gitolite/doc/developer-notes.mkd

# developer/patch maintainer notes

In this document:

  * <a href="#_current_development_version">current development version</a>
      * <a href="#_testing_status_of_gitolite_v2_0rc1">testing status of gitolite v2.0rc1</a>
  * <a href="#_migration_to_gitolite_v2_x">migration to gitolite v2.x</a>
  * <a href="#_general_stuff">general stuff</a>
  * <a href="#_the_rc_file">the rc file</a>
  * <a href="#_modules">modules</a>
  * <a href="#_that_bindir_thing">that 'bindir' thing</a>
      * <a href="#_from_perl">from perl</a>
      * <a href="#_from_shell">from shell</a>
      * <a href="#_OUTLIER_">OUTLIER!</a>
  * <a href="#_special_types_of_setups">special types of setups</a>
      * <a href="#_Fedora">Fedora</a>

----

<a name="_current_development_version"></a>

### current development version

The current gitolite development version is v2.0rc1.  Unless there is a
serious security problem, *or* one of my large users [i.e., anyone whose name
is in doc/who-uses-it.mkd (grin!)] needs it, all future changes will now
happen here.

The commit looks *huge*, but it's mostly just large chunks of code moving
around; there's not a whole lot of new code.  However, I do apologise if
anyone has their local changes conflicted when merging or rebasing against
this version, and I promise to help as much as I can.

<a name="_testing_status_of_gitolite_v2_0rc1"></a>

#### testing status of gitolite v2.0rc1

Pretty much all the major features have been properly tested using the test
suite.  The following exceptions exist:

  * basic, manual, testing only
      * most admin defined commands
      * smart http
  * not yet tested
      * mirroring
      * mob branches
  * things which I have no easy way to test
      * controlling gitweb authentication using gitolite (as described [here][gw])
      * SVN passthru

<a name="_migration_to_gitolite_v2_x"></a>

### migration to gitolite v2.x

In general, the procedure for migrating described in the install document
should suffice.  Even the rc file hasn't really changed much from the latest
versions in v1.x, except that if you add a new variable to it you must also
add it to the @EXPORT list in `src/gitolite_rc.pm`.

<a name="_general_stuff"></a>

### general stuff

  * all scripts and libraries must be in the same directory.  However, RPM/DEB
    packagers can put the libraries where they want, as long as they can be
    found in perl's default `@INC`.

  * gl-auth-command **requires** an actual `~/.gitolite.rc` (except if your
    initials are "JK" or "DG", in which case `/etc/gitolite/gitolite.rc` also
    works!)  It knows how to look around and set env vars etc correctly

  * all programs except gl-auth-command **require** the environment variables
    `GL_RC` and `GL_BINDIR` set properly.  Your best bet is to run them *via*
    gl-auth-command, like so:

        path/to/gl-auth-command -e other_program other_program_arguments

    In any case none of these programs are meant to be run manually -- pretty
    much all of them are run via gl-auth-command or from something that was
    forked from it so the variables *will* exist during normal operation.

<a name="_the_rc_file"></a>

### the rc file

The 'rc' file has one major change from v1: any new values in the rc file need
to be added to the @EXPORT list in `src/gitolite_rc.pm`.

<a name="_modules"></a>

### modules

There are 3 "modules" (`gitolite_rc`, `gitolite_env`, and `gitolite` itself).
Their purposes should be fairly obvious.

<a name="_that_bindir_thing"></a>

### that 'bindir' thing

The importance of `GL_BINDIR` is that the command= argument in
`~/.ssh/authorized_keys` must be a full path, ideally, and the compile script
gets this from `GL_BINDIR`.

<a name="_from_perl"></a>

#### from perl

  * for frequently run perl programs, I prefer my method

      * gl-auth-command -- this is invoked with a full path
      * gl-time -- same as above

  * "their" ideal is "FindBin".  I will use it only on manually or
    infrequently run programs

      * gl-setup-authkeys (external shim to compile keys separately from PTA)

<a name="_from_shell"></a>

#### from shell

  * a perl program called gl-query-rc finds its own BINDIR (using my perl
    method, not FindBin).  This is suitable for calling from shell scripts
    as `${0%/*}/gl-query-rc GL_BINDIR`

      * gl-mirror-shell (frequent use)
      * gl-setup
      * gl-tool

<a name="_OUTLIER_"></a>

#### OUTLIER!

  * gl-dont-panic is an outlier.  For some silly reason I have the notion that
    even if it runs from /tmp it should get the right values, so it is the
    only one that interrogates `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` to get the actual
    BINDIR in use!

<a name="_special_types_of_setups"></a>

### special types of setups

<a name="_Fedora"></a>

#### Fedora

Fedora has a very special setup, as follows:

  * each user has his own userid and login
  * his/her ~/.ssh/authkeys file (containing only his/her key) has a
    "command=" clause invoking gl-auth-command
  * trusted users have "gl-auth-command -s" meaning they can get a shell if
    they want to

  * actual git repos are under "git" (or some such), and include the chmod g+s
    (git init --shared) unix perms tricks for shared access

  * but since they're coming through gl-auth, branch-level acls are in effect

  * the gitolite config file is generated from some database and compiled (all
    via cron)

  * the keydir/ is empty; in fact they probably don't use the admin repo at
    all, AFAIK

The most important implication of this setup is that **the RC file is no
longer is `$HOME` of the 'git' user**.  They keep it in
`/etc/gitolite/gitolite.rc`.  This means that a properly setup rc file must
already be present in `/etc/gitolite/gitolite.rc` before doing any such
installs.

----

# **Why v2?**

I went onto `#perl` to ask some question about setpriority() and got yelled at
for writing "horrible code".  And that was one of the kinder comments; my
rather fragile ego is trying to forget the rest ;-)

They also gave me a link to a PDF book, "Modern Perl" by 'chromatic'.  Nice
book; one of the first things you learn from it is that you should not go to
`#perl` for general help.

Anyway, the summary of the collective angst of `#perl` (well 2 people anyway)
was: use Getopt::Long, FindBin, 'use lib', a library for HTTP stuff, stop
prefixing subs with '&', and get rid of the huge number of 'our' declarations.

That last item is the only one I totally agree with, because it was on my long
term todo list anyway.  And 'use lib' sorta goes with it, so that's fine too.
And as soon as I found that vim colors the sub names differently if you take
out the '&' I decided I'd do that too :-) [But honestly, if `&sub` is so bad
shouldn't "man perlsub" at least say something negative about it, other than
"disables prototype checking", which doesn't matter here since I'm not using
prototypes?]

As for the rest, FindBin brings in a good 1000+ lines for something that I do
in a line or two (since I don't care about all the pathological edge cases).
Getopt::Long is 2649 lines to replace the code below  [note that there *is*
only one possible option to this command, and it is *never* run manually
either, so I don't need any fancy features]:

    my $shell_allowed = 0;
    if (@ARGV and $ARGV[0] eq '-s') {
        $shell_allowed = 1;
        shift;
    }

Apparently TMTOWTDI has given way to TOOWTDI.

Anyway, I spent a few hours refactoring it.  And I do thank them for pushing
me to stop being lazy on the "our" business.

[gw]: https://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite/blob/pu/doc/3-faq-tips-etc.mkd#_easier_to_link_gitweb_authorisation_with_gitolite