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

NAME

git-daemon - A really simple server for Git repositories

SYNOPSIS

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

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

--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

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

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

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

Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.48.1 2025-01-13 GIT-DAEMON(1)