---
title: git.sr.ht installation
---

git.sr.ht is the git repository hosting service for the sr.ht network.

# Installation

git.sr.ht is a standard sr.ht web service and can be installed through the
[standard procedure](/installation.md). However, there are several additional
steps required.

## Repository storage

You will need to set up a directory for repositories to be stored in - we
suggest `/var/lib/git/`. Also configure a `git` user and assign ownership over
`/var/lib/git/` to this user. The git.sr.ht package will automatically prepare
these for you. If you do not use the package, you must create the user yourself
and ensure that the git.sr.ht web application runs as this user.

## SSH dispatch

It is necessary to configure git.sr.ht's SSH dispatcher as the system-wide SSH
authorization hook. First you need to install `go`, then build the dispatcher
with `go install` in the `gitsrht-dispatch` repository.


In `/etc/ssh/sshd_config`, configure gitsrht-dispatch like so:

```
AuthorizedKeysCommand=/usr/bin/gitsrht-dispatch "%u" "%h" "%t" "%k"
AuthorizedKeysCommandUser=root
PermitUserEnvironment SRHT_*
```

sshd will invoke our dispatcher whenever a connection is made to the server to
obtain a list of authorized keys for the connecting user. The default behavior
is to read the `.ssh/authorized_keys` file from that user's HOME directory, but
the dispatcher can also "dispatch" to other authentication tools for other
users. This is used to authorize and perform git operations via the
`gitsrht-keys` and `gitsrht-shell`. See the `[dispatch]` section of your
git.sr.ht configuration for details on how this works and how to configure it
for additional services (e.g. man.sr.ht).

Authorization logs are written to `/var/log/gitsrht-dispatch` and
`gitsrht-shell`.

## Cronjobs

You must also configure `gitsrht-periodic` to run periodically with your
favorite cron daemon. We recommend the following crontab:

    */20 * * * * gitsrht-periodic

## HTTP(s) Cloning

git.sr.ht does not do this for you - you need to wire it up in nginx. Here's an
example config:

```nginx
location = /authorize {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5001;
    proxy_pass_request_body off;
    proxy_set_header Content-Length "";
    proxy_set_header X-Original-URI $request_uri;
}

location ~ ^.*/(HEAD|info/refs|objects/info/.*|git-(upload|receive)-pack).*$ {
    auth_request /authorize;
    root /var/lib/git;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/fcgiwrap.sock;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/lib/git-core/git-http-backend;
    fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $uri;
    fastcgi_param GIT_PROJECT_ROOT $document_root;
    fastcgi_param GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL "";
    include fastcgi_params;
    gzip off;
}
```

It's important that you set up the `/authorize` endpoint to enforce the privacy
of private repositories.

If you don't have `/run/fcgiwrap.sock` on your system, you'll need to install
the `fcgiwrap` package (for instance: `apt-get install fcgiwrap`). On some
systems, the script might be `/run/fcgiwrap.socket`.