Self-Hosting Guide: GitWeb

1. Overview

GitWeb is a simple web-based visualizer for git repositories. By default, GitWeb will only run with the lighttpd or webrick web servers.

However, this guide will show you how to keep GitWeb running in the background and display information for all repositories in a chosen directory.

2. Install Dependencies

To start, you'll need install the following packages:

sudo apt install git gitweb fcgiwrap nginx

3. Configure Nginx

Once installed, create an Nginx configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/git.example.com

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com;

        location /index.cgi {
                root /usr/share/gitweb/;
                include fastcgi_params;
                gzip off;
                fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $uri;
                fastcgi_param GITWEB_CONFIG /etc/gitweb.conf;
                fastcgi_pass  unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.socket;
        }

        location / {
                root /usr/share/gitweb/;
                index index.cgi;
        }
}

To make the configuration active, you need to symlink it and then restart Nginx.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/git.example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/git.example.com
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

The GitWeb application should now be available via the URL you set in the Nginx configuration above.

4. Customize GitWeb

If you need to, you can customize many things about Gitweb by editing the gitweb.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/gitweb.conf