This is a pure Java implementation of git

http://gitblit.github.io/gitblit/.

Dependency

The java JDK 1.8 is required for nexus (and potentially gitblit). There are several sources, that I have tried over time. Initially ubuntu had a nice release and so does adoptopenjdk - which is the release I use now. Every now an then a security update will zap the Java configuration on server.server and this is how you can fix it. It may only ve necessary to run

update-alternatives --config java

to fix the problem.

The following instructions work ^[1] as root:

obtain the GPG key

curl --silent https://adoptopenjdk.jfrog.io/adoptopenjdk/api/gpg/key/public | sudo apt-key add -

include the apt source

cat <<EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/adoptopenjdk.list
deb https://adoptopenjdk.jfrog.io/adoptopenjdk/deb/ $(lsb_release  --codename --short) main
EOF

locate

apt-cache search adoptopenjdk

install

apt install adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot

now fix the alternates

update-alternatives --config java

used to work

requires an older JDK (or seems to; will try openjdk-11-jre later)
conveniently ubuntu and nvidia have an nvidia-openjdk-8-jre (which seems to work)
modify your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb [trusted=yes] http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu buster universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu buster universe

update

sudo apt update

install openjdk-8-jre

sudo apt install nvidia-openjdk-8-jre

Installation

create an /opt/gitblig

sudo mkdir /opt/gitblit

create a gitblit user

sudo useradd gitblit

fix their home directory ... vi /etc/passwd

/opt/gitblit

obtain the GitBlit GO distribution from http://dl.bintray.com/gitblit/releases/ (check the release; current at time of writing was gitblit-1.8.0 gitblit):

cd /opt
sudo wget http://dl.bintray.com/gitblit/releases/gitblit-1.8.0.tar.gz

extract

sudo tar -xvf gitblit-1.8.0.tar.gz

place in /opt/gitblit

sudo mv gitblit-1.8.0/* /opt/gitblit

cleanup

sudo rm gitblit-1.8.0

change ownership

sudo chown gitblit.gitblit gitblit

preserve the defaults

sudo cp /opt/gitblit/data/defaults.properties /opt/gitblit/data/defaults.properties-back

edit the defaults

sudo vi /opt/gitblit/data/gitblit.properties

modify and alter or disable some ports

git.repositoriesFolder = /mnt/repos/git
git.sshPort = -1
git.sshAdvertisedPort = -1
git.acceptedPushTransports = HTTP

wire in JAVA_HOME in cases where you have multiple JRE/JDK installed

sudo vi gitblit.sh

insert before the launch

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/nvidia-java-8-openjdk-amd64/
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

run it up from the console to prove it

cd /opt/gitblit
sudo su gitblit
./gitblit.sh
^C  // to quit

Fix any errors

set up gitblit daemon

These are the old instructions:

install the service script

sudo cp service-ubuntu.sh /etc/init.d/gitblit

enable

sudo systemctl enable gitblit

start the service

sudo systemctl start gitblit

observer

sudo systemctl status gitblit

Fix any errors.

systemd

I converted it to a systemd since Debian 10 and 11 prefer systemd and the above was not working due to access problems to gitblit.jar.

create a /opt/gitblit/gitblit.service

Unit]
Description=gitblit service
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
# ProtectHome=true

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=gitblit
Group=gitblit
WorkingDirectory=/opt/gitblit
ExecStart=/opt/gitblit/gitblit.sh 
TimeoutStartSec=0
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

reload

systemctl daemon-reload

not enable

systemctl enable gitblit

start

systemctl start gitblit

Administration

Users are stored with data/users.conf in the following style:

[user "admin"]
    password = admin
    role = "#admin"
    role = "#notfederated"
    repository = RW+:repo1.git
    repository = RW+:repo2.git

login and create some users, and change the password of the administrator (you know where to look if you forget; and you can always run a maintenance script to update the database)

Notice the administrative drop-down menu which is activated by pressing the logged-in user photo (not installed yet).

alter the admin password
install your developers

Copying repositories

Git repositories are usually source compatible, which means you can copy the directories from one server to another and install them. When using gitblit we have the guarantee that the repository can be copied from a Windows box to a Linux box (or so I hope because that is what I am trying first).

shutdown the server

sudo systemctl stop gitblit

copy repositories to /mnt/repos/git/...

sudo cp -R your-repo to /mnt/repos/git/

chown the owner properly

sudo -R chown gitblit.gitblit /mnt/repos/git

restart

sudo systemctl restart gitblit

you should now see all your repositories, including the hierarchy if one existed.

Restoring files

It is very easy to delete a git file and then realise that you want to preserve its history and source and put it somewhere else.

You can browse the local git repository log to find out where you zapped it:

git log --diff-filter=D --summary

You can restore the entry from the chose log via

checkout <deleting-commit>~1 -- <file-path>  // where ~X is the number of commits prior to the deleting-commit

References

http://gitblit.github.io/gitblit/.

Tips

create a new repository from the administration console; place it into a separate area e.g. jitsi-snapshots
clone a remote repository

git clone url

update a working local repository

git fetch

push the local repository to a new remote (on our company repository server) e.g.

git push http://ralph@localhost:8080/r/jitsi-snapshots/jitsi.git master:master

Gitblit