Setting up Smart HTTP for Git on Virtualmin

I set up Virtualmin with the default git repository module and was able to push and pull over normal HTTP with no problem. However, to my dismay I later found out that none of the git hooks (specifically the all-important post-receive) were executing as per this link.

From here the solution was to switch from ordinary HTTP to Smart HTTP using the git-http-backend executable, which could execute all the hooks and it supposedly much faster too.

1. Copy the git-httpd-backend executable to the /home/domain/cgi-bin/directory and set the permissions to domain:domain. This is to avoid suexec problems.

   $ cp /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend /home/domain/cgi-bin
   $ chown domain:domain /home/domain/cgi-bin/git-http-backend

2. On /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf, add this to the VirtualHost for the domain:

   [...]
   ServerName domain.com
    
   [...]
    
   # Set the root directory where git repositories reside
   SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /home/domain/public_html/git
    
   # By default, the git-http-backend allows push for authenticated
   # users and this directive tells the backend when a user is authenticated.
   SetEnv REMOTE_USER=$REDIRECT_REMOTE_USER
    
   # Export all repositories
   SetEnv GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL
    
   ScriptAlias /dev/ /home/domain/cgi-bin/git-http-backend/
    
   [...]
    
   # Add this if it’s not already there
    
   DAV on
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName domain.com
   AuthUserFile /home/domain/etc/git.basic.passwd
   Require valid-user
   Satisfy All
    
   RedirectMatch ^/git(/+)$ /git/gitweb.cgi
   RewriteEngine off
   AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
    
   [...]

3. And then restart apache. Now all the repos are now available at http://gituser@domain.com/dev/git/*, e.g., http://gituser@domain.com/dev/git/reponame.git, and all the hooks will execute as expected.

Going forward, when you create a new repo via Virtualmin, you need to do these manual steps:

1. Create an empty file /home/domain/public_html/git/reponame.git/git-daemon-export-ok.
2. Create this as /home/domain/public_html/git/reponame.git/hooks/post-receive and make it executable by all, and owned by apache:domain:

   #!/bin/sh
   #
   # An example hook script for the "post-receive" event.
   #
   # The "post-receive" script is run after receive-pack has accepted a pack
   # and the repository has been updated. It is passed arguments in through
   # stdin in the form
   #
   # For example:
   # aa453216d1b3e49e7f6f98441fa56946ddcd6a20 68f7abf4e6f922807889f52bc043ecd31b79f814 refs/heads/master
   #
   # see contrib/hooks/ for a sample, or uncomment the next line and
   # rename the file to "post-receive".
    
   # Echo to the client that you’re sending the mail now
   echo "Sending notification email..."
   . /usr/share/git-core/contrib/hooks/post-receive-email
    
   # Make sure to update the git repo info on the server for pulls by other clients
   git update-server-info
   echo "Updated server info."

3. As per this link, set the permissions of the git directory as follows so as to avoid a write-permissions problem when pushing new files in commits (while making sure the gitweb.cgi script is only writable by the owner to avoid suexec errors that would appear in /etc/httpd/logs/suexec.log):

   $ cd /home/domain/public_html/git/
   $ chmod -R g+ws *
   $ chgrp -R domain *
   $ chmod -R g-w gitweb.cgi
   $ chmod -R g-s gitweb.cgi

4. Update /home/domain/public_html/git/reponame.git/config to match the following:

   [core]
   	repositoryformatversion = 0
   	filemode = true
   	bare = true
   [hooks]
      mailinglist = email1@domain.com, email2@domain.com
      envelopesender = git-commits@domain.com
      emailprefix = "[REPONAME] "