Local Git Server

This directory contains the local git HTTP server used by GitProxy's end-to-end test suite. It provides an isolated environment for testing real git operations without requiring external services.

For instructions on running E2E tests, managing the Docker environment, and interacting with test repositories, see the End-to-End Tests section of CONTRIBUTING.md.

What it does

The git server is an Apache HTTP container that serves bare git repositories over HTTP via git-http-backend. A Python CGI wrapper (git-capture-wrapper.py) sits in front of the git backend to capture raw protocol data for every operation.

Git CLI
  │ HTTP
  ▼
GitProxy (optional, port 8000)
  │
  ▼
Apache HTTP Server (git-server)
  │ CGI
  ▼
git-capture-wrapper.py ──► saves request/response to /var/git-captures
  │
  ▼
git-http-backend
  │
  ▼
Bare git repositories (/var/git/owner/repo.git)

Files

File	Purpose
Dockerfile	Defines the git-server container (Apache, git, Python)
httpd.conf	Apache configuration for git HTTP backend and CGI
init-repos.sh	Creates and populates test repositories on container startup
git-capture-wrapper.py	CGI wrapper that captures git protocol request/response data
extract-captures.sh	Extracts captured data from the running container to the host
extract-pack.py	Extracts PACK files from captured request binaries
generate-cert.sh	Generates self-signed HTTPS certificates for the server

Data capture system

The capture wrapper records three files per git operation into /var/git-captures/ inside the container:

File	Contents
*.request.bin	Raw HTTP request body (includes PACK data for pushes)
*.response.bin	Raw HTTP response
*.metadata.txt	Human-readable metadata (timestamp, service, paths, sizes)

Filename pattern: {YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{microseconds}-{service}-{repo}.{type}.{ext}

Extracting captures and PACK files

cd localgit

# Copy all captures from the container to a local directory
./extract-captures.sh ./captured-data

# Extract the PACK portion from a push request capture
./extract-pack.py ./captured-data/*receive-pack*.request.bin output.pack

# Verify with git
git index-pack output.pack
git verify-pack -v output.pack

Generating test fixtures

Captured data can be copied into test/fixtures/ for use in unit tests:

# 1. Perform a git operation against the running environment
# 2. Extract the capture
./extract-captures.sh ./my-captures

# 3. Copy to test fixtures
cp ./my-captures/*receive-pack*.request.bin ../test/fixtures/my-scenario.bin

Customization

Add repositories: Edit init-repos.sh, then rebuild (docker compose build --no-cache git-server).

Toggle data capture: Set GIT_CAPTURE_ENABLE=0 in docker-compose.yml under git-server.environment to disable.

Modify Apache: Edit httpd.conf for authentication, CGI, or other server changes.