Cleanup

posts/2024-11-03-set-up-a-gitweb-server.md

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+---
+title: "Set Up A GitWeb Server"
+blurb: "Set up a VPS with a simple, web-based code repository visualizer using
+Lighttpd and GitWeb."
+...
+## Introduction
+
+Git comes with a CGI script called GitWeb, a simple web-based visualizer.
+Today we will set up a virtual server on DigitalOcean that will use GitWeb to
+visualize a Git repository.
+
+## 1. Create a DigitalOcean droplet
+
+Create a new droplet from the DigitalOcean dashboard. For now, we go with the
+smallest virtual server currently available. We also add an SSH key so we can
+authenticate without a password.
+
+![DigitalOcean Droplet Creation Form, Image & Size Selection](/images/git-server-do-droplet.png)
+
+## 2. Log in to the droplet remotely
+
+After the droplet is created, we can see its IP address on the dashboard. We
+use this IP address to log in to our virtual server:
+
+    $ ssh root@XX.XX.XXX.XXX
+
+## 3. Silence locale warnings
+
+After successfully logging in, one of the messages we are greeted with is a
+warning about the locale.
+
+    -bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.UTF-8)
+
+We can make this annoying message go away by creating a locale file manually:
+
+    # localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8
+
+## 4. Add a user account to administer the Git repositories
+
+Next, we create a user account that will administer the git repositories, so we
+don't always have to do it as `root`.
+
+    # adduser git --disabled-password
+
+We have to add our SSH key to the `git` user's `authorized_keys` file.
+
+    # su git
+    $ cd
+    $ mkdir .ssh && chmod 700 .ssh
+    $ touch .ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys
+    $ exit
+    # cat ~/.ssh/authorized_keys >> /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys
+
+## 5. Install necessary packages
+
+Lighttpd is the default web server that GitWeb tries to use if available. For
+simplicity, that's what we'll use.
+
+    # apt-get update
+    # apt-get install git lighttpd gitweb
+
+## 6. Configure Lighttpd
+
+We will need to make some changes to Lighttpd's config file.
+
+    # nano /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
+
+1. Update the value for `server.document-root`:
+
+    `server.document-root        = "/usr/share/gitweb"`
+
+2. Add `index.cgi` to `index-file.names`:
+
+    `index-file.names            = ( "index.php", "index.html", "index.cgi" )`
+
+## 7. Enable Lighttpd modules
+
+Since GitWeb uses CGI, we will have to enable Lighttpd's CGI module. We will
+also need the setenv module. First we need to configure them.
+
+    # nano /etc/lighttpd/conf-available/05-setenv.conf
+
+Add the following line:
+
+::: filename-for-code-block
+`/etc/lighttpd/conf-available/05-setenv.conf`
+:::
+
+    ...
+    setenv.add-environment = ( "PATH" => env.PATH, "GITWEB_CONFIG" => env.GITWEB_CONFIG )
+
+Next, edit the CGI module config file.
+
+    # nano /etc/lighttpd/conf-available/10-cgi.conf
+
+Add:
+
+::: filename-for-code-block
+`/etc/lighttpd/conf-available/10-cgi.conf`
+:::
+
+    ...
+    cgi.assign = (
+      ".cgi" => ""
+    )
+
+Once that's done, enable `mod_cgi` and `mod_setenv` with:
+
+    # lighty-enable-mod cgi setenv
+    # service lighttpd force-reload
+
+## 8. Edit the Lighttpd service init files
+
+We need to edit the Lighttpd service startup files to define the
+`GITWEB_CONFIG` environment variable that we used in the previous step.
+
+    # systemctl edit lighttpd.service
+
+This will start up an editor and create an `override.conf` file. Add the
+following two lines:
+
+::: filename-for-code-block
+`/etc/systemd/system/lighttpd.service.d/override.conf`
+:::
+
+    [Service]
+    Environment="GITWEB_CONFIG=./gitweb_config.perl"
+
+Then, save the file and exit the editor. To finish, we need to run these two
+commands:
+
+    # systemctl daemon-reload
+    # service lighttpd restart
+
+## 9. Upload a Git repository
+
+We are now ready to upload a Git respository we wish to visualize with our
+server. First, lets transfer ownership of the respository directory to our user
+`git` we created earlier.
+
+    # chown git /var/lib/git/
+    # chgrp git /var/lib/git/
+
+Now we can log out of the server with `exit`. On our local machine, we clone a
+`bare` copy of the repo we want to upload.
+
+    $ git clone --bare my_project my_project.git
+
+Now we can upload this bare repo to our server.
+
+    $ scp -r my_project.git git@XX.XX.XXX.XXX:/var/lib/git
+
+We can tell Git to automatically add group write permissions to our repo with:
+
+    $ ssh git@XX.XX.XXX.XXX
+    $ cd /var/lib/git/my_project.git
+    $ git init --bare --shared
+
+## 10. Visit the GitWeb server
+
+When we visit the server's IP address with our browser, `http://XX.XX.XXX.XXX`,
+we should see a GitWeb `projects` page. We can now explore our project's code
+with our web browser.
+
+![GitWeb Projects List](/images/git-server-gitweb.png)
+
+## Resources
+
+Here is a list of the resources that were used to figure out how to accomplish
+the task in this post.
+
+- [Git Documentation Book - Chapter 4: Git on the Server](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-on-the-Server-The-Protocols)
+- [Lighttpd Configuration Tutorial](https://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/TutorialConfiguration)
+- [LinuxQuestions.org - Perl CGI:Can't locate CGI.pm](https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/programming-9/perl-cgi-can%27t-locate-cgi-pm-330706/)
+- [Nicketa's GitHub Gist - LC_CTYPE.md](https://gist.github.com/nicks9188/a19f39d62780055a68c22b89a9799c25)