Setting up a Git server (+ gitweb) with .htaccess files HOWTO

Hi,

I've set up a Git server on a machine on which I have a webspace, permission to run CGI scripts, but no shell or root access. Good news: it worked :-).

I've documented the process here in case anyone's interested:

  http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/?Host-a-Git-repository-over-HTTP-S

Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@grenoble-inp.fr> writes:

After seeing the section that runs "git init" in a throw-away CGI script, I started wondering what the point of this site in forbidding a shell access in the first place.

After all, if you changed that example with a script that feeds its input to a shell, you would have enough "shell access" to do anything you need.

So...

Well, my reaction at this point was "why bother?", but then I realized that that reaction is meant for the administrator of that hosting site, not a user of that site, i.e. you.

Thanks for an amusing read, anyway.

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

The sysadmin trusts users enough to allow running arbitrary CGI there. Not giving shell access greatly limits the accidental mis-uses of the server, or silly attacks by incompetent users (i.e. "students" ;-) ). A few years ago, people had shell access on most servers, and they were using it to run seti@home & other heavy stuff there.