cgit - cgi for git


This is an attempt to create a fast web interface for the git scm, using a
builtin cache to decrease server io-pressure.


Installation

Building cgit involves building a proper version of git. How to do this
depends on how you obtained the cgit sources:

a) If you're working in a cloned cgit repository, you first need to
initialize and update the git submodule:

  $ git submodule init     # register the git submodule in .git/config
  $ $EDITOR .git/config    # if you want to specify a different url for git
  $ git submodule update   # clone/fetch and checkout correct git version

b) If you're building from a cgit tarball, you can download a proper git
version like this:

  $ make get-git


When either a) or b) has been performed, you can build and install cgit like
this:

  $ make
  $ sudo make install

This will install cgit.cgi and cgit.css into "/var/www/htdocs/cgit". You can
configure this location (and a few other things) by providing a "cgit.conf"
file (see the Makefile for details).


Dependencies:
  -git 1.5.3
  -zip lib
  -crypto lib
  -openssl lib


Apache configuration

A new Directory-section must probably be added for cgit, possibly something
like this:

  <Directory "/var/www/htdocs/cgit/">
      AllowOverride None
      Options ExecCGI
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
  </Directory>


Runtime configuration

The file /etc/cgitrc is read by cgit before handling a request. In addition
to runtime parameters, this file also contains a list of the repositories
displayed by cgit.

A template cgitrc is shipped with the sources, and all parameters and default
values are documented in this file.


The cache

When cgit is invoked it looks for a cachefile matching the request and
returns it to the client. If no such cachefile exist (or if it has expired),
the content for the request is written into the proper cachefile before the
file is returned.

If the cachefile has expired but cgit is unable to obtain a lock for it, the
stale cachefile is returned to the client. This is done to favour page
throughput over page freshness.

The generated content contains the complete response to the client, including
the http-headers "Modified" and "Expires".


Notes for building cgit on Windows

Cgit can be built with the build environment from msysGit.  This instruction
assumes you have at least msysGit-fullinstall-1.7.0.2 installed to provide the
mingw GNU tools.


Makefile modification for Apache on Windows

Since cgit will be built under the msysgit/mingw environment, use the mingw
path location of where cgit will be installed under Apache, eg:

CGIT_SCRIPT_PATH = /c/Program\ Files/Apache\ Software\ Foundation/Apache2.2/
htdocs/cgit


Cgit configuration on Windows

When Apache is running it does so via a Windows service so paths in the cgit
config file that point to your git repositories should be a Windows path and
not mingw, eg:

repo.url=ProjectA
repo.path=c:/gitrepos/ProjectA.git
repo.desc=Simple test console app


Runtime configuration on Windows

When deploying cgit on Windows you should install the standard version of
msysGit (Git-1.7.0.2) which is a standard Windows installer.

Note: That this can be installed alongside msysGit-fullinstall-1.7.0.2, which
is self-contained and does not alter the Windows path.

During the installation of Git-1.7.0.2 a dialog will ask if the windows path
should be modified:

1) Leave the Windows path unmodified, Git will only be available from the mingw
bash shell.
2) Run Git from the Windows command prompt, this will add only Git to the
system path.
3) Run Git and Unix tools from the Windows command prompt, this will add Git
and other Unix cmd tools to the path, eg Unix versions of find.exe, sort.exe,
ls.exe etc.

If 1) is selected you will have to make sure that when the Apache service is
run that it can see Git.exe.

Selecting 3) will override some of the standard Windows cmd tools, but cgit
will work correctly under Apache this way.

Selecting 2) is probably the safest option and will not alter any of the
Windows cmd tools.  However if 2) is selected you will need to copy
libiconv2.dll from the msysGit-fullinstall-1.7.0.2 build environment
(c:\msysgit\msysgit\mingw\bin\) into where cgit was installed under Apache.


The missing features

* Submodule links in the directory listing page have a fixed format per
  repository. This should probably be extended to a generic map between
  submodule path and url.

* Branch- and tag-lists in the summary page can get very long, they should
  probably only show something like the ten "latest modified" branches and
  a similar number of "most recent" tags.

* There should be a new page for browsing refs/heads and refs/tags, with links
  from the summary page whenever the branch/tag lists overflow.

* The log-page should have more/better search options (author, committer,
  pickaxe, paths) and possibly support arbitrary revision specifiers.

* A set of test-scripts is required before cgit-1.0 can be released.

Patches/bugreports/suggestions/comments are always welcome, please feel free
to contact the author: hjemli@gmail.com