{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# GIT-HTTP-BACKEND (man)\n\n## NAME\n\ngit-http-backend - Server side implementation of Git over HTTP\n\n## SYNOPSIS\n\ngit http-backend\n\n## DESCRIPTION\n\nA simple CGI program to serve the contents of a Git repository to Git clients accessing the\nrepository over http:// and https:// protocols. The program supports clients fetching using\nboth the smart HTTP protocol and the backwards-compatible dumb HTTP protocol, as well as\nclients pushing using the smart HTTP protocol. It also supports Git’s more-efficient \"v2\"\nprotocol if properly configured; see the discussion of GITPROTOCOL in the ENVIRONMENT\nsection below.\n\n## Sections\n\n- **NAME**\n- **SYNOPSIS**\n- **DESCRIPTION**\n- **SERVICES**\n- **URL TRANSLATION**\n- **EXAMPLES**\n- **ENVIRONMENT**\n- **GIT**\n\nUse structuredContent.sections for detailed options, examples, and full documentation.\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "GIT-HTTP-BACKEND", "section": "", "mode": "man", "summary": "git-http-backend - Server side implementation of Git over HTTP", "synopsis": "git http-backend", "tldr_summary": null, "tldr_examples": [], "tldr_source": null, "flags": [], "examples": [ "All of the following examples map http://$hostname/git/foo/bar.git to", "/var/www/git/foo/bar.git.", "Apache 2.x", "Ensure modcgi, modalias, and modenv are enabled, set GITPROJECTROOT (or", "DocumentRoot) appropriately, and create a ScriptAlias to the CGI:", "SetEnv GITPROJECTROOT /var/www/git", "SetEnv GITHTTPEXPORTALL", "ScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/", "# This is not strictly necessary using Apache and a modern version of", "# git-http-backend, as the webserver will pass along the header in the", "# environment as HTTPGITPROTOCOL, and http-backend will copy that into", "# GITPROTOCOL. But you may need this line (or something similar if you", "# are using a different webserver), or if you want to support older Git", "# versions that did not do that copying.", "# Having the webserver set up GITPROTOCOL is perfectly fine even with", "# modern versions (and will take precedence over HTTPGITPROTOCOL,", "# which means it can be used to override the client's request).", "SetEnvIf Git-Protocol \".*\" GITPROTOCOL=$0", "To enable anonymous read access but authenticated write access, require authorization for", "both the initial ref advertisement (which we detect as a push via the service parameter", "in the query string), and the receive-pack invocation itself:", "RewriteCond %{QUERYSTRING} service=git-receive-pack [OR]", "RewriteCond %{REQUESTURI} /git-receive-pack$", "RewriteRule ^/git/ - [E=AUTHREQUIRED:yes]", "", "Order Deny,Allow", "Deny from env=AUTHREQUIRED", "AuthType Basic", "AuthName \"Git Access\"", "Require group committers", "Satisfy Any", "...", "", "If you do not have modrewrite available to match against the query string, it is", "sufficient to just protect git-receive-pack itself, like:", "", "AuthType Basic", "AuthName \"Git Access\"", "Require group committers", "...", "", "In this mode, the server will not request authentication until the client actually starts", "the object negotiation phase of the push, rather than during the initial contact. For", "this reason, you must also enable the http.receivepack config option in any repositories", "that should accept a push. The default behavior, if http.receivepack is not set, is to", "reject any pushes by unauthenticated users; the initial request will therefore report 403", "Forbidden to the client, without even giving an opportunity for authentication.", "To require authentication for both reads and writes, use a Location directive around the", "repository, or one of its parent directories:", "", "AuthType Basic", "AuthName \"Private Git Access\"", "Require group committers", "...", "", "To serve gitweb at the same url, use a ScriptAliasMatch to only those URLs that git", "http-backend can handle, and forward the rest to gitweb:", "ScriptAliasMatch \\", "\"(?x)^/git/(.*/(HEAD | \\", "info/refs | \\", "objects/(info/[^/]+ | \\", "[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38} | \\", "pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}\\.(pack|idx)) | \\", "git-(upload|receive)-pack))$\" \\", "/usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1", "ScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/", "To serve multiple repositories from different gitnamespaces(7) in a single repository:", "SetEnvIf RequestURI \"^/git/([^/]*)\" GITNAMESPACE=$1", "ScriptAliasMatch ^/git/[^/]*(.*) /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/storage.git$1", "Accelerated static Apache 2.x", "Similar to the above, but Apache can be used to return static files that are stored on", "disk. On many systems this may be more efficient as Apache can ask the kernel to copy the", "file contents from the file system directly to the network:", "SetEnv GITPROJECTROOT /var/www/git", "AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$ /var/www/git/$1", "AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1", "ScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/", "This can be combined with the gitweb configuration:", "SetEnv GITPROJECTROOT /var/www/git", "AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$ /var/www/git/$1", "AliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1", "ScriptAliasMatch \\", "\"(?x)^/git/(.*/(HEAD | \\", "info/refs | \\", "objects/info/[^/]+ | \\", "git-(upload|receive)-pack))$\" \\", "/usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1", "ScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/", "Lighttpd", "Ensure that modcgi, modalias, modauth, modsetenv are loaded, then set", "GITPROJECTROOT appropriately and redirect all requests to the CGI:", "alias.url += ( \"/git\" => \"/usr/lib/git-core/git-http-backend\" )", "$HTTP[\"url\"] =~ \"^/git\" {", "cgi.assign = (\"\" => \"\")", "setenv.add-environment = (", "\"GITPROJECTROOT\" => \"/var/www/git\",", "\"GITHTTPEXPORTALL\" => \"\"", "To enable anonymous read access but authenticated write access:", "$HTTP[\"querystring\"] =~ \"service=git-receive-pack\" {", "include \"git-auth.conf\"", "$HTTP[\"url\"] =~ \"^/git/.*/git-receive-pack$\" {", "include \"git-auth.conf\"", "where git-auth.conf looks something like:", "auth.require = (", "\"/\" => (", "\"method\" => \"basic\",", "\"realm\" => \"Git Access\",", "\"require\" => \"valid-user\"", "# ...and set up auth.backend here", "To require authentication for both reads and writes:", "$HTTP[\"url\"] =~ \"^/git/private\" {", "include \"git-auth.conf\"" ], "see_also": [], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SYNOPSIS", "lines": 3, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 16, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SERVICES", "lines": 18, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "URL TRANSLATION", "lines": 6, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "EXAMPLES", "lines": 155, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "ENVIRONMENT", "lines": 41, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "GIT", "lines": 5, "subsections": [] } ], "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "git-http-backend - Server side implementation of Git over HTTP\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "git http-backend\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "A simple CGI program to serve the contents of a Git repository to Git clients accessing the\nrepository over http:// and https:// protocols. The program supports clients fetching using\nboth the smart HTTP protocol and the backwards-compatible dumb HTTP protocol, as well as\nclients pushing using the smart HTTP protocol. It also supports Git’s more-efficient \"v2\"\nprotocol if properly configured; see the discussion of GITPROTOCOL in the ENVIRONMENT\nsection below.\n\nIt verifies that the directory has the magic file \"git-daemon-export-ok\", and it will refuse\nto export any Git directory that hasn’t explicitly been marked for export this way (unless\nthe GITHTTPEXPORTALL environmental variable is set).\n\nBy default, only the upload-pack service is enabled, which serves git fetch-pack and git\nls-remote clients, which are invoked from git fetch, git pull, and git clone. If the client\nis authenticated, the receive-pack service is enabled, which serves git send-pack clients,\nwhich is invoked from git push.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SERVICES": { "content": "These services can be enabled/disabled using the per-repository configuration file:\n\nhttp.getanyfile\nThis serves Git clients older than version 1.6.6 that are unable to use the upload pack\nservice. When enabled, clients are able to read any file within the repository, including\nobjects that are no longer reachable from a branch but are still present. It is enabled\nby default, but a repository can disable it by setting this configuration item to false.\n\nhttp.uploadpack\nThis serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients. It is enabled by default, but a\nrepository can disable it by setting this configuration item to false.\n\nhttp.receivepack\nThis serves git send-pack clients, allowing push. It is disabled by default for anonymous\nusers, and enabled by default for users authenticated by the web server. It can be\ndisabled by setting this item to false, or enabled for all users, including anonymous\nusers, by setting it to true.\n", "subsections": [] }, "URL TRANSLATION": { "content": "To determine the location of the repository on disk, git http-backend concatenates the\nenvironment variables PATHINFO, which is set automatically by the web server, and\nGITPROJECTROOT, which must be set manually in the web server configuration. If\nGITPROJECTROOT is not set, git http-backend reads PATHTRANSLATED, which is also set\nautomatically by the web server.\n", "subsections": [] }, "EXAMPLES": { "content": "All of the following examples map http://$hostname/git/foo/bar.git to\n/var/www/git/foo/bar.git.\n\nApache 2.x\nEnsure modcgi, modalias, and modenv are enabled, set GITPROJECTROOT (or\nDocumentRoot) appropriately, and create a ScriptAlias to the CGI:\n\nSetEnv GITPROJECTROOT /var/www/git\nSetEnv GITHTTPEXPORTALL\nScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/\n\n# This is not strictly necessary using Apache and a modern version of\n# git-http-backend, as the webserver will pass along the header in the\n# environment as HTTPGITPROTOCOL, and http-backend will copy that into\n# GITPROTOCOL. But you may need this line (or something similar if you\n# are using a different webserver), or if you want to support older Git\n# versions that did not do that copying.\n#\n# Having the webserver set up GITPROTOCOL is perfectly fine even with\n# modern versions (and will take precedence over HTTPGITPROTOCOL,\n# which means it can be used to override the client's request).\nSetEnvIf Git-Protocol \".*\" GITPROTOCOL=$0\n\nTo enable anonymous read access but authenticated write access, require authorization for\nboth the initial ref advertisement (which we detect as a push via the service parameter\nin the query string), and the receive-pack invocation itself:\n\nRewriteCond %{QUERYSTRING} service=git-receive-pack [OR]\nRewriteCond %{REQUESTURI} /git-receive-pack$\nRewriteRule ^/git/ - [E=AUTHREQUIRED:yes]\n\n\nOrder Deny,Allow\nDeny from env=AUTHREQUIRED\n\nAuthType Basic\nAuthName \"Git Access\"\nRequire group committers\nSatisfy Any\n...\n\n\nIf you do not have modrewrite available to match against the query string, it is\nsufficient to just protect git-receive-pack itself, like:\n\n\nAuthType Basic\nAuthName \"Git Access\"\nRequire group committers\n...\n\n\nIn this mode, the server will not request authentication until the client actually starts\nthe object negotiation phase of the push, rather than during the initial contact. For\nthis reason, you must also enable the http.receivepack config option in any repositories\nthat should accept a push. The default behavior, if http.receivepack is not set, is to\nreject any pushes by unauthenticated users; the initial request will therefore report 403\nForbidden to the client, without even giving an opportunity for authentication.\n\nTo require authentication for both reads and writes, use a Location directive around the\nrepository, or one of its parent directories:\n\n\nAuthType Basic\nAuthName \"Private Git Access\"\nRequire group committers\n...\n\n\nTo serve gitweb at the same url, use a ScriptAliasMatch to only those URLs that git\nhttp-backend can handle, and forward the rest to gitweb:\n\nScriptAliasMatch \\\n\"(?x)^/git/(.*/(HEAD | \\\ninfo/refs | \\\nobjects/(info/[^/]+ | \\\n[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38} | \\\npack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}\\.(pack|idx)) | \\\ngit-(upload|receive)-pack))$\" \\\n/usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1\n\nScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/\n\nTo serve multiple repositories from different gitnamespaces(7) in a single repository:\n\nSetEnvIf RequestURI \"^/git/([^/]*)\" GITNAMESPACE=$1\nScriptAliasMatch ^/git/[^/]*(.*) /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/storage.git$1\n\n\nAccelerated static Apache 2.x\nSimilar to the above, but Apache can be used to return static files that are stored on\ndisk. On many systems this may be more efficient as Apache can ask the kernel to copy the\nfile contents from the file system directly to the network:\n\nSetEnv GITPROJECTROOT /var/www/git\n\nAliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$ /var/www/git/$1\nAliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1\nScriptAlias /git/ /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/\n\nThis can be combined with the gitweb configuration:\n\nSetEnv GITPROJECTROOT /var/www/git\n\nAliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38})$ /var/www/git/$1\nAliasMatch ^/git/(.*/objects/pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}.(pack|idx))$ /var/www/git/$1\nScriptAliasMatch \\\n\"(?x)^/git/(.*/(HEAD | \\\ninfo/refs | \\\nobjects/info/[^/]+ | \\\ngit-(upload|receive)-pack))$\" \\\n/usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1\nScriptAlias /git/ /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi/\n\n\nLighttpd\nEnsure that modcgi, modalias, modauth, modsetenv are loaded, then set\nGITPROJECTROOT appropriately and redirect all requests to the CGI:\n\nalias.url += ( \"/git\" => \"/usr/lib/git-core/git-http-backend\" )\n$HTTP[\"url\"] =~ \"^/git\" {\ncgi.assign = (\"\" => \"\")\nsetenv.add-environment = (\n\"GITPROJECTROOT\" => \"/var/www/git\",\n\"GITHTTPEXPORTALL\" => \"\"\n)\n}\n\nTo enable anonymous read access but authenticated write access:\n\n$HTTP[\"querystring\"] =~ \"service=git-receive-pack\" {\ninclude \"git-auth.conf\"\n}\n$HTTP[\"url\"] =~ \"^/git/.*/git-receive-pack$\" {\ninclude \"git-auth.conf\"\n}\n\nwhere git-auth.conf looks something like:\n\nauth.require = (\n\"/\" => (\n\"method\" => \"basic\",\n\"realm\" => \"Git Access\",\n\"require\" => \"valid-user\"\n)\n)\n# ...and set up auth.backend here\n\nTo require authentication for both reads and writes:\n\n$HTTP[\"url\"] =~ \"^/git/private\" {\ninclude \"git-auth.conf\"\n}\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "git http-backend relies upon the CGI environment variables set by the invoking web server,\nincluding:\n\n• PATHINFO (if GITPROJECTROOT is set, otherwise PATHTRANSLATED)\n\n• REMOTEUSER\n\n• REMOTEADDR\n\n• CONTENTTYPE\n\n• QUERYSTRING\n\n• REQUESTMETHOD\n\nThe GITHTTPEXPORTALL environmental variable may be passed to git-http-backend to bypass\nthe check for the \"git-daemon-export-ok\" file in each repository before allowing export of\nthat repository.\n\nThe GITHTTPMAXREQUESTBUFFER environment variable (or the http.maxRequestBuffer config\nvariable) may be set to change the largest ref negotiation request that git will handle\nduring a fetch; any fetch requiring a larger buffer will not succeed. This value should not\nnormally need to be changed, but may be helpful if you are fetching from a repository with an\nextremely large number of refs. The value can be specified with a unit (e.g., 100M for 100\nmegabytes). The default is 10 megabytes.\n\nClients may probe for optional protocol capabilities (like the v2 protocol) using the\nGit-Protocol HTTP header. In order to support these, the contents of that header must appear\nin the GITPROTOCOL environment variable. Most webservers will pass this header to the CGI\nvia the HTTPGITPROTOCOL variable, and git-http-backend will automatically copy that to\nGITPROTOCOL. However, some webservers may be more selective about which headers they’ll\npass, in which case they need to be configured explicitly (see the mention of Git-Protocol in\nthe Apache config from the earlier EXAMPLES section).\n\nThe backend process sets GITCOMMITTERNAME to $REMOTEUSER and GITCOMMITTEREMAIL to\n${REMOTEUSER}@http.${REMOTEADDR}, ensuring that any reflogs created by git-receive-pack\ncontain some identifying information of the remote user who performed the push.\n\nAll CGI environment variables are available to each of the hooks invoked by the\ngit-receive-pack.\n", "subsections": [] }, "GIT": { "content": "Part of the git(1) suite\n\n\n\nGit 2.34.1 02/26/2026 GIT-HTTP-BACKEND(1)", "subsections": [] } } } }