F=nagp ...not a gitolite problem!

Subtitle: Unix, ssh, git, and gitolite -- recognising the boundaries

Warning: Most of this is technical, but some of it is definitely subjective opinion.

More and more people are being tasked with creating a "server" environment for git, (and thus being forcibly introduced to gitolite), before they've had a chance to know git (or even Unix) well enough. As a result, I often get questions that have nothing to do with gitolite, because people don't know where the boundaries are.

Here're some facts about gitolite:

A good short term measure is to read this simple git session for insights into the relationship between the "server" and the "client" in git. That might help with some of the problems described in this document.

ssh

Let's get this out of the way first. The superstar of the "not a gitolite problem" category is actually ssh.

Surprised? It is so common that it has [its own document][auth] to tell you why it is not a gitolite problem, while [another one][sts] tries to help you anyway!

PATH issues

This is actually related to ssh. When you run commands over ssh, they run non-interactively, and depend on what your shell is, etc., certain shell startup files are not executed, so some environment variables may be different than what you see when you log in interactively.

Example: Redmine/Chiliproject using RVM and redmine git hosting can't run post-receive hook. This has more info on this specific issue.

It is also useful to remember that gitolite does not fiddle with the PATH except for adding the GIT_PATH variable if you defined it.

git

windows

I'm interested in making sure it works fine with Windows, simply because I have colleagues at work who use it. But that doesn't mean I can help you; I just don't know enough to help you. (And if you even breathe the words "putty" or "plink" I will totally tune you out!)

I do have people using it happily on Windows with Eclipse, Visual Studio, and God alone knows what else, so I know it can (be made to) work.

So, hang in there... it'll all work out eventually.

apple

Weirdly enough, this is the one thing that Steve Ballmer and I probably agree on, so I won't elaborate on that ;-)

It seems to me though, that many recent reports of "weird" behaviour reported have come from Macs. Yet another reason for me to back off with an apology.

just say NO!

These are the things I won't do, for various reasons, mostly technical, with a smattering of some subjective stuff. If you've been hit by one of these, and disagree with me -- well that's why gitolite is GPL. As long as you satisfy the GPL, you can simply "fork off" ;-)

behind my back

Some of the "Just say NO" items are from situations where someone or something changes stuff behind gitolite's back. I am particularly unsympathetic to this sort of thing.

that's outrageous

This section is for really outrageous stuff.