master TOC | main page | single-page | license

This is for gitolite "g3"; for older (v2.x) documentation click here

Hosting git repositories

Gitolite allows you to setup git hosting on a central server, with fine-grained access control and many more powerful features.

Here's more on what it is, how it works, why you might need it, and who else is using it.

You may also want to look at these graphical overviews of the documentation: basic and advanced.

quick links

• Trying out gitolite.
• Minimum requirements.
• Here's how to do a quick install, setup, and clone.
• Don't know ssh well enough? Learn. It's IMPORTANT.
• Add users and repos.
• Learn about fine-grained access control with the conf file.
• Explain gitolite to your users.

The rest of the documentation is in the "master index" link at the top of each page on this website. This is the first place you should search when looking for specific information.

What is gitolite?

Gitolite is an access control layer on top of git. Here are the features that most people see:

• Use a single unix user ("real" user) on the server.
• Provide access to many gitolite users:
  • they are not "real" users,
  • they do not get shell access.
• Control access to many git repositories:
  • read access controlled at the repo level,
  • write access controlled at the branch/tag/file/directory level, including who can rewind, create, and delete branches/tags.
• Can be installed without root access, assuming git and perl are already installed.
• Authentication is most commonly done using sshd, but you can also use http if you prefer (this may require root access).

contact and support

• mailing list for support and general discussion:

  • gitolite@googlegroups.com
  • subscribe address: gitolite+subscribe@googlegroups.com

• mailing list for announcements and notices:

  • subscribe address: gitolite-announce+subscribe@googlegroups.com

• IRC: #git and #gitolite on freenode. Note that I live in India (UTC+0530 time zone). Please do not ask questions on IRC if you cannot stay connected for a few hours at least. Use the mailing list instead.

• author: sitaramc@gmail.com, but please DO NOT use this for general support questions. Subscribe to the list and ask there instead.

license

This documentation, which is maintained separately from the main gitolite source code, is copyright Sitaram Chamarty and is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

However, certain parts are contributed by others who may have chosen other licenses; their names and license will be mentioned in the respective files.

Documentation for a software product will naturally contain code examples. I believe that the principle of fair use should cover use of those snippets; see especially factors 3 and 4 in the list of factors here.

If you're not convinced that it would be fair use, then you may consider those code snippets, as well as associated "comments" if any, to be under the GPLv2 license. Licensing is about intent, and the intent of these examples is that you use them wherever and however you can use gitolite itself.