no limit.
--syslog
Log to syslog instead of stderr. Note that this option does not
imply --verbose, thus by default only error conditions will be
logged.
--user-path, --user-path=<path>
Allow ~user notation to be used in requests. When specified with
no parameter, requests to git://host/~alice/foo is taken as a
request to access foo repository in the home directory of user
alice. If --user-path=path is specified, the same request is
taken as a request to access path/foo repository in the home
directory of user alice.
--verbose
Log details about the incoming connections and requested files.
--reuseaddr
Use SO_REUSEADDR when binding the listening socket. This allows
the server to restart without waiting for old connections to
time out.
--detach
Detach from the shell. Implies --syslog.
--pid-file=<file>
Save the process id in file. Ignored when the daemon is run
under --inetd.
--user=<user>, --group=<group>
Change daemon’s uid and gid before entering the service
loop. When only --user is given without --group, the primary
group ID for the user is used. The values of the option are
given to getpwnam(3) and getgrnam(3) and numeric IDs are not
supported.
Giving these options is an error when used with --inetd; use the
facility of inet daemon to achieve the same before spawning git
daemon if needed.
--enable=<service>, --disable=<service>
Enable/disable the service site-wide per default. Note that a
service disabled site-wide can still be enabled per repository
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if it is marked overridable and the repository enables the ser-
vice with a configuration item.
--allow-override=<service>, --forbid-override=<service>
Allow/forbid overriding the site-wide default with per reposi-
tory configuration. By default, all the services are overrid-
able.
<directory>
A directory to add to the whitelist of allowed directories.
Unless --strict-paths is specified this will also include subdi-
rectories of each named directory.
SERVICES
These services can be globally enabled/disabled using the command line
options of this command. If a finer-grained control is desired (e.g. to
allow git archive to be run against only in a few selected repositories
the daemon serves), the per-repository configuration file can be used
to enable or disable them.
upload-pack
This serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients. It is
enabled by default, but a repository can disable it by setting
daemon.uploadpack configuration item to false.
upload-archive
This serves git archive --remote. It is disabled by default, but
a repository can enable it by setting daemon.uploadarch configu-
ration item to true.
receive-pack
This serves git send-pack clients, allowing anonymous push. It
is disabled by default, as there is no authentication in the
protocol (in other words, anybody can push anything into the
repository, including removal of refs). This is solely meant for
a closed LAN setting where everybody is friendly. This service
can be enabled by daemon.receivepack configuration item to true.
EXAMPLES
We assume the following in /etc/services
.ft C
$ grep 9418 /etc/services
git 9418/tcp # Git Version Control System
.ft
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git daemon as inetd server
To set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles any repos-
itory under the whitelisted set of directories, /pub/foo and
/pub/bar, place an entry like the following into /etc/inetd all
on one line:
.ft C
git stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git
git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
/pub/foo /pub/bar
.ft
git daemon as inetd server for virtual hosts
To set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles reposito-
ries for different virtual hosts, www.example.com and www.exam-
ple.org, place an entry like the following into /etc/inetd all
on one line:
.ft C
git stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git
git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
--interpolated-path=/pub/%H%D
/pub/www.example.org/software
/pub/www.example.com/software
/software
.ft
In this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a
subdirectory for each virtual host name supported. Further, both
hosts advertise repositories simply as git://www.exam-
ple.com/software/repo.git. For pre-1.4.0 clients, a symlink from
/software into the appropriate default repository could be made
as well.
git daemon as regular daemon for virtual hosts
To set up git daemon as a regular, non-inetd service that han-
dles repositories for multiple virtual hosts based on their IP
addresses, start the daemon like this:
.ft C
git daemon --verbose --export-all
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--interpolated-path=/pub/%IP/%D
/pub/192.168.1.200/software
/pub/10.10.220.23/software
.ft
In this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a
subdirectory for each virtual host IP address supported. Reposi-
tories can still be accessed by hostname though, assuming they
correspond to these IP addresses.
selectively enable/disable services per repository
To enable git archive --remote and disable git fetch against a
repository, have the following in the configuration file in the
repository (that is the file config next to HEAD, refs and
objects).
.ft C
[daemon]
uploadpack = false
uploadarch = true
.ft
ENVIRONMENT
git daemon will set REMOTE_ADDR to the IP address of the client that
connected to it, if the IP address is available. REMOTE_ADDR will be
available in the environment of hooks called when services are per-
formed.
AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org: mailto:tor-
valds@osdl.org>, YOSHIFUJI Hideaki <yoshfuji@linux-ipv6.org:
mailto:yoshfuji@linux-ipv6.org> and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org:
mailto:git@vger.kernel.org>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org:
mailto:git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
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