gitolite/doc/2-admin.mkd

administering and running gitolite

Note: some of the paths in this document use variable names. Just refer to ~/.gitolite.rc for the correct values, assuming you followed the instructions in the "INSTALL" document.

administer

• ask each user who will get access to send you a public key. See other sources (for example here) for how to do this
• rename each public key according to the user's name, with a .pub extension, like sitaram.pub or john-smith.pub. You can also use periods and underscores
• copy all these *.pub files to $GL_KEYDIR
• edit the config file ($GL_CONF) and give the new users permissions as required. The users names should be exactly the same as their keyfile names, but without the .pub extension
• backup your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file if you feel nervous :-)
• cd to $GL_ADMINDIR and run src/gl-compile-conf

That should be it, really. However, if you want to be doubly sure, or maybe the first couple of times you use it, 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/src/gl-auth-command file, then some sshd restrictions, the key, etc.
  • $GL_CONF_COMPILED (default ~/.gitolite/conf/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