[Announce] gitolite 1.0

Gitolite is an ssh-based access control tool for using git in a typical "corporate" environment. The original goals were very simple: read/write/rewind access control at the git branch level, the ability to install on any Unix, no need for root access, and no need for additional software (other than git and perl).

There is plenty of documentation included with the source, because by now it has acquired a lot of features not originally planned.

I now consider gitolite to be at 1.0, and this note summarises the features added since the last email to the list [1] about gitolite. Please see README.mkd and doc/3-faq-tips-etc.mkd for *all* the details if you are completely new to gitolite.

  * Install/upgrade can now be done even from the bash that comes with
    msysgit.  This means pretty much anyone can quickly and easily
    install gitolite on any Unix server.

  * You can specify an "owner" and a "description" for gitweb to
    display.  The syntax is very simple, here's an example:

        gitolite "Sitaram Chamarty" = "fast, secure, access control for git"

  * You can include any site-specific (custom) hooks that you want to
    propagate to any repo created by gitolite.

  * The "deny access" feature can be very useful sometimes; an example
    that shows how only bob may push version tags would look like this:

        @devs                       =   alice bob charlie

        RW      refs/tags/v[0-9]    =   bob
        -       refs/tags/v[0-9]    =   @devs
        RW      refs/tags/          =   @devs

    More details can be found in the documentation.

  * Gitolite can now let you specify restrictions based on file/dir
    names (for example, restrict who can push changes that touch some
    file or directory).

    My initial response to this request was that this is better done by
    the social mechanisms of the project team, and I do not believe this
    feature is really necessary in a well-run project.

    However, people coming from other VCSs seem to make this a sticking
    point at work, so I added it anyway, if only to see how far I could
    stretch gitolite's config file while keeping its simplicity intact
    :-)

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I'm often on #git, subject to my living in UTC+0530 time, and email is also welcome (sitaramc <at> gmail.com is preferred, but sitaram.chamarty <at> tcs.com may get my attention quicker). Feel free to contact me with questions or feedback.