Hosting Your Own Git Repositories

+ Once you have your own VPS or other Internet-available server, you can + start hosting your own git repositories. The goal of this tutorial is + for you to go from + +

git clone github.com/...

+ + to + +

git clone YourLandChadDomainName.xyz/...

+ + so you can cultivate your own homegrown, grass fed code, rather than + relying on a centralized proprietary service like GitHub. +

+ +

What's not included in this tutorial

+ +

+ We will not set up a web front end. Your only interaction with + these repos will be via the git command line tool. +
+ We will not support multiple users. It's expected only you, the + server owner, have write access to these repos. +

+ +

Installing git

+ +

+ You most likely already have it installed on your server, but if not, + run + +

apt install git

+ + We don't need any additional software, git itself ships + with everything needed to host a remote repository! +

+ +

Creating bare repositories

+ +

+ For each repository you want to host, you will need to manually create + what's called a "bare" repository on your server. These hold all the + commits and any other git data needed for your repository, but without + an expanded "index" in which you can just browse all the files of a + certain commit in the file system. +

+ +

+ These repositories need to be owned by the git user, and + you should probably pick a directory where you will store them all. One + sane choice is under /srv/git/, and we will use this as the + example directory for the rest of the tutorial, but any other path will + do as well. +

+ +

Become the git user and create the directory

+ +

+ If you're logged in to your server as root and have git + installed, you can become the git user by executing + +

su git

+ + Now navigate to/create your desired directory, for example + +


+cd /srv
+mkdir git
+

+ +

Create the repo

+ +

+ Now you can create the bare repository with + + +

git init --bare my-repo.git

+ + By convention, bare repository names end with ".git". +

+ +

+ Repeat the above command for any other repositories you want to host. +

+ +

Syncing local repositories with your server

+ +

Set up SSH login for the git user

+ +

+ You will need to be able to login remotely via ssh as the + git user we've used before. To do this, you will either + need to set up a password for the git user with + +

passwd git

+ + or copy your public SSH key from your local machine to + /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys. +

+ +

Syncing a new repository with your server

+ If you've just created a new repository on your local machine, you will + need to tell git where the remote repository is to be able + to sync with it (using commands like git push or + git pull). We do this by defining a "remote" for your + repository. +

+ +

+ A remote is just a named URL remembered in your repo's configuration. So + we need a name and a URL. By convention, the "main" remote is called + "origin". The URL has the format user@host:path, where + +

+ user is git, the git user + we've already worked with before. +
+ host is a DNS hostname pointing to your server. + Alternatively you could even use your server's raw IP address. +
+ path is the absolute path to the repository on the + server, in our example /srv/git/my-repo.git +

+ +

+ So, to create a new remote, run + +

git remote add origin git@yourdomain.xyz:/srv/git/my-repo.git

+ + Now you'll be able to run git push origin master to push + your commits or git pull origin to pull from the remote. +

+ +

Syncing an existing repository

+ +

+ If you've already set up your local repository to sync with a service + like GitHub it probably already has a remote called "origin". You can + see your repo's remotes with + +

git remote -v

+ + You can follow the above instructions, substituting an arbitrary other + name other than "origin" to create a differently named remote, e.g. + +

git remote add vps git@...

+ + Now you'll be able to push/pull with git push vps master + and git pull vps, respectively. +

+ +

+ Or, to completely sever ties with your centralized git provider, first + remove the original origin with + +

git remote remove origin

+ + and then follow the instructions as above. +