gitolite/doc/non-core.mkd

# non-core programs shipped with gitolite

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[[TOC]]

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## commands

A list of these commands can be obtained by running `gitolite help` on the
server.  A different (and probably much smaller) list can be obtained by a
remote user running `ssh git@host help`.

All the commands that ship with gitolite will respond to `-h`; please report a
bug to me if they don't.

Here's a list of remote commands that are shipped:

  * 'desc' -- get/set the 'description' file for a repo
  * 'fork' -- fork a repo
  * 'info' -- already documented [here][info]
  * 'mirror' -- documented [here][sync]
  * 'perms' -- get/set the gl-perms file; see [perms][] for more
  * 'sskm' -- self-service key management, see [sskm][] for more
  * 'writable' -- disabling pushes to take backups etc
  * 'D' -- deleting user-created repos

## syntactic sugar

The following "sugar" programs are available:

  * Continuation-lines -- allow the use of C-style backslash escaped
    continuation lines in the conf file.  I don't like it but some people do,
    and now I can support them without bulking up the "core" conf parser!

  * Keysubdirs-as-groups -- someone wanted the sub-directory name (of
    "keydir/") in which the pubkey was placed to be a group to which the user
    automatically belonged.  A very unusual requirement, and one which would
    *never* have seen the light of day in g2, but in g3 it's easy, and doesn't
    affect anyone else!

    (Note: the last component of the directory path is used if there are more
    than one level between "keydir/" and the actual file).

## triggers

The `PRE_GIT` triggers are:

  * partial-copy -- this has its own section later in this page.

  * renice -- this renices the entire job to whatever value you specify.

The `POST_GIT` triggers are:

  * CpuTime, which is only a sample because it only prints the CPU times data.
    In reality you will want to do something else with it.

The `POST_COMPILE` triggers are:

  * post-compile/ssh-authkeys -- takes the pubkeys in keydir and populates
    `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`.

  * post-compile/update-git-configs -- updates individual 'repo.git/config'
    files (using the 'git config ...' command) from settings supplied in the
    conf file.  All sections except 'gitolite-options' are processed.  (The
    'gitolite-options' section is considered internal to gitolite).

  * post-compile/update-git-daemon-access-list -- create/delete
    'git-daemon-export-ok' files in each repo based on whether the conf says
    'daemon' can read the repo or not.

  * post-compile/update-gitweb-access-list -- populates the file named in
    `GITWEB_PROJECTS_LIST` in the rc file (default: `$HOME/projects.list`)
    with the list of repos that gitweb is allowed to access.  This could be
    more than just "R = gitweb"; any repo that has any config setting with the
    section name 'gitweb' (like 'gitweb.owner', 'gitweb.description', etc) is
    considered readable by gitweb, so the final list is a union of these two
    methods.

The `POST_CREATE` triggers are:

  * The last 3 in the `POST_COMPILE` list also run from `POST_CREATE`, for
    obvious reasons.

## VREFs

VREFs have their [own page][vref].

## special cases

### #partial-copy partial-copy: selective read control for branches

Git (and therefore gitolite) cannot do selective read control -- allowing
someone to read branch A but not branch B.  It's the entire repo or nothing.

<font color="gray"> [Side note: Gerrit Code Review can do that, but that is
because they have their own git stack (and their own sshd, and so on) all in
one big Java program.  Gerrit is *really* useful if you want code review to be
part of the access control decision] </font>

Gitolite can now help you do this.  Note that this is only for branches; you
can't do this for files and directories.

Here's how:

1.  enable 'partial-copy' in the `PRE_GIT` section in the rc file.

2.  for each repo "foo" which has secret branches that a certain set of
    developers (we'll use a group called `@temp-emp` as an example) are not
    supposed to see, do this:

        repo foo
            # rules should allow @temp-emp NO ACCESS

        repo foo-partialcopy-1
            -   secret-branch               =   @temp-emp
            # other rules should ensure ONLY @temp-emp has ANY ACCESS
            # NO other user should have access

            -   VREF/partial-copy           =   @all
            config gitolite.partialCopyOf   =   foo

    **IMPORTANT**: if you're using other VREFs, please make sure this one is
    placed at the end, after all the others.

And that should be it.  **Please test it and let me know if it doesn't work!**

WARNINGS:

  * If you change the config to disallow something that used to be allowed,
    you should delete the partial repo on the server and then run 'gitolite
    compile' to let it build again.  See t/partial-copy.t for details.

  * Not tested with smart http; probably won't work.

  * Also not tested with mirroring, or with wild card repos.