Idea
I need a place where I can keep my private projects prajwet, and I don't need any GUI, WebUI for that, I'll not open tickets for myself. I can spend this time better.
Instead of creating a private repository at Github I'll set up my own git server at home.
Hardware/platform
I'll use NanoPi NEO3 SBC connected to my LAN with DietPi running just git and OpenSSH.
It's nice, small and uses the right (tiny) amount of energy.
Setup
From now on all commands are executed on a remote machine that will be git server.
Configure Git as a new shell
sudo echo `which git-shell` >> /etc/shells
git-shell is a limited shell that will be used for the new users as he doesn't need many privileges on this machine. And provides some benefits, check newrepo command.
The list of shells should look something like this:
$ cat /etc/shells
# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/sh
/bin/bash
/usr/bin/bash
/bin/rbash
/usr/bin/rbash
/bin/dash
/usr/bin/dash
/usr/bin/git-shell
Create new user
sudo useradd -r -m -U -d /home/git -s /usr/bin/git-shell git
Setup new user
Need to configure new user, password logins and interactive sessions are off the table so need to use the root account to do the initial configuration.
sudo cd /home/git
sudo rm -rvf .*
sudo mkdir .ssh && chmod 700 .ssh
sudo touch .ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown -R git:git /home/git
Now take your public ssh key from your client machine and put it in
.ssh/authoized_keys to make this setup usable.
This can be done using vim /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys and pasting public keys, more keys can be added in separate lines to provide collaboration or use different keys from different client machines.
/home/git/ directory at this stage.
root@nanopi3h1:/home/git# ls -lRa
.:
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 git git 4096 Mar 14 18:07 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 14 17:57 ..
drwx------ 2 git git 4096 Mar 14 18:14 .ssh
./.ssh:
total 12
drwx------ 2 git git 4096 Mar 14 18:14 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 git git 4096 Mar 14 18:07 ..
-rw------- 1 git git 107 Mar 14 18:14 authorized_keys
Create directory to store repositories
sudo mkdir /home/git/git-shell-commands
sudo mkdir /home/git/repo
sudo ln -s /home/git/repo /repo
chown -R git:git /home/git/repo
This will create two directories. /home/git/git-shell-commands will be used to store additional git commands. /home/git/repo will be used to store repositories. I also created a symbolic link with the name /repo just for convenience.
Repository creation command
Use vim /home/git/git-shell-commands/newrepo to create new file
#!/bin/sh
mkdir -p /repo/$1
cd /repo/$1
git init --bare
At the end execute to make this script executable.
chmod +x /home/git/git-shell-commands/newrepo
chown -R git:git /home/git/repo
//TODO: Improve this script, or take code from this repo:
Repository creation
From now on no need to login to the server host to create a new repository with much typing, like this:
ssh git@gitserver
$ cd /repo
$ mkdir project.git
$ cd project.git
$ git init --bare
Initialized empty Git repository in /repo/project.git/
The only command that needs to be executed to create a new repository, and made from the client workstation is this one:
ssh git@gitserver newrepo testrepo.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /repo/testrepo.git/
Actually, it will be a greater idea to put this command in a separate bash script in ~/bin so repositories can be created from any place and checked out.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
ssh git@gitserver newrepo $1
git clone git@gitserver:/repo/$1
Put this in ~/bin/newrepo file and chmod +x ~/bin/newrepo.
Simple one line, as ssh keys are used there is no need to use the password for login in. This way remote repositories can be created in a simple and elegant way.
Testing
❯ git clone git@gitserver:/repo/testrepo.git
Klonowanie do „testrepo”...
warning: Wygląda na to, że sklonowano puste repozytorium.
❯ cd testrepo/
❯ touch README.md
❯ git add --all
❯ git commit -m "initial commit"
[master (zapis-korzeń) 35ac541] initial commit
1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 README.md
❯ git push
Wymienianie obiektów: 3, gotowe.
Zliczanie obiektów: 100% (3/3), gotowe.
Zapisywanie obiektów: 100% (3/3), 223 bajty | 223.00 KiB/s, gotowe.
Razem 3 (delty 0), użyte ponownie 0 (delty 0), paczki użyte ponownie 0
To gitserver:/repo/testrepo.git
* [new branch] master -> master
❯
Will clone this repository to the client machine
Final word and planed improvements
This is a simple and convenient setup for the home git repository.
Some additional steps like adding no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-agent-forwarding,no-pty to .ssh/authorized_keys or limit clients/useres that can actually connect to this server will be grate idea.
Classic way of settings thing up
You can search for git server setup and get a lot of tutorials on how to setup one. I started some time ago with this one https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-on-the-Server-Setting-Up-the-Server. Nice and clean setup with some additional steps. It evolved a little bit by changing the way the user is created and started right away with git-shell.