gitolite files and directories

directories

Gitolite creates and uses the following files and directories:

  • ~/repositories -- the actual (bare) repositories are here
  • ~/.gitolite.rc -- configuration parameters that must be done directly on the server
  • ~/.gitolite -- gitolite's "working" directory. This contains everything else that gitolite needs. (Warning: you're not supposed to fiddle with the files and directories within; instead, make changes in a clone of the gitolite-admin repository and push, and those appear magically here).

Once the install/setup is done, any (or all) of these may be moved elsewhere and replaced by symlinks. The most common reason for locating ~/repositories somewhere else is disk space, but FHS compliance could also be a reason.

In addition, the following are of interest:

  • ~/.ssh -- if you're using ssh (as opposed to http), since this is where the authorized_keys file is kept

special files

You may want to backup the contents of ~/.gitolite/logs if you care about auditability etc.

inside a "gitolite repo"

A gitolite repo is just like a normal bare repo on any normal git server. There are a few extra files placed in the repo directory whose names start with "gl-", and there is also an update hook placed in the hooks subdirectory, but that's about it, for the most part.

In other words, you can treat a gitolite-managed repo just like any other bare repo as long as you leave those files alone.

gitolite software

The above list does not include the gitolite software itself.

Gitolite offers you 3 ways to install software. After cloning the gitolite sources, run the install command in it with a -h argument to see what they are. Where the actual software is found depends on that.