git-daemon(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SERVICES | EXAMPLES | ENVIRONMENT | GIT | COLOPHON

GIT-DAEMON(1)                  Git Manual                  GIT-DAEMON(1)

NAME         top

       git-daemon - A really simple server for Git repositories

SYNOPSIS         top

       git daemon [--verbose] [--syslog] [--export-all]
                    [--timeout=<n>] [--init-timeout=<n>] [--max-connections=<n>]
                    [--strict-paths] [--base-path=<path>] [--base-path-relaxed]
                    [--user-path | --user-path=<path>]
                    [--interpolated-path=<pathtemplate>]
                    [--reuseaddr] [--detach] [--pid-file=<file>]
                    [--enable=<service>] [--disable=<service>]
                    [--allow-override=<service>] [--forbid-override=<service>]
                    [--access-hook=<path>] [--[no-]informative-errors]
                    [--inetd |
                     [--listen=<host_or_ipaddr>] [--port=<n>]
                     [--user=<user> [--group=<group>]]]
                    [--log-destination=(stderr|syslog|none)]
                    [<directory>...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       A really simple TCP Git daemon that normally listens on port
       "DEFAULT_GIT_PORT" aka 9418. It waits for a connection asking for
       a service, and will serve that service if it is enabled.

       It verifies that the directory has the magic file
       "git-daemon-export-ok", and it will refuse to export any Git
       directory that hasn’t explicitly been marked for export this way
       (unless the --export-all parameter is specified). If you pass
       some directory paths as git daemon arguments, the offers are
       limited to repositories within those directories.

       By default, only upload-pack service is enabled, which serves git
       fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients, which are invoked from git
       fetch, git pull, and git clone.

       This is ideally suited for read-only updates, i.e., pulling from
       Git repositories.

       An upload-archive also exists to serve git archive.

OPTIONS         top

       --strict-paths
           Match paths exactly (i.e. don’t allow "/foo/repo" when the
           real path is "/foo/repo.git" or "/foo/repo/.git") and don’t
           do user-relative paths.  git daemon will refuse to start when
           this option is enabled and no directory arguments are
           provided.

       --base-path=<path>
           Remap all the path requests as relative to the given path.
           This is sort of "Git root" - if you run git daemon with
           --base-path=/srv/git on example.com, then if you later try to
           pull git://example.com/hello.git, git daemon will interpret
           the path as /srv/git/hello.git.

       --base-path-relaxed
           If --base-path is enabled and repo lookup fails, with this
           option git daemon will attempt to lookup without prefixing
           the base path. This is useful for switching to --base-path
           usage, while still allowing the old paths.

       --interpolated-path=<pathtemplate>
           To support virtual hosting, an interpolated path template can
           be used to dynamically construct alternate paths. The
           template supports %H for the target hostname as supplied by
           the client but converted to all lowercase, %CH for the
           canonical hostname, %IP for the server’s IP address, %P for
           the port number, and %D for the absolute path of the named
           repository. After interpolation, the path is validated
           against the directory list.

       --export-all
           Allow pulling from all directories that look like Git
           repositories (have the objects and refs subdirectories), even
           if they do not have the git-daemon-export-ok file.

       --inetd
           Have the server run as an inetd service. Implies --syslog
           (may be overridden with --log-destination=). Incompatible
           with --detach, --port, --listen, --user and --group options.

       --listen=<host_or_ipaddr>
           Listen on a specific IP address or hostname. IP addresses can
           be either an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address if supported. If
           IPv6 is not supported, then --listen=hostname is also not
           supported and --listen must be given an IPv4 address. Can be
           given more than once. Incompatible with --inetd option.

       --port=<n>
           Listen on an alternative port. Incompatible with --inetd
           option.

       --init-timeout=<n>
           Timeout (in seconds) between the moment the connection is
           established and the client request is received (typically a
           rather low value, since that should be basically immediate).

       --timeout=<n>
           Timeout (in seconds) for specific client sub-requests. This
           includes the time it takes for the server to process the
           sub-request and the time spent waiting for the next client’s
           request.

       --max-connections=<n>
           Maximum number of concurrent clients, defaults to 32. Set it
           to zero for no limit.

       --syslog
           Short for --log-destination=syslog.

       --log-destination=<destination>
           Send log messages to the specified destination. Note that
           this option does not imply --verbose, thus by default only
           error conditions will be logged. The <destination> must be
           one of:

           stderr
               Write to standard error. Note that if --detach is
               specified, the process disconnects from the real standard
               error, making this destination effectively equivalent to
               none.

           syslog
               Write to syslog, using the git-daemon identifier.

           none
               Disable all logging.

           The default destination is syslog if --inetd or --detach is
           specified, otherwise stderr.

       --user-path, --user-path=<path>
           Allow ~user notation to be used in requests. When specified
           with no parameter, a request to git://host/~alice/foo is
           taken as a request to access foo repository in the home
           directory of user alice. If --user-path=path is specified,
           the same request is taken as a request to access path/foo
           repository in the home directory of user alice.

       --verbose
           Log details about the incoming connections and requested
           files.

       --reuseaddr
           Use SO_REUSEADDR when binding the listening socket. This
           allows the server to restart without waiting for old
           connections to time out.

       --detach
           Detach from the shell. Implies --syslog.

       --pid-file=<file>
           Save the process id in file. Ignored when the daemon is run
           under --inetd.

       --user=<user>, --group=<group>
           Change daemon’s uid and gid before entering the service loop.
           When only --user is given without --group, the primary group
           ID for the user is used. The values of the option are given
           to getpwnam(3) and getgrnam(3) and numeric IDs are not
           supported.

           Giving these options is an error when used with --inetd; use
           the facility of inet daemon to achieve the same before
           spawning git daemon if needed.

           Like many programs that switch user id, the daemon does not
           reset environment variables such as $HOME when it runs git
           programs, e.g.  upload-pack and receive-pack. When using this
           option, you may also want to set and export HOME to point at
           the home directory of <user> before starting the daemon, and
           make sure any Git configuration files in that directory are
           readable by <user>.

       --enable=<service>, --disable=<service>
           Enable/disable the service site-wide per default. Note that a
           service disabled site-wide can still be enabled per
           repository if it is marked overridable and the repository
           enables the service with a configuration item.

       --allow-override=<service>, --forbid-override=<service>
           Allow/forbid overriding the site-wide default with per
           repository configuration. By default, all the services may be
           overridden.

       --[no-]informative-errors
           When informative errors are turned on, git-daemon will report
           more verbose errors to the client, differentiating conditions
           like "no such repository" from "repository not exported".
           This is more convenient for clients, but may leak information
           about the existence of unexported repositories. When
           informative errors are not enabled, all errors report "access
           denied" to the client. The default is
           --no-informative-errors.

       --access-hook=<path>
           Every time a client connects, first run an external command
           specified by the <path> with service name (e.g.
           "upload-pack"), path to the repository, hostname (%H),
           canonical hostname (%CH), IP address (%IP), and TCP port (%P)
           as its command-line arguments. The external command can
           decide to decline the service by exiting with a non-zero
           status (or to allow it by exiting with a zero status). It can
           also look at the $REMOTE_ADDR and $REMOTE_PORT environment
           variables to learn about the requestor when making this
           decision.

           The external command can optionally write a single line to
           its standard output to be sent to the requestor as an error
           message when it declines the service.

       <directory>
           The remaining arguments provide a list of directories. If any
           directories are specified, then the git-daemon process will
           serve a requested directory only if it is contained in one of
           these directories. If --strict-paths is specified, then the
           requested directory must match one of these directories
           exactly.

SERVICES         top

       These services can be globally enabled/disabled using the
       command-line options of this command. If finer-grained control is
       desired (e.g. to allow git archive to be run against only in a
       few selected repositories the daemon serves), the per-repository
       configuration file can be used to enable or disable them.

       upload-pack
           This serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients. It is
           enabled by default, but a repository can disable it by
           setting daemon.uploadpack configuration item to false.

       upload-archive
           This serves git archive --remote. It is disabled by default,
           but a repository can enable it by setting daemon.uploadarch
           configuration item to true.

       receive-pack
           This serves git send-pack clients, allowing anonymous push.
           It is disabled by default, as there is no authentication in
           the protocol (in other words, anybody can push anything into
           the repository, including removal of refs). This is solely
           meant for a closed LAN setting where everybody is friendly.
           This service can be enabled by setting daemon.receivepack
           configuration item to true.

EXAMPLES         top

       We assume the following in /etc/services

               $ grep 9418 /etc/services
               git             9418/tcp                # Git Version Control System

       git daemon as inetd server
           To set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles any
           repository within /pub/foo or /pub/bar, place an entry like
           the following into /etc/inetd all on one line:

                       git stream tcp nowait nobody  /usr/bin/git
                               git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
                               /pub/foo /pub/bar

       git daemon as inetd server for virtual hosts
           To set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles
           repositories for different virtual hosts, www.example.com and
           www.example.org, place an entry like the following into
           /etc/inetd all on one line:

                       git stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git
                               git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
                               --interpolated-path=/pub/%H%D
                               /pub/www.example.org/software
                               /pub/www.example.com/software
                               /software

           In this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a
           subdirectory for each virtual host name supported. Further,
           both hosts advertise repositories simply as
           git://www.example.com/software/repo.git. For pre-1.4.0
           clients, a symlink from /software into the appropriate
           default repository could be made as well.

       git daemon as regular daemon for virtual hosts
           To set up git daemon as a regular, non-inetd service that
           handles repositories for multiple virtual hosts based on
           their IP addresses, start the daemon like this:

                       git daemon --verbose --export-all
                               --interpolated-path=/pub/%IP/%D
                               /pub/192.168.1.200/software
                               /pub/10.10.220.23/software

           In this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a
           subdirectory for each virtual host IP address supported.
           Repositories can still be accessed by hostname though,
           assuming they correspond to these IP addresses.

       selectively enable/disable services per repository
           To enable git archive --remote and disable git fetch against
           a repository, have the following in the configuration file in
           the repository (that is the file config next to HEAD, refs
           and objects).

                       [daemon]
                               uploadpack = false
                               uploadarch = true

ENVIRONMENT         top

       git daemon will set REMOTE_ADDR to the IP address of the client
       that connected to it, if the IP address is available. REMOTE_ADDR
       will be available in the environment of hooks called when
       services are performed.

GIT         top

       Part of the git(1) suite

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
       system) project.  Information about the project can be found at
       ⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual
       page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩.  This page was obtained
       from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2023-12-22.  (At that time,
       the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-12-20.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

Git 2.43.0.174.g055bb6         2023-12-20                  GIT-DAEMON(1)

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