Simple read-only access for git repository over http: Will it just work?

Question

I use gitolite to manage git repositories, that are available over the internet using SSH and private keys.

I want to provide read-only access to some of those repositories from my LAN. I know that there are some pitfalls when using git over http, and I want to avoid the complex git-over-http setup just for read-only access.

As the repositories are bare ones, and I only want to read: Will it work flawlessly, if I just setup any regular web server to server the git repositories over http? Are there any drawbacks?

Answer 1

Here are your options:

1. As you mentioned u can use http (no setup required) for read only.

2. Use git bundle (Its is used as a read only repository) http://git-scm.com/docs/git-bundle

3. Set up a commit/push hook and in your hook use exit 0 to terminate the git push without anything being pushed to your repository.

4. Of course there are other options (but they are not ones that worth mentioning in details: like set up groups permissions, block any user that is not u (hooks) and more.)

Hope it was helpful for you.

Answer 2

See the article Share over apache http for a complete cook-book on setting up the Apache sharing and on controlling access.

This very detailed article is much too long to reproduce here.