{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "git-daemon", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git-daemon/1/json", "generated": "2026-06-15T13:11:21Z", "synopsis": "git daemon [--verbose] [--syslog] [--export-all]\n[--timeout=] [--init-timeout=] [--max-connections=]\n[--strict-paths] [--base-path=] [--base-path-relaxed]\n[--user-path | --user-path=]\n[--interpolated-path=]\n[--reuseaddr] [--detach] [--pid-file=]\n[--enable=] [--disable=]\n[--allow-override=] [--forbid-override=]\n[--access-hook=] [--[no-]informative-errors]\n[--inetd |\n[--listen=] [--port=]\n[--user= [--group=]]]\n[--log-destination=(stderr|syslog|none)]\n[...]", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "git-daemon - A really simple server for Git repositories\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "git daemon [--verbose] [--syslog] [--export-all]\n[--timeout=] [--init-timeout=] [--max-connections=]\n[--strict-paths] [--base-path=] [--base-path-relaxed]\n[--user-path | --user-path=]\n[--interpolated-path=]\n[--reuseaddr] [--detach] [--pid-file=]\n[--enable=] [--disable=]\n[--allow-override=] [--forbid-override=]\n[--access-hook=] [--[no-]informative-errors]\n[--inetd |\n[--listen=] [--port=]\n[--user= [--group=]]]\n[--log-destination=(stderr|syslog|none)]\n[...]\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "A really simple TCP Git daemon that normally listens on port \"DEFAULTGITPORT\" aka 9418. It\nwaits for a connection asking for a service, and will serve that service if it is enabled.\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 --export-all parameter is specified). If you pass some directory paths as git daemon\narguments, you can further restrict the offers to a whitelist comprising of those.\n\nBy default, only 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.\n\nThis is ideally suited for read-only updates, i.e., pulling from Git repositories.\n\nAn upload-archive also exists to serve git archive.\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "--strict-paths", "content": "Match paths exactly (i.e. don’t allow \"/foo/repo\" when the real path is \"/foo/repo.git\"\nor \"/foo/repo/.git\") and don’t do user-relative paths. git daemon will refuse to start\nwhen this option is enabled and no whitelist is specified.\n\n--base-path=\nRemap all the path requests as relative to the given path. This is sort of \"Git root\" -\nif you run git daemon with --base-path=/srv/git on example.com, then if you later try to\npull git://example.com/hello.git, git daemon will interpret the path as\n/srv/git/hello.git.\n", "long": "--strict-paths" }, { "name": "--base-path-relaxed", "content": "If --base-path is enabled and repo lookup fails, with this option git daemon will attempt\nto lookup without prefixing the base path. This is useful for switching to --base-path\nusage, while still allowing the old paths.\n\n--interpolated-path=\nTo support virtual hosting, an interpolated path template can be used to dynamically\nconstruct alternate paths. The template supports %H for the target hostname as supplied\nby the client but converted to all lowercase, %CH for the canonical hostname, %IP for the\nserver’s IP address, %P for the port number, and %D for the absolute path of the named\nrepository. After interpolation, the path is validated against the directory whitelist.\n", "long": "--base-path-relaxed" }, { "name": "--export-all", "content": "Allow pulling from all directories that look like Git repositories (have the objects and\nrefs subdirectories), even if they do not have the git-daemon-export-ok file.\n", "long": "--export-all" }, { "name": "--inetd", "content": "Have the server run as an inetd service. Implies --syslog (may be overridden with\n--log-destination=). Incompatible with --detach, --port, --listen, --user and --group\noptions.\n\n--listen=\nListen on a specific IP address or hostname. IP addresses can be either an IPv4 address\nor an IPv6 address if supported. If IPv6 is not supported, then --listen=hostname is also\nnot supported and --listen must be given an IPv4 address. Can be given more than once.\nIncompatible with --inetd option.\n\n--port=\nListen on an alternative port. Incompatible with --inetd option.\n\n--init-timeout=\nTimeout (in seconds) between the moment the connection is established and the client\nrequest is received (typically a rather low value, since that should be basically\nimmediate).\n\n--timeout=\nTimeout (in seconds) for specific client sub-requests. This includes the time it takes\nfor the server to process the sub-request and the time spent waiting for the next\nclient’s request.\n\n--max-connections=\nMaximum number of concurrent clients, defaults to 32. Set it to zero for no limit.\n", "long": "--inetd" }, { "name": "--syslog", "content": "Short for --log-destination=syslog.\n\n--log-destination=\nSend log messages to the specified destination. Note that this option does not imply\n--verbose, thus by default only error conditions will be logged. The must\nbe one of:\n\nstderr\nWrite to standard error. Note that if --detach is specified, the process disconnects\nfrom the real standard error, making this destination effectively equivalent to none.\n\nsyslog\nWrite to syslog, using the git-daemon identifier.\n\nnone\nDisable all logging.\n\nThe default destination is syslog if --inetd or --detach is specified, otherwise stderr.\n\n--user-path, --user-path=\nAllow ~user notation to be used in requests. When specified with no parameter, requests\nto git://host/~alice/foo is taken as a request to access foo repository in the home\ndirectory of user alice. If --user-path=path is specified, the same request is taken as a\nrequest to access path/foo repository in the home directory of user alice.\n", "long": "--syslog" }, { "name": "--verbose", "content": "Log details about the incoming connections and requested files.\n", "long": "--verbose" }, { "name": "--reuseaddr", "content": "Use SOREUSEADDR when binding the listening socket. This allows the server to restart\nwithout waiting for old connections to time out.\n", "long": "--reuseaddr" }, { "name": "--detach", "content": "Detach from the shell. Implies --syslog.\n\n--pid-file=\nSave the process id in file. Ignored when the daemon is run under --inetd.\n\n--user=, --group=\nChange daemon’s uid and gid before entering the service loop. When only --user is given\nwithout --group, the primary group ID for the user is used. The values of the option are\ngiven to getpwnam(3) and getgrnam(3) and numeric IDs are not supported.\n\nGiving these options is an error when used with --inetd; use the facility of inet daemon\nto achieve the same before spawning git daemon if needed.\n\nLike many programs that switch user id, the daemon does not reset environment variables\nsuch as $HOME when it runs git programs, e.g. upload-pack and receive-pack. When using\nthis option, you may also want to set and export HOME to point at the home directory of\n before starting the daemon, and make sure any Git configuration files in that\ndirectory are readable by .\n\n--enable=, --disable=\nEnable/disable the service site-wide per default. Note that a service disabled site-wide\ncan still be enabled per repository if it is marked overridable and the repository\nenables the service with a configuration item.\n\n--allow-override=, --forbid-override=\nAllow/forbid overriding the site-wide default with per repository configuration. By\ndefault, all the services may be overridden.\n\n--[no-]informative-errors\nWhen informative errors are turned on, git-daemon will report more verbose errors to the\nclient, differentiating conditions like \"no such repository\" from \"repository not\nexported\". This is more convenient for clients, but may leak information about the\nexistence of unexported repositories. When informative errors are not enabled, all errors\nreport \"access denied\" to the client. The default is --no-informative-errors.\n\n--access-hook=\nEvery time a client connects, first run an external command specified by the with\nservice name (e.g. \"upload-pack\"), path to the repository, hostname (%H), canonical\nhostname (%CH), IP address (%IP), and TCP port (%P) as its command-line arguments. The\nexternal command can decide to decline the service by exiting with a non-zero status (or\nto allow it by exiting with a zero status). It can also look at the $REMOTEADDR and\n$REMOTEPORT environment variables to learn about the requestor when making this\ndecision.\n\nThe external command can optionally write a single line to its standard output to be sent\nto the requestor as an error message when it declines the service.\n\n\nA directory to add to the whitelist of allowed directories. Unless --strict-paths is\nspecified this will also include subdirectories of each named directory.\n", "long": "--detach" } ] }, "SERVICES": { "content": "These services can be globally enabled/disabled using the command-line options of this\ncommand. If finer-grained control is desired (e.g. to allow git archive to be run against\nonly in a few selected repositories the daemon serves), the per-repository configuration file\ncan be used to enable or disable them.\n\nupload-pack\nThis serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients. It is enabled by default, but a\nrepository can disable it by setting daemon.uploadpack configuration item to false.\n\nupload-archive\nThis serves git archive --remote. It is disabled by default, but a repository can enable\nit by setting daemon.uploadarch configuration item to true.\n\nreceive-pack\nThis serves git send-pack clients, allowing anonymous push. It is disabled by default, as\nthere is no authentication in the protocol (in other words, anybody can push anything\ninto the repository, including removal of refs). This is solely meant for a closed LAN\nsetting where everybody is friendly. This service can be enabled by setting\ndaemon.receivepack configuration item to true.\n", "subsections": [] }, "EXAMPLES": { "content": "We assume the following in /etc/services\n\n$ grep 9418 /etc/services\ngit 9418/tcp # Git Version Control System\n\n\ngit daemon as inetd server\nTo set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles any repository under the\nwhitelisted set of directories, /pub/foo and /pub/bar, place an entry like the following\ninto /etc/inetd all on one line:\n\ngit stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git\ngit daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all\n/pub/foo /pub/bar\n\n\ngit daemon as inetd server for virtual hosts\nTo set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles repositories for different virtual\nhosts, www.example.com and www.example.org, place an entry like the following into\n/etc/inetd all on one line:\n\ngit stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git\ngit daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all\n--interpolated-path=/pub/%H%D\n/pub/www.example.org/software\n/pub/www.example.com/software\n/software\n\nIn this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a subdirectory for each\nvirtual host name supported. Further, both hosts advertise repositories simply as\ngit://www.example.com/software/repo.git. For pre-1.4.0 clients, a symlink from /software\ninto the appropriate default repository could be made as well.\n\ngit daemon as regular daemon for virtual hosts\nTo set up git daemon as a regular, non-inetd service that handles repositories for\nmultiple virtual hosts based on their IP addresses, start the daemon like this:\n\ngit daemon --verbose --export-all\n--interpolated-path=/pub/%IP/%D\n/pub/192.168.1.200/software\n/pub/10.10.220.23/software\n\nIn this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a subdirectory for each\nvirtual host IP address supported. Repositories can still be accessed by hostname though,\nassuming they correspond to these IP addresses.\n\nselectively enable/disable services per repository\nTo enable git archive --remote and disable git fetch against a repository, have the\nfollowing in the configuration file in the repository (that is the file config next to\nHEAD, refs and objects).\n\n[daemon]\nuploadpack = false\nuploadarch = true\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "git daemon will set REMOTEADDR to the IP address of the client that connected to it, if the\nIP address is available. REMOTEADDR will be available in the environment of hooks called\nwhen services are performed.\n", "subsections": [] }, "GIT": { "content": "Part of the git(1) suite\n\n\n\nGit 2.34.1 02/26/2026 GIT-DAEMON(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "git-daemon - A really simple server for Git repositories", "flags": [ { "flag": "", "long": "--strict-paths", "arg": null, "description": "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 whitelist is specified. --base-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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--base-path-relaxed", "arg": null, "description": "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= 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 whitelist." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--export-all", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--inetd", "arg": null, "description": "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= 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= Listen on an alternative port. Incompatible with --inetd option. --init-timeout= 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= 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= Maximum number of concurrent clients, defaults to 32. Set it to zero for no limit." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--syslog", "arg": null, "description": "Short for --log-destination=syslog. --log-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 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= Allow ~user notation to be used in requests. When specified with no parameter, requests 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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--verbose", "arg": null, "description": "Log details about the incoming connections and requested files." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--reuseaddr", "arg": null, "description": "Use SOREUSEADDR when binding the listening socket. This allows the server to restart without waiting for old connections to time out." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--detach", "arg": null, "description": "Detach from the shell. Implies --syslog. --pid-file= Save the process id in file. Ignored when the daemon is run under --inetd. --user=, --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 before starting the daemon, and make sure any Git configuration files in that directory are readable by . --enable=, --disable= 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=, --forbid-override= 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= Every time a client connects, first run an external command specified by the 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 $REMOTEADDR and $REMOTEPORT environment variables to learn about the requestor when making this decision. The external command can optionally write a single line to its standard output to be sent to the requestor as an error message when it declines the service. A directory to add to the whitelist of allowed directories. Unless --strict-paths is specified this will also include subdirectories of each named directory." } ], "examples": [ "We assume the following in /etc/services", "$ 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 under the", "whitelisted set of directories, /pub/foo and /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" ], "see_also": [], "tldr": { "source": "official", "description": "A really simple server for Git repositories.", "examples": [ { "description": "Launch a Git daemon with a whitelisted set of directories", "command": "git daemon --export-all {{path/to/directory1 path/to/directory2 ...}}" }, { "description": "Launch a Git daemon with a specific base directory and allow pulling from all sub-directories that look like Git repositories", "command": "git daemon --base-path={{path/to/directory}} --export-all --reuseaddr" }, { "description": "Launch a Git daemon for the specified directory, verbosely printing log messages and allowing Git clients to write to it", "command": "git daemon {{path/to/directory}} --enable=receive-pack --informative-errors --verbose" } ] } }