How to Install Gitolite on OpenBSD

Gitolite is a free and open-source tool designed for managing Git repositories. It allows you to restrict access to various Git repositories through a central server. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Gitolite on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

Before starting with the installation, make sure you have:

  • An OpenBSD server with root access.
  • An SSH client to connect to your OpenBSD server.

Step 1: Install Gitolite

To install Gitolite on OpenBSD, follow the steps below:

  1. First, log in to your OpenBSD server as a root user.
  2. Next, update the package repository by running the following command:
# pkg_add -u
  1. Now, install Gitolite by running the following command:
# pkg_add gitolite

This will install the Gitolite package on your OpenBSD server.

Step 2: Set up Gitolite

To set up Gitolite on OpenBSD, follow the steps below:

  1. Next, create a user named 'git' on your OpenBSD server:
# adduser git
  1. Now, log in as the 'git' user and set up Gitolite:
$ sudo -H -u git bash
$ gitolite setup -pk git.pub

Here, 'git.pub' is the public key of the user who will be accessing the Git repositories. Make sure to replace it with the appropriate public key.

  1. Gitolite will now create a '.gitolite' directory in the 'git' user's home directory, where it will store all the Git repositories.

Step 3: Create a Git Repository

To create a Git repository using Gitolite on OpenBSD, follow the steps below:

  1. Log in as the 'git' user:
$ sudo -H -u git bash
  1. Create a new directory to store the Git repository:
$ mkdir /home/git/repositories/repo.git

Here, 'repo.git' is the name of the Git repository.

  1. Initialize the Git repository:
$ cd /home/git/repositories/repo.git
$ git init --bare
  1. Add the user who will have access to the Git repository:
$ nano /home/git/.gitolite/conf/gitolite.conf

Add the following lines to the file:

repo repo
    RW+ = user

Here, 'repo' is the name of the Git repository, and 'user' is the username of the user who will have read and write access to the repository.

  1. Save the changes and exit the editor.

  2. Commit and push the changes to Gitolite:

$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Added repository 'repo'"
$ git push origin master

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and set up Gitolite on OpenBSD. You can now create as many Git repositories as you want and give access to multiple users based on your requirements.