path: root/Documentation/git-daemon.txt

git-daemon(1)
=============

NAME
----
git-daemon - A really simple server for git repositories

SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'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-daemon-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 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
	supports %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 interpolation, the path is validated against the directory
	whitelist.

--export-all::
	Allow pulling from all directories that look like GIT repositories
	(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.
	Can be given more than once.
	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.

--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 {tilde}user notation to be used in requests.  When
	specified with no parameter, requests to
	git://host/{tilde}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 if it is marked overridable and the
	repository enables the service with a configuration
	item.

--allow-override=<service>::
--forbid-override=<service>::
	Allow/forbid overriding the site-wide default with per
	repository configuration.  By default, all the services
	are overridable.

<directory>::
	A directory to add to the whitelist of allowed directories. Unless
	--strict-paths is specified this will also include subdirectories
	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` configuration 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::
+
------------
$ grep 9418 /etc/services
git		9418/tcp		# Git Version Control System
------------

'git daemon' as inetd server::
	To set up 'git daemon' as an inetd service that handles any
	repository under the whitelisted set of directories, /pub/foo
	and /pub/bar, place an entry like the following into
	/etc/inetd all on one line:
+
------------------------------------------------
	git stream tcp nowait nobody  /usr/bin/git
		git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
		/pub/foo /pub/bar
------------------------------------------------


'git daemon' as inetd server for virtual hosts::
	To set up 'git daemon' as an inetd service that handles
	repositories for different virtual hosts, `www.example.com`
	and `www.example.org`, place an entry like the following into
	`/etc/inetd` all on one line:
+
------------------------------------------------
	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
------------------------------------------------
+
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.example.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
	handles repositories for multiple virtual hosts based on
	their IP addresses, start the daemon like this:
+
------------------------------------------------
	git daemon --verbose --export-all
		--interpolated-path=/pub/%IP/%D
		/pub/192.168.1.200/software
		/pub/10.10.220.23/software
------------------------------------------------
+
In this example, the root-level directory `/pub` will contain
a subdirectory for each virtual host IP address supported.
Repositories 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').
+
----------------------------------------------------------------
	[daemon]
		uploadpack = false
		uploadarch = true
----------------------------------------------------------------


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 performed.



Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, YOSHIFUJI Hideaki
<yoshfuji@linux-ipv6.org> and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite