### pre-requisites

One of the big needs I'm trying to fill here is people who do not have root
access, permissions to create other userids, etc.  This could be a typical
hosting provider type of thing, or -- in a corporate setting -- a very tightly
controlled server.

Gitolite requires these:

  * git itself, the more recent the better
  * perl, typically installed with git, since git sort of needs it; any
    version that includes `Data::Dumper`[1] will do.
  * one user account on the server, with password access [2]

### quickinstall

I assume all the files pertaining to this software are untarred and available
in the current directory.

A quick install, taking all the defaults, can be done with the following
commands; just copy and paste them into your shell:

    # this one is fixed to the location shown
    cp example.gitolite.rc      ~/.gitolite.rc

    # the destinations below are defaults; if you change the paths in the "rc"
    # file above, these destinations also must change accordingly

    # mkdir $REPO_BASE, $GL_ADMINDIR, and $GL_KEYDIR
    mkdir                       ~/repositories
    mkdir                       ~/.gitolite                 
    mkdir                       ~/.gitolite/keydir

    # copy sample conf to $GL_CONF
    cp example.conf             ~/.gitolite/gitolite.conf

    # copy the 3 programs to $GL_ADMINDIR
    cp update-hook.pl           ~/.gitolite
    cp gl-auth-command          ~/.gitolite
    cp gl-compile-conf          ~/.gitolite

    # optional; copy the documents also (if you untarred the package into a
    # temporary directory and need to get rid of it)
    cp INSTALL README.markdown  ~/.gitolite

### install notes

  * At present the location of `~/.gitolite.rc` is fixed (maybe later I'll
    change it to a "git config" variable).

    If you edit it and change any paths, be sure to keep the perl syntax --
    you *don't* have to know perl to do so, it's fairly easy to guess in this
    limited case.  And of course, make sure you adjust the commands shown
    above to suit the new locations

  * the config file is (by default) at `~/.gitolite/gitolite.conf`.
    Edit the file as you wish.  The comments in the file ought to be clear
    enough but let me know if not

  * if you want to bring in existing (bare, server) repos into gitolite,
    this should work:
      * backup the repo, then move it to `$BASE_REPO`
      * copy `$GL_ADMINDIR/update-hook.pl` to `[reponame].git/hooks/update` --
        if you don't do this, per branch restrictions will not work
      * then update the keys and the config file and "compile"

### administer

  * ask each user who will get access to send you a public key.  See other
    sources (for example
    [here](http://sitaramc.github.com/0-installing/2-access-gitosis.html#generating_a_public_key))
    for how to do this
  * for each "user" in `$GL_CONF`, copy their public key to a file called
    "user.pub" in `$GL_KEYDIR`
  * edit the config file (`$GL_CONF`) to add the new users in whatever way you
    like
  * backup your `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file if you feel nervous :-)
  * cd to `$GL_ADMINDIR` and run `./gl-compile-conf`

#### optional -- if you want to be doubly sure

It should all work, but the first couple of times you may want to check these

  * check the outputs
    
      * `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` should contain one line for each "user" pub
        key added, between two "marker" lines (which you should please please
        not remove!).  The line should contain a "command=" pointing to a
        `$GL_ADMINDIR/gl-auth-command` file, then some sshd restrictions, the
        key, etc.
      * `$GL_CONF_COMPILED` (default
        `~/.gitolite/gitolite.conf-compiled.pm`) should contain an
        expanded list of the access control rules.  It may look a little long,
        but it's fairly intuitive!

  * if the run threw up any "initialising empty repo" messages, check the
    individual repos (inside `$REPO_BASE`) if you wish.  Especially make sure
    the `$REPO_BASE/[reponame].git/hooks/update` got copied OK and is
    executable

### run

Just use it as normal.  Every new repo mentioned has been created already, so
(as long as your clients are using git > 1.6.2), you can just clone it.

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

### errors, warnings, etc

  * 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.

### Footnotes:

[1] Actually, due to the way gitolite is architected, you can manage
without `Data::Dumper` on the server if you have no choice.  Only
`gl-compile-conf` needs it, so just run that on some other machine and copy
the two output files across.  Cumbersome but doable... the advantage of
separating all the hard work into a manually-run piece :)

[2] If you have *only* pubkey access, and **no** password access, then your
pubkey is already in the server's `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`.  If you also need
to access git as a developer (clone, push, etc), do *not* submit this same
pubkey to gitolite -- it won't work.

Instead, create a different keypair for your "developer" role (by, e.g.,
`ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/gitdev`), then give `~/.ssh/gitdev.pub` to
gitolite as "yourname.pub", just like you would do for any other user.

Then you create a suitable `~/.ssh/config` to use the correct key
automatically, something like this:

    host gitadm
         hostname my.server
         user my_userid_on_server

    host gitdev
         hostname my.server
         user my_userid_on_server
         identityfile ~/.ssh/gitdev

From now on, `ssh gitadm` will get you a command line on the server, to do
gitolite admin and other work.  And your repository URLs would look like
`gitdev:reponame.git`.  Very, very, simple...

And as with gitosis, there's more "ssh" magic than "git" magic here :-)

----

gitolite is released under the GPL v2 license.  See COPYING for details