Linux user group configuration for Git bare repository

gitgroupslinuxpermissions

I'm using a Ubuntu box to host my bare Git repositories for developers to work off.

At the moment I'm creating a user account for each developer on the box because it doubles as a filestore and local testing server.

When somebody pushes to the bare repository other developers are unable to work on the files which change in the objects folder as a result. The new files are created with the user of the developer who pushes.

I have placed all the developers into a dev group but the umask doesn't allow the group to edit.

I've never had to set up a Git repository so haven't had experience in working with the permissions. I do want each developer to have their own user account on the test server, and I would prefer them to do actions on the server using that account. I don't mind giving them sudo rights.

Is setting the umask for each developer the way forward?

Best Answer

While "How do I share a Git repository with multiple users on a machine?" does address your issue (and involves setting umask for the users), I prefer adding to my git installation an authorization layer like gitolite (see its documentation).

No sudo right to give to anymone.
All git repo operations are done by one 'git' user.
you can set precisely the umask for newly created (and gitolite-managed) Git repos: "Setting umask in Git / Gitolite"

Related Solutions

GIt Daemon and Access Control for Multiple Repos

Check out gitosis which is a git repository hosting application. Quoting the description from the Debian package of gitosis:

This package aims to make hosting git repositories easier and safer.
It manages multiple repositories under one user account, using SSH
keys to identify users. End users do not need shell accounts on the
server; they will talk to one shared account that will not let them
run arbitrary commands.

You can find the gitosis source at http://eagain.net/gitweb/?p=gitosis.git

Documentation on how to set it up: http://scie.nti.st/2007/11/14/hosting-git-repositories-the-easy-and-secure-way

I'm very happy with gitosis, we're using it at the grml project (http://grml.org/) with more than 100 repositories and it works fine without any problems.

Ssh – How to prevent ssh git push to set file ownership

Would the SUID and SGID bits help you? I use a similar mechanism to allow members of the bzr group to commit files to a bazaar central repo and still keep the accessible permissions.

drwsrwsr-x  3 bzr          bzr          4.0K 2010-04-15 17:58 bzr

set with sudo chmod ug+s /home/bzr

/etc/group contains bzr:x:1012:bzr,tom,<and a whole bunch of other usernames>

This seems to work pretty well for us, allowing users in the bzr group to commit files to the central repository.

Setting mode 777 probably isn't ideal, for the obvious security reasons.

If I've missed the point, oops.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

GIt Daemon and Access Control for Multiple Repos

Ssh – How to prevent ssh git push to set file ownership

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