gitolite/doc/3-faq-tips-etc.mkd

# assorted faqs, tips, and notes on gitolite

In this document:

  * errors, warnings, notes...
  * differences from gitosis
      * one user, many keys
      * who am I?
  * cool ideas I want feedback on
      * developer specific branches

### errors, warnings, notes...

  * cloning an empty repo is only possible with clients greater than 1.6.2.
    So at least one of your clients needs to have a recent git.  Once at least
    one commit has been made, older clients can also use it.

  * when you clone an empty repo, git seems to complain about the remote
    hanging up or something.  I have no idea what that is, but it doesn't seem
    to hurt anything.  This happens even in normal git, not just gitolite.

  * once in a while, if you're feeling particularly BOFH-ish, take a look at
    `$GL_ADMINDIR/log` :-)

### differences from gitosis

Apart from the big ones listed in the top level README, and subjective ones
like "better config file format", there are some small, but significant and
concrete, differences from gitosis.

#### built-in logging

...just in case of emergency :-)

Let's say you gave a dev the right to rewind a branch and he went and rewound
it all the way, or pushed something drastically different on it.  Now you need
to recover the commit that got wiped out.

If you'd remembered to `git config core.logAllRefUpdates` for that repo, or
globally, you'd be fine -- the reflog will tell you.  Otherwise you'd be left
grubbing around in `git fsck --unreachable` a bit :-(

And even if you recover the correct commit, you'll never know *who* did it --
not unless you add a one-line patch to gitosis, plus a `post-receive` hook to
every repository.

With gitolite, there's a log file in `$GL_ADMINDIR` that contains lines like
this [I have abbreviated the SHAs for brevity in this document; the actual log
file will have all 40 characters]:

    +: username reponame refs/heads/branchname d0188d1 c5c00b6

The "+" at the start indicates a non-fast forward update, in this case from
d0188d1 to c5c00b6  So d0188d1 is the one to restore!  Can it get easier?

#### one user, many keys

I have a laptop and a desktop I need to access the server from.  I have
different private keys on them, but as far as gitolite is concerned both of
them should be treated as "sitaram".  How does this work?

In gitosis, the admin creates a single "sitaram.pub" containing one line for
each of my pubkeys.  In gitolite, we keep them separate: "sitaram@laptop.pub"
and "sitaram@desktop.pub".  The part before the "@" is the username, so
gitolite knows these two keys belong to the same person.

I think this is easier to maintain if you have to delete or change one of
those keys.

#### who am I?

As a developer, I send a file called `id_rsa.pub` to the gitolite admin.  He
would rename it to "sitaram.pub" and put it in the key directory.  Then he'd
add "sitaram" to the config file for the repos which I have access to.

But he could have called me "foobar" instead of "sitaram" -- as long as he
uses it consistently, it'll all work the same and look the same to me, because
the public key is all that matters.

So do I have no reason to know what the admin named me?  Well -- maybe (see
next section for one possible use).  Anyway how do I find out?

In gitolite, it's simple: just ask nicely :-)

    $ ssh git@my.gitolite.server
    PTY allocation request failed on channel 0
    no SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND?  I'm not a shell, sitaram!

### cool ideas

#### developer specific branches

So I know what gitolite calls me.  Big deal... who cares?

Here is a cool idea: allow me to create, rewind, or delete any branch whose
full name matches this pattern:

    $PERSONAL_BRANCH_PREFIX/sitaram-.*

The admin could set `$PERSONAL_BRANCH_PREFIX` in the rc file and communicate
this to all users.  It could be something like `refs/heads/personal`, which
means all such branches will show up in `git branch` lookups and `git clone`
will fetch them.  Or he could use, say, `refs/personal`, which means it won't
show up in any normal "branch-y" commands and stuff, and generally be much
less noisy.

Yes, I know git is all about allowing private branches, but in a corporate
environment it's not always possible to pull from a co-worker, for the same
reasons you don't have anonymous access (like the git:// protocol).  A normal
developer workstation cannot do authentication, so how would they know who's
pulling?  This is a perfect way to share code *without* cluttering the global
namespace, and each developer controls his/her own set of branches!

The amount of code needed?  *One line!*  I'll spend about 3x more on declaring
and initialising the new variable, and 30x more on documenting it :-)

**That** is how neatly gitolite is designed...

/me pats himself on the back ;-)