README

February 5, 2014 · View on GitHub

NAME Gitalist - A modern git web viewer

SYNOPSIS perl script/gitalist_server.pl --repo_dir /home/me/code/git

INSTALL As Gitalist follows the usual Perl module format the usual approach for installation should work, e.g.:

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install

or

    cpan -i Gitalist

You can also check Gitalist out from its git repository and run it, in
this case you'll additionally need the author modules, but no
configuration will be needed as it will default to looking for
repositories the directory above the checkout.

DESCRIPTION Gitalist is a web frontend for git repositories based on gitweb.cgi https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Gitweb and backed by Catalyst.

History This project started off as an attempt to port gitweb.cgi to a Catalyst app in a piecemeal fashion. As it turns out, thanks largely to Florian Ragwitz's earlier effort, it was easier to use gitweb.cgi as a template for building a new Catalyst application.

GETTING GITALIST You can install Gitalist from CPAN in the usual way:

    cpan -i Gitalist

Alternatively, you can get Gitalist using git.

The canonical repository for the master branch is:

    git://git.shadowcat.co.uk/catagits/Gitalist.git

Gitalist is also mirrored to GitHub at
<https://github.com/broquaint/Gitalist>, and a number of people have
active forks with branches and/or new features in the master branch.

BOOTSTRAPPING As of 0.002001 Gitalist can now be bootstrapped to run out of its own directory by installing its prerequisites locally with the help of local::lib. So instead of installing the prerequisites to the system path with CPAN they are installed under the Gitalist directory.

To do this clone Gitalist from the Shadowcat repository mentioned above
or grab a snapshot from broquaint's GitHub repository:

    https://github.com/broquaint/Gitalist/downloads

With the source acquired and unpacked run the following from within the
Gitalist directory:

    perl script/bootstrap.pl

This will install the necessary modules for the build process which in
turn installs the prerequisites locally.

NB: The relevant bootstrap scripts aren't available in the CPAN dist as
the bootstrap scripts should not be installed.

INITIAL CONFIGURATION Gitalist is configured using Catalyst::Plugin::Configloader. The supplied sample configuration is in Config::General format, however it is possible to configure Gitalist using other config file formats (such as YAML) if you prefer.

WHEN CHECKING GITALIST OUT OF GIT Gitalist from git includes a minimal "gitalist_local.conf", which sets the repository directory to one directory higher than the Gitalist repository.

This means that if you check Gitalist out next to your other git
checkouts, then starting the demo server needs no parameters at all:

    Gitalist [master]$ perl script/gitalist_server.pl
    You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000

FOR CPAN INSTALLS Gitalist can be supplied with a config file by setting the "GITALIST_CONFIG" environment variable to point to a configuration file.

If you install Gitalist from CPAN, a default configuration is installed
along with gitalist, which is complete except for a repository
directory. You can get a copy of this configuration by running:

  cp `perl -Ilib -MGitalist -e'print Gitalist->path_to("gitalist.conf")'` gitalist.conf

You can then edit this configuration, adding a "repo_dir" path and
customising other settings as desired.

You can then start the Gitalist demo server by setting
"GITALIST_CONFIG". For example:

    GITALIST_CONFIG=/usr/local/etc/gitalist.conf gitalist_server.pl

Alternatively, if you only want to set a repository directory and are
otherwise happy with the default configuration, then you can set the
"GITALIST_REPO_DIR" environment variable, or pass the "--repo_dir" flag
to any of the scripts.

    GITALIST_REPO_DIR=/home/myuser/code/git gitalist_server.pl
    gitalist_server.pl --repo_dir home/myuser/code/git

The "GITALIST_REPO_DIR" environment variable will override the
repository directory set in configuration, and will itself be overridden
by he "--repo_dir" flag.

RUNNING Once you have followed the instructions above to install and configure Gitalist, you may want to run it in a more production facing environment than using the single threaded developement server.

The recommended deployment method for Gitalist is FastCGI, although
Gitalist can also be run under mod_perl <https://perl.apache.org/> or as
pure Perl with Catalyst::Engine::PreFork.

Assuming that you have installed Gitalist's dependencies into a
local::lib, and you are running from a git checkout, adding a trivial
FCGI script as "script/gitalist.fcgi" (this file is specifically in
".gitignore" so you can have your own copy):

    #!/bin/sh
    exec /home/t0m/public_html/Gitalist/script/gitalist_fastcgi.pl

This example can be seen live here:

    http://example.gitalist.com

Plack If you would like to run Gitalist under Plack then one need only make use of plackup and the ".psgi" found under "scripts/":

    plackup script/gitalist_app.psgi

CONFIGURATION The Gitalist config is loaded with Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader and the available config options are:

no_gravatars
    If true don't display gravatars. May be desirable if you are worried
    about leaking repo names via the browser referer headers.

Model::CollectionOfRepos repo_dir A directory containing the directories to show.

repos
    A list of directories containing repositories to show.

search_recursively
    A boolean indicating whether to always search recursively for
    repositories within "repo_dir".

whitelist
    Path a file containing a list of repositories that can be shown.
    Each line in the file will represent the name of a repo to show e.g

      Gitalist
      some-bare-repo.git

    This is compatible with "gitweb"'s "projects.list".

export_ok
    If provided every must contain a file of the same name to be
    visible. This is similar to "gitweb"'s functionality.

class
    If you want a different way of surfacing repositories you can use
    your own model (i.e something that composes
    Gitalist::Git::CollectionOfRepositories) and specify the class name
    with this config option.

args
    Any additional arguments to be passed into the Model constructor,
    only of use when used in conjunction with "class" (see above).

paging log The number of commits to show in the summary, shortlog and longlog views.

FASTCGI Running Gitalist in FastCGI mode requires a webserver with FastCGI support (such as apache with mod_fcgi http://www.fastcgi.com/drupal/node/3 or mod_fcgid https://httpd.apache.org/mod_fcgid/). Below is a sample configuration using Apache2 with mod_fcgid in a dynamic configuration (as opposed to static or standalone mode). More information on these modes and their configuration can be found at "Standalone server mode" in Catalyst::Engine::FastCGI.

In Apache's mime.conf, add "AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi" (or
"AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi" for mod_fcgi).

And a quick VirtualHost configuration:

    <VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName gitalist.yourdomain.com
        DocumentRoot /path/to/gitalist.fcgi
        <Directory "/path/to/gitalist.fcgi">
            AllowOverride all
            Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
        </Directory>

        # Tell Apache this is a FastCGI application
        <Files gitalist.fcgi>
            #change the below to fastcgi-script if using mod_fcgi
            SetHandler fcgid-script
        </Files>
    </VirtualHost>

Now to access your Gitalist instance, you'll go to
"gitalist.yourdomain.com/gitalist.fcgi/" (do not forget that trailing
"/"). If you'd like a different URL, of course, you'll likely want to
use mod_rewrite <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html> or
equivalent.

If you find the need to do some troubleshooting, you can call
"http://url_to_gitalist.fcgi?dump_info=1" and/or add export
"GITALIST_DEBUG=1" to the top of your gitalist.fcgi file (just below the
shebang line).

Apache config Apache will refuse %2F in Gitalist URLs unless configured otherwise. Make sure "AllowEncodedSlashes On" is in your httpd.conf file in order for this to run smoothly.

To have the static content served statically by Apache, instead of
Gitalist, then add something like following line to your httpd.conf:

    Alias /static  /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1/Gitalist/root/static

CONTRIBUTING Patches are welcome, please feel free to fork on github and send pull requests, send patches from git format-patch to the bug tracker, or host your own copy of gitalist somewhere and ask us to pull from it.

SUPPORT Gitalist has an active irc community in "#gitalist" on irc.perl.org, please feel free to stop by and ask questions, report bugs or installation issues or generally for a chat about where we plan to go with the project.