6 gitweb - Git web interface (web frontend to Git repositories)
10 To get started with gitweb, run linkgit:git-instaweb[1] from a Git repository.
11 This would configure and start your web server, and run web browser pointing to
17 Gitweb provides a web interface to Git repositories. Its features include:
19 * Viewing multiple Git repositories with common root.
20 * Browsing every revision of the repository.
21 * Viewing the contents of files in the repository at any revision.
22 * Viewing the revision log of branches, history of files and directories,
23 see what was changed when, by who.
24 * Viewing the blame/annotation details of any file (if enabled).
25 * Generating RSS and Atom feeds of commits, for any branch.
26 The feeds are auto-discoverable in modern web browsers.
27 * Viewing everything that was changed in a revision, and step through
28 revisions one at a time, viewing the history of the repository.
29 * Finding commits which commit messages matches given search term.
31 See http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git/tree/HEAD:/gitweb/[] for gitweb source code,
32 browsed using gitweb itself.
37 Various aspects of gitweb's behavior can be controlled through the configuration
38 file `gitweb_config.perl` or `/etc/gitweb.conf`. See the linkgit:gitweb.conf[5]
43 Gitweb can show information from one or more Git repositories. These
44 repositories have to be all on local filesystem, and have to share common
45 repository root, i.e. be all under a single parent repository (but see also
46 "Advanced web server setup" section, "Webserver configuration with multiple
47 projects' root" subsection).
49 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
50 our $projectroot = '/path/to/parent/directory';
51 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
53 The default value for `$projectroot` is `/pub/git`. You can change it during
54 building gitweb via `GITWEB_PROJECTROOT` build configuration variable.
56 By default all Git repositories under `$projectroot` are visible and available
57 to gitweb. The list of projects is generated by default by scanning the
58 `$projectroot` directory for Git repositories (for object databases to be
59 more exact; gitweb is not interested in a working area, and is best suited
60 to showing "bare" repositories).
62 The name of the repository in gitweb is the path to its `$GIT_DIR` (its object
63 database) relative to `$projectroot`. Therefore the repository $repo can be
64 found at "$projectroot/$repo".
67 Projects list file format
68 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
69 Instead of having gitweb find repositories by scanning filesystem
70 starting from $projectroot, you can provide a pre-generated list of
71 visible projects by setting `$projects_list` to point to a plain text
72 file with a list of projects (with some additional info).
74 This file uses the following format:
76 * One record (for project / repository) per line; does not support line
77 continuation (newline escaping).
79 * Leading and trailing whitespace are ignored.
81 * Whitespace separated fields; any run of whitespace can be used as field
82 separator (rules for Perl's "`split(" ", $line)`").
84 * Fields use modified URI encoding, defined in RFC 3986, section 2.1
85 (Percent-Encoding), or rather "Query string encoding" (see
86 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string#URL_encoding[]), the difference
87 being that SP (" ") can be encoded as "{plus}" (and therefore "{plus}" has to be
88 also percent-encoded).
90 Reserved characters are: "%" (used for encoding), "{plus}" (can be used to
91 encode SPACE), all whitespace characters as defined in Perl, including SP,
92 TAB and LF, (used to separate fields in a record).
94 * Currently recognized fields are:
96 path to repository GIT_DIR, relative to `$projectroot`
98 displayed as repository owner, preferably full name, or email,
101 You can generate the projects list index file using the project_index action
102 (the 'TXT' link on projects list page) directly from gitweb; see also
103 "Generating projects list using gitweb" section below.
106 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
107 foo.git Joe+R+Hacker+<joe@example.com>
108 foo/bar.git O+W+Ner+<owner@example.org>
109 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
112 By default this file controls only which projects are *visible* on projects
113 list page (note that entries that do not point to correctly recognized Git
114 repositories won't be displayed by gitweb). Even if a project is not
115 visible on projects list page, you can view it nevertheless by hand-crafting
116 a gitweb URL. By setting `$strict_export` configuration variable (see
117 linkgit:gitweb.conf[5]) to true value you can allow viewing only of
118 repositories also shown on the overview page (i.e. only projects explicitly
119 listed in projects list file will be accessible).
122 Generating projects list using gitweb
123 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
125 We assume that GITWEB_CONFIG has its default Makefile value, namely
126 'gitweb_config.perl'. Put the following in 'gitweb_make_index.perl' file:
127 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
128 read_config_file("gitweb_config.perl");
129 $projects_list = $projectroot;
130 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
132 Then create the following script to get list of project in the format
133 suitable for GITWEB_LIST build configuration variable (or
134 `$projects_list` variable in gitweb config):
136 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
139 export GITWEB_CONFIG="gitweb_make_index.perl"
140 export GATEWAY_INTERFACE="CGI/1.1"
141 export HTTP_ACCEPT="*/*"
142 export REQUEST_METHOD="GET"
143 export QUERY_STRING="a=project_index"
145 perl -- /var/www/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi
146 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
148 Run this script and save its output to a file. This file could then be used
149 as projects list file, which means that you can set `$projects_list` to its
153 Controlling access to Git repositories
154 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
155 By default all Git repositories under `$projectroot` are visible and
156 available to gitweb. You can however configure how gitweb controls access
159 * As described in "Projects list file format" section, you can control which
160 projects are *visible* by selectively including repositories in projects
161 list file, and setting `$projects_list` gitweb configuration variable to
162 point to it. With `$strict_export` set, projects list file can be used to
163 control which repositories are *available* as well.
165 * You can configure gitweb to only list and allow viewing of the explicitly
166 exported repositories, via `$export_ok` variable in gitweb config file; see
167 linkgit:gitweb.conf[5] manpage. If it evaluates to true, gitweb shows
168 repositories only if this file named by `$export_ok` exists in its object
169 database (if directory has the magic file named `$export_ok`).
171 For example linkgit:git-daemon[1] by default (unless `--export-all` option
172 is used) allows pulling only for those repositories that have
173 'git-daemon-export-ok' file. Adding
175 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
176 our $export_ok = "git-daemon-export-ok";
177 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
179 makes gitweb show and allow access only to those repositories that can be
180 fetched from via `git://` protocol.
182 * Finally, it is possible to specify an arbitrary perl subroutine that will
183 be called for each repository to determine if it can be exported. The
184 subroutine receives an absolute path to the project (repository) as its only
185 parameter (i.e. "$projectroot/$project").
187 For example, if you use mod_perl to run the script, and have dumb
188 HTTP protocol authentication configured for your repositories, you
189 can use the following hook to allow access only if the user is
190 authorized to read the files:
192 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
193 $export_auth_hook = sub {
194 use Apache2::SubRequest ();
195 use Apache2::Const -compile => qw(HTTP_OK);
196 my $path = "$_[0]/HEAD";
197 my $r = Apache2::RequestUtil->request;
198 my $sub = $r->lookup_file($path);
199 return $sub->filename eq $path
200 && $sub->status == Apache2::Const::HTTP_OK;
202 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
205 Per-repository gitweb configuration
206 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
207 You can configure individual repositories shown in gitweb by creating file
208 in the `GIT_DIR` of Git repository, or by setting some repo configuration
209 variable (in `GIT_DIR/config`, see linkgit:git-config[1]).
211 You can use the following files in repository:
214 A html file (HTML fragment) which is included on the gitweb project
215 "summary" page inside `<div>` block element. You can use it for longer
216 description of a project, to provide links (for example to project's
217 homepage), etc. This is recognized only if XSS prevention is off
218 (`$prevent_xss` is false, see linkgit:gitweb.conf[5]); a way to include
219 a README safely when XSS prevention is on may be worked out in the
222 description (or `gitweb.description`)::
223 Short (shortened to `$projects_list_description_width` in the projects
224 list page, which is 25 characters by default; see
225 linkgit:gitweb.conf[5]) single line description of a project (of a
226 repository). Plain text file; HTML will be escaped. By default set to
228 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
229 Unnamed repository; edit this file to name it for gitweb.
230 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
232 from the template during repository creation, usually installed in
233 `/usr/share/git-core/templates/`. You can use the `gitweb.description` repo
234 configuration variable, but the file takes precedence.
236 category (or `gitweb.category`)::
237 Singe line category of a project, used to group projects if
238 `$projects_list_group_categories` is enabled. By default (file and
239 configuration variable absent), uncategorized projects are put in the
240 `$project_list_default_category` category. You can use the
241 `gitweb.category` repo configuration variable, but the file takes
244 The configuration variables `$projects_list_group_categories` and
245 `$project_list_default_category` are described in linkgit:gitweb.conf[5]
247 cloneurl (or multiple-valued `gitweb.url`)::
248 File with repository URL (used for clone and fetch), one per line.
249 Displayed in the project summary page. You can use multiple-valued
250 `gitweb.url` repository configuration variable for that, but the file
253 This is per-repository enhancement / version of global prefix-based
254 `@git_base_url_list` gitweb configuration variable (see
255 linkgit:gitweb.conf[5]).
258 You can use the `gitweb.owner` repository configuration variable to set
259 repository's owner. It is displayed in the project list and summary
262 If it's not set, filesystem directory's owner is used (via GECOS field,
263 i.e. real name field from *getpwuid*(3)) if `$projects_list` is unset
264 (gitweb scans `$projectroot` for repositories); if `$projects_list`
265 points to file with list of repositories, then project owner defaults to
266 value from this file for given repository.
268 various `gitweb.*` config variables (in config)::
269 Read description of `%feature` hash for detailed list, and descriptions.
270 See also "Configuring gitweb features" section in linkgit:gitweb.conf[5]
275 Gitweb can use path_info (component) based URLs, or it can pass all necessary
276 information via query parameters. The typical gitweb URLs are broken down in to
279 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
280 .../gitweb.cgi/<repo>/<action>/<revision>:/<path>?<arguments>
281 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
284 The repository the action will be performed on.
286 All actions except for those that list all available projects,
287 in whatever form, require this parameter.
290 The action that will be run. Defaults to 'projects_list' if repo
291 is not set, and to 'summary' otherwise.
294 Revision shown. Defaults to HEAD.
297 The path within the <repository> that the action is performed on,
298 for those actions that require it.
301 Any arguments that control the behaviour of the action.
303 Some actions require or allow to specify two revisions, and sometimes even two
304 pathnames. In most general form such path_info (component) based gitweb URL
307 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
308 .../gitweb.cgi/<repo>/<action>/<revision_from>:/<path_from>..<revision_to>:/<path_to>?<arguments>
309 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
312 Each action is implemented as a subroutine, and must be present in %actions
313 hash. Some actions are disabled by default, and must be turned on via feature
314 mechanism. For example to enable 'blame' view add the following to gitweb
317 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
318 $feature{'blame'}{'default'} = [1];
319 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
324 The standard actions are:
327 Lists the available Git repositories. This is the default command if no
328 repository is specified in the URL.
331 Displays summary about given repository. This is the default command if
332 no action is specified in URL, and only repository is specified.
336 Lists all local or all remote-tracking branches in given repository.
338 The latter is not available by default, unless configured.
341 List all tags (lightweight and annotated) in given repository.
345 Shows the files and directories in a given repository path, at given
346 revision. This is default command if no action is specified in the URL,
350 Returns the raw data for the file in given repository, at given path and
351 revision. Links to this action are marked 'raw'.
354 Shows the difference between two revisions of the same file.
358 Shows the blame (also called annotation) information for a file. On a
359 per line basis it shows the revision in which that line was last changed
360 and the user that committed the change. The incremental version (which
361 if configured is used automatically when JavaScript is enabled) uses
362 Ajax to incrementally add blame info to the contents of given file.
364 This action is disabled by default for performance reasons.
368 Shows information about a specific commit in a repository. The 'commit'
369 view shows information about commit in more detail, the 'commitdiff'
370 action shows changeset for given commit.
373 Returns the commit in plain text mail format, suitable for applying with
377 Display specific annotated tag (tag object).
381 Shows log information (commit message or just commit subject) for a
382 given branch (starting from given revision).
384 The 'shortlog' view is more compact; it shows one commit per line.
387 Shows history of the file or directory in a given repository path,
388 starting from given revision (defaults to HEAD, i.e. default branch).
390 This view is similar to 'shortlog' view.
394 Generates an RSS (or Atom) feed of changes to repository.
397 WEBSERVER CONFIGURATION
398 -----------------------
399 This section explains how to configure some common webservers to run gitweb. In
400 all cases, `/path/to/gitweb` in the examples is the directory you ran installed
401 gitweb in, and contains `gitweb_config.perl`.
403 If you've configured a web server that isn't listed here for gitweb, please send
404 in the instructions so they can be included in a future release.
408 Apache must be configured to support CGI scripts in the directory in
409 which gitweb is installed. Let's assume that it is `/var/www/cgi-bin`
412 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
413 ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"
415 <Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
416 Options Indexes FollowSymlinks ExecCGI
421 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
423 With that configuration the full path to browse repositories would be:
425 http://server/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi
427 Apache with mod_perl, via ModPerl::Registry
428 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
429 You can use mod_perl with gitweb. You must install Apache::Registry
430 (for mod_perl 1.x) or ModPerl::Registry (for mod_perl 2.x) to enable
433 Assuming that gitweb is installed to `/var/www/perl`, the following
434 Apache configuration (for mod_perl 2.x) is suitable.
436 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
437 Alias /perl "/var/www/perl"
439 <Directory "/var/www/perl">
440 SetHandler perl-script
441 PerlResponseHandler ModPerl::Registry
442 PerlOptions +ParseHeaders
443 Options Indexes FollowSymlinks +ExecCGI
448 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
450 With that configuration the full path to browse repositories would be:
452 http://server/perl/gitweb.cgi
456 Gitweb works with Apache and FastCGI. First you need to rename, copy
457 or symlink gitweb.cgi to gitweb.fcgi. Let's assume that gitweb is
458 installed in `/usr/share/gitweb` directory. The following Apache
459 configuration is suitable (UNTESTED!)
461 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
462 FastCgiServer /usr/share/gitweb/gitweb.cgi
463 ScriptAlias /gitweb /usr/share/gitweb/gitweb.cgi
465 Alias /gitweb/static /usr/share/gitweb/static
466 <Directory /usr/share/gitweb/static>
467 SetHandler default-handler
469 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
471 With that configuration the full path to browse repositories would be:
476 ADVANCED WEB SERVER SETUP
477 -------------------------
478 All of those examples use request rewriting, and need `mod_rewrite`
479 (or equivalent; examples below are written for Apache).
481 Single URL for gitweb and for fetching
482 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
483 If you want to have one URL for both gitweb and your `http://`
484 repositories, you can configure Apache like this:
486 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
488 ServerName git.example.org
489 DocumentRoot /pub/git
490 SetEnv GITWEB_CONFIG /etc/gitweb.conf
492 # turning on mod rewrite
495 # make the front page an internal rewrite to the gitweb script
496 RewriteRule ^/$ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi
498 # make access for "dumb clients" work
499 RewriteRule ^/(.*\.git/(?!/?(HEAD|info|objects|refs)).*)?$ \
500 /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi%{REQUEST_URI} [L,PT]
502 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
504 The above configuration expects your public repositories to live under
505 `/pub/git` and will serve them as `http://git.domain.org/dir-under-pub-git`,
506 both as clonable Git URL and as browsable gitweb interface. If you then
507 start your linkgit:git-daemon[1] with `--base-path=/pub/git --export-all`
508 then you can even use the `git://` URL with exactly the same path.
510 Setting the environment variable `GITWEB_CONFIG` will tell gitweb to use the
511 named file (i.e. in this example `/etc/gitweb.conf`) as a configuration for
512 gitweb. You don't really need it in above example; it is required only if
513 your configuration file is in different place than built-in (during
514 compiling gitweb) 'gitweb_config.perl' or `/etc/gitweb.conf`. See
515 linkgit:gitweb.conf[5] for details, especially information about precedence
518 If you use the rewrite rules from the example you *might* also need
519 something like the following in your gitweb configuration file
520 (`/etc/gitweb.conf` following example):
521 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
522 @stylesheets = ("/some/absolute/path/gitweb.css");
525 $per_request_config = 1;
526 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
527 Nowadays though gitweb should create HTML base tag when needed (to set base
528 URI for relative links), so it should work automatically.
531 Webserver configuration with multiple projects' root
532 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
533 If you want to use gitweb with several project roots you can edit your
534 Apache virtual host and gitweb configuration files in the following way.
536 The virtual host configuration (in Apache configuration file) should look
538 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
540 ServerName git.example.org
541 DocumentRoot /pub/git
542 SetEnv GITWEB_CONFIG /etc/gitweb.conf
544 # turning on mod rewrite
547 # make the front page an internal rewrite to the gitweb script
548 RewriteRule ^/$ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi [QSA,L,PT]
550 # look for a public_git directory in unix users' home
551 # http://git.example.org/~<user>/
552 RewriteRule ^/\~([^\/]+)(/|/gitweb.cgi)?$ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi \
553 [QSA,E=GITWEB_PROJECTROOT:/home/$1/public_git/,L,PT]
555 # http://git.example.org/+<user>/
556 #RewriteRule ^/\+([^\/]+)(/|/gitweb.cgi)?$ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi \
557 [QSA,E=GITWEB_PROJECTROOT:/home/$1/public_git/,L,PT]
559 # http://git.example.org/user/<user>/
560 #RewriteRule ^/user/([^\/]+)/(gitweb.cgi)?$ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi \
561 [QSA,E=GITWEB_PROJECTROOT:/home/$1/public_git/,L,PT]
563 # defined list of project roots
564 RewriteRule ^/scm(/|/gitweb.cgi)?$ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi \
565 [QSA,E=GITWEB_PROJECTROOT:/pub/scm/,L,PT]
566 RewriteRule ^/var(/|/gitweb.cgi)?$ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi \
567 [QSA,E=GITWEB_PROJECTROOT:/var/git/,L,PT]
569 # make access for "dumb clients" work
570 RewriteRule ^/(.*\.git/(?!/?(HEAD|info|objects|refs)).*)?$ \
571 /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi%{REQUEST_URI} [L,PT]
573 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
575 Here actual project root is passed to gitweb via `GITWEB_PROJECT_ROOT`
576 environment variable from a web server, so you need to put the following
577 line in gitweb configuration file (`/etc/gitweb.conf` in above example):
578 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
579 $projectroot = $ENV{'GITWEB_PROJECTROOT'} || "/pub/git";
580 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
581 *Note* that this requires to be set for each request, so either
582 `$per_request_config` must be false, or the above must be put in code
583 referenced by `$per_request_config`;
585 These configurations enable two things. First, each unix user (`<user>`) of
586 the server will be able to browse through gitweb Git repositories found in
587 `~/public_git/` with the following url:
589 http://git.example.org/~<user>/
591 If you do not want this feature on your server just remove the second
594 If you already use `mod_userdir` in your virtual host or you don't want to
595 use the \'~' as first character, just comment or remove the second rewrite
596 rule, and uncomment one of the following according to what you want.
598 Second, repositories found in `/pub/scm/` and `/var/git/` will be accessible
599 through `http://git.example.org/scm/` and `http://git.example.org/var/`.
600 You can add as many project roots as you want by adding rewrite rules like
601 the third and the fourth.
606 If you enable PATH_INFO usage in gitweb by putting
607 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
608 $feature{'pathinfo'}{'default'} = [1];
609 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
610 in your gitweb configuration file, it is possible to set up your server so
611 that it consumes and produces URLs in the form
613 http://git.example.com/project.git/shortlog/sometag
615 i.e. without 'gitweb.cgi' part, by using a configuration such as the
616 following. This configuration assumes that `/var/www/gitweb` is the
617 DocumentRoot of your webserver, contains the gitweb.cgi script and
618 complementary static files (stylesheet, favicon, JavaScript):
620 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
622 ServerAlias git.example.com
624 DocumentRoot /var/www/gitweb
626 <Directory /var/www/gitweb>
628 AddHandler cgi-script cgi
630 DirectoryIndex gitweb.cgi
633 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
634 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
635 RewriteRule ^.* /gitweb.cgi/$0 [L,PT]
638 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
639 The rewrite rule guarantees that existing static files will be properly
640 served, whereas any other URL will be passed to gitweb as PATH_INFO
643 *Notice* that in this case you don't need special settings for
644 `@stylesheets`, `$my_uri` and `$home_link`, but you lose "dumb client"
645 access to your project .git dirs (described in "Single URL for gitweb and
646 for fetching" section). A possible workaround for the latter is the
647 following: in your project root dir (e.g. `/pub/git`) have the projects
648 named *without* a .git extension (e.g. `/pub/git/project` instead of
649 `/pub/git/project.git`) and configure Apache as follows:
650 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
652 ServerAlias git.example.com
654 DocumentRoot /var/www/gitweb
656 AliasMatch ^(/.*?)(\.git)(/.*)?$ /pub/git$1$3
657 <Directory /var/www/gitweb>
659 AddHandler cgi-script cgi
661 DirectoryIndex gitweb.cgi
664 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
665 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
666 RewriteRule ^.* /gitweb.cgi/$0 [L,PT]
669 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
671 The additional AliasMatch makes it so that
673 http://git.example.com/project.git
675 will give raw access to the project's Git dir (so that the project can be
678 http://git.example.com/project
680 will provide human-friendly gitweb access.
682 This solution is not 100% bulletproof, in the sense that if some project has
683 a named ref (branch, tag) starting with `git/`, then paths such as
685 http://git.example.com/project/command/abranch..git/abranch
687 will fail with a 404 error.
692 Please report any bugs or feature requests to git@vger.kernel.org,
693 putting "gitweb" in the subject of email.
697 linkgit:gitweb.conf[5], linkgit:git-instaweb[1]
699 `gitweb/README`, `gitweb/INSTALL`
703 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite