GitPi: a Private Git Server on Raspberry Pi
Intro: GitPi: a Private Git Server on Raspberry Pi
Git is usually used in synchronization with GitHub — the former is a source code management system and the latter is a website where you can share/contribute Git repositories with the larger internet community.
For those wanting to get started with GitHub, I've written this Instructable: Introduction to GitHub.
But, what if you want to keep your repositories private? The usual answer is that you have to pay for this service. Boo.
A lot of us have code-in-progress that we want to properly put onto the Git system, but ins't ready for public consumption. Nor do we want to pay for the service of private hosting.
However, using the Raspberry Pi, you can set up your own Git server on your home network.
This Instructable will cover setting up your Raspberry Pi as a Git server with repositories saved onto an external USB thumb drive. My example uses the Mac OS, but can be extended to other platforms as well.
You should already have Git installed on your laptop and know the fundamentals of how to use it. Check out the Introduction to GitHub Instructable if this is not the case.
I've used two sources to figure out how to set up GitPi: a guide by Thomas Loughlin and one by Monkey Hacks.
They're both good, but neither one did exactly what I wanted or explained it fully, which is one reason I wanted to write this Instructable.
For those wanting to get started with GitHub, I've written this Instructable: Introduction to GitHub.
But, what if you want to keep your repositories private? The usual answer is that you have to pay for this service. Boo.
A lot of us have code-in-progress that we want to properly put onto the Git system, but ins't ready for public consumption. Nor do we want to pay for the service of private hosting.
However, using the Raspberry Pi, you can set up your own Git server on your home network.
This Instructable will cover setting up your Raspberry Pi as a Git server with repositories saved onto an external USB thumb drive. My example uses the Mac OS, but can be extended to other platforms as well.
You should already have Git installed on your laptop and know the fundamentals of how to use it. Check out the Introduction to GitHub Instructable if this is not the case.
I've used two sources to figure out how to set up GitPi: a guide by Thomas Loughlin and one by Monkey Hacks.
They're both good, but neither one did exactly what I wanted or explained it fully, which is one reason I wanted to write this Instructable.
STEP 1: Set Up Your Raspberry Pi for Ssh
First, setup a Raspberry Pi for ssh access and that it's on your home wifi network, which means that you can log into it from your laptop.
I wrote this Instructable: Ultimate Raspberry Pi Configuration Guide, which covers how to do this.
Once you go through these steps, you'll be able to transfer files to your Raspberry Pi via the Terminal application.
Note: I'm using a Mac for this Instructable, but you can extend this to other platforms.
I wrote this Instructable: Ultimate Raspberry Pi Configuration Guide, which covers how to do this.
Once you go through these steps, you'll be able to transfer files to your Raspberry Pi via the Terminal application.
Note: I'm using a Mac for this Instructable, but you can extend this to other platforms.
STEP 2: Init the USB Thumb Drive
We will save all the Git repositories onto a USB thumb drive, rather than the Raspberry Pi's SD card.
This will give you an independent storage drive for your Git repositories, which is easily-readable on your laptop.
Open Disk Utility. Erase the USB drive, format as MS-DOS (FAT) and call the volume GITPI. I also use a labelmaker to affix a label on the back so it doesn't get mixed up with my other USB thumb drives.
Mine is 16gb, which should be plenty.
This will give you an independent storage drive for your Git repositories, which is easily-readable on your laptop.
Open Disk Utility. Erase the USB drive, format as MS-DOS (FAT) and call the volume GITPI. I also use a labelmaker to affix a label on the back so it doesn't get mixed up with my other USB thumb drives.
Mine is 16gb, which should be plenty.
STEP 3: Run Latest Package Updates
Connect via ssh into your PI. My IP address for the SD card for this is 10.0.1.64. Yours may be different — just change the address accordingly.
Open the Terminal window and on the command line, type:
First the update:
Open the Terminal window and on the command line, type:
ssh pi@10.0.1.64Run the latest package update and upgrades, just to make sure everything is current.
First the update:
sudo apt-get updateThen the upgrade:
sudo apt-get upgradeThen reboot:
sudo reboot
STEP 4: Install Git on the Raspberry Pi
Install git:
Now, turn off the Raspberry Pi by unplugging the micro USB power cable.
sudo apt-get install wget git-coreYou'll see terminal output. In this case, the packages were already installed (maybe with the update/upgrade from last step), but you see some sort of success at this point.
Now, turn off the Raspberry Pi by unplugging the micro USB power cable.
STEP 5: Permanently Mounting the USB Drive
Put the formatted USB drive into the Raspberry Pi. And turn the Pi back on.
I'm not sure if this matters, but I always leave the wi-fi dongle in the lower USB port and use the upper one for the external USB drive/keyboard/other things.
Wait a few seconds and then ssh back into the Pi.
now, type in:
Mine reads:
/dev/sda1: LABEL="GITPI" UUID="6D34-1514" TYPE="vfat"
This should be the similar on yours: /dev/sda1 is the USB thumb drive device.
Now, we are going to edit what is called the file systems table to make the USB drive map into the usbdrv directory
Type in:
add the line to the end of the file (you can copy and paste this line)
/dev/sda1 /home/pi/usbdrv vfat uid=pi,gid=pi,umask=0022,sync,auto,nosuid,rw,nouser 0 0
important: this is 1 line, not broken up over two lines (the Instructable is doing weird things to the formatting).
What this does is to map the /dev/sda1 device — any thumb USB drive to the usbdrv directory. The flags are ones that I cribbed from the Thomas Loughlin guide. Admittedly, I'm not sure exactly what they do, except for allow the drive to be a read-write drive and not tied to a specific user.
Cntl-X, Y, Return to save.
Then restart:
If you want to learn more about drive-mapping and mounting, this eLinux Guide has a lot more information.
I'm not sure if this matters, but I always leave the wi-fi dongle in the lower USB port and use the upper one for the external USB drive/keyboard/other things.
Wait a few seconds and then ssh back into the Pi.
ssh pi@10.0.1.64What we then type in;
mkdir usbdrvWhat we are going to set up is a mount point — a way to always map this directory to the USB drive.
now, type in:
sudo blkidcheck out output — we are looking for the USB drive device info, which is easy to identify because we called it GITPI when we initialized it.
Mine reads:
/dev/sda1: LABEL="GITPI" UUID="6D34-1514" TYPE="vfat"
This should be the similar on yours: /dev/sda1 is the USB thumb drive device.
Now, we are going to edit what is called the file systems table to make the USB drive map into the usbdrv directory
Type in:
sudo nano /etc/fstabHere is the tricky part. We are going to modify the fstab file so that this device maps to the usbdrv directory.
add the line to the end of the file (you can copy and paste this line)
/dev/sda1 /home/pi/usbdrv vfat uid=pi,gid=pi,umask=0022,sync,auto,nosuid,rw,nouser 0 0
important: this is 1 line, not broken up over two lines (the Instructable is doing weird things to the formatting).
What this does is to map the /dev/sda1 device — any thumb USB drive to the usbdrv directory. The flags are ones that I cribbed from the Thomas Loughlin guide. Admittedly, I'm not sure exactly what they do, except for allow the drive to be a read-write drive and not tied to a specific user.
Cntl-X, Y, Return to save.
Then restart:
sudo reboot
If you want to learn more about drive-mapping and mounting, this eLinux Guide has a lot more information.
STEP 6: Test the USB Transfer
After your Pi reboots, you'll have to ssh into it again.
Then, on the command line:
Cntl-X, Y, Enter to save
At the command line:
Turn off the Raspberry Pi. Pull the thumb drive and mount it onto your laptop.
Presto! You can read the text file on your laptop. Delete the file, pull the drive, put it back into your Raspberry Pi and power the Pi back up.
The cool thing is that the Git repositories can be read by your computer and are not tied to the Pi. The usbdrv will always mount to whatever USB drive you put into the Pi. If you have source code overflow problems, you can always swap out USB thumb drives.
Then, on the command line:
nano usbdrv/test.txtThis will create a text file in the usbdrv directory — which is actually the USB thumb drive itself called test.txt. Put some text in the file, like mine pictured here.
Cntl-X, Y, Enter to save
At the command line:
ls usbdrvAnd you'll see a lone file, test.txt.
Turn off the Raspberry Pi. Pull the thumb drive and mount it onto your laptop.
Presto! You can read the text file on your laptop. Delete the file, pull the drive, put it back into your Raspberry Pi and power the Pi back up.
The cool thing is that the Git repositories can be read by your computer and are not tied to the Pi. The usbdrv will always mount to whatever USB drive you put into the Pi. If you have source code overflow problems, you can always swap out USB thumb drives.
STEP 7: Set Up Your Pi Git Directory
This Instructable doesn't go over Git repositories in general, so I'm going to assume you have your local (on your laptop) Git repository configured.
I'm currently developing a Twitterbot called justdiedbot, which you will hear more of down the the road. It's not as morbid as it sounds, and this is part of my ongoing "Bot Collective" project, which is a series of Twitterbots.
Just to show how it's done it, here are my steps for local Git configuration. Open a separate Terminal window and type in (using your source directory, not mine).
You'll repeat this step for each source code directory that you'll be using for your GitPi activity.
I'm currently developing a Twitterbot called justdiedbot, which you will hear more of down the the road. It's not as morbid as it sounds, and this is part of my ongoing "Bot Collective" project, which is a series of Twitterbots.
Just to show how it's done it, here are my steps for local Git configuration. Open a separate Terminal window and type in (using your source directory, not mine).
cd /Users/scottkildall/PythonScripts/justdiedbot git initNow, do a similar thing on your Raspberry Pi. In a second Terminal window, ssh back into the Pi. We are going to create a directory called justdiedbot and initialize it with Git. Once again, substitute your source directory names rather than using mine.
mkdir usbdrv/justdiedbot.git cd usbdrv/justdiedbot.git git init --bareThis creates a new directory with a .git extension and an empty Git repository. For the geeks in the audience, here is a detailed discussion of what the --bare flag does.
You'll repeat this step for each source code directory that you'll be using for your GitPi activity.
Note: some readers of this Instructable have reported that you need to call "sudo" before the git init steps, so if you have permissions errors, type in: "sudo git init"
STEP 8: Add the Remote to the Pi
Now, back to your 1st Terminal window — the one that matches your local (laptop).
First, navigate into you local directory, for example:
Add a remote to the pi. A remote essentially is a shortcut to a longer URL/path. The user is pi@10.0.1.64 — the same one that we are using for ssh.
Make sure to substitute your Pi's IP address and your own source code-named .git directory instead of mine. Type in (once again, subbing your own IP address and source directory)
First, navigate into you local directory, for example:
cd /Users/scottkildall/PythonScripts/justdiedbotOf course, you should type in your local directory path. One trick with the Finder is that you can drag-and-drop the folder to complete the path, typing in 'cd ' and then drag the folder into the Terminal window.
Add a remote to the pi. A remote essentially is a shortcut to a longer URL/path. The user is pi@10.0.1.64 — the same one that we are using for ssh.
Make sure to substitute your Pi's IP address and your own source code-named .git directory instead of mine. Type in (once again, subbing your own IP address and source directory)
git remote add pi pi@10.0.1.64:/home/pi/usbdrv/justdiedbot.gitYou only have to add the remote one time. From here on out, we will refer to this remote as pi.
STEP 9: Push the Code Onto the Pi
Simple, type in:
You'll see some output, showing (hopefully) the successful results.
git add . git commit -m "initial commit" git push pi masterThis will add all the files in the justdiedbot directory, commit the adds with the message, then push them onto your GitPi.
You'll see some output, showing (hopefully) the successful results.
STEP 10: Done! Take a Look
If you put the USB thumb drive back onto your laptop, you'll have access to all the Git files, seen here.
For future source code management for a project, simply repeat step 9.
To add more projects, repeat source code steps 7-9.
This is completely compatible with GitHub, since you'll be using a different remote for GitHub, so when you're ready to go public, you can put your repositories on GitHub and still use your Pi as your home backup.
I hope this was helpful!
Scott Kildall
For more on Raspberry Pi code and other projects, you can find me here:
@kildall or www.kildall.com/blog
For future source code management for a project, simply repeat step 9.
To add more projects, repeat source code steps 7-9.
This is completely compatible with GitHub, since you'll be using a different remote for GitHub, so when you're ready to go public, you can put your repositories on GitHub and still use your Pi as your home backup.
I hope this was helpful!
Scott Kildall
For more on Raspberry Pi code and other projects, you can find me here:
@kildall or www.kildall.com/blog
35 Comments
chornbe 3 years ago
Paying for well run services isn't a bad thing, and in fact, if people were discerning and paid for the services they feel worked best, there'd be more drive for these companies to ensure they keep services (and software) tight, professional, solid and reliable, and always available.
Free stuff comes and goes, and never gets as much customer-service attention as it should.
Pay your pros, folks.
$.02
kevone 3 years ago
Michaelv234 5 years ago
EvanB72 5 years ago
This is a fantastic guide. Running through it just recently it seems as though few bits are no longer up to date. Right now I am experiencing an odd issue where when I attempt to git push (the very last step) I am asked to enter a password, when I enter the correct raspberry pi password I am then met by an "openSSH" window also asking for a password. this window repeatedly opens no matter what I enter, then it fails to push... any suggestions?
parts that seem to be out of date now:
Networking section (particularly the wifi section) seems to no longer be accurate. the file locations seemed to have changed.
Andarien 6 years ago
Excellent guide, but my question is how reliable is a thumb drive for commiting to it. Regular back-ups or sync to another device seems crucial.
I assume the same steps can be used to mount an external hard-drive instead?
DrikusR 6 years ago
Wow, I had no idea it was this easy... Awesome!
chrismcclune 7 years ago
Hi
Having run through this guide I have been able to setup the git repo, which is great.
However I have found a problem that having the usb drive for the repo unplugged will not let me boot the pi to the GUI. It only takes me to the emergency mode terminal.
Is this a 'feature' that comes with permanently having the usb mounted for the git repo? I would love if there is a fix for this. I am using Raspbian Jesse.
Having done some digging I think it may have something to do with the /etc/fstab code?
Thanks
acl_20032003 7 years ago
i tried it but with few changes. when adding your pi to the git, instead of the above code... do the following
git remote add pi ssh://pi@192.168.1.x:/path/to/git
add the "ssh://" beforehand or you will get an error message. if you're using custom port other than 22, just do this
git remote add pi ssh://pi@192.168.1.x:119/path/to/git
where 119 is your custom ssh port
hope that makes sense.
affenaff 7 years ago
Caution! This guide in combination with raspbian Jessie ruined my day!
If the entries in /etc/fstab are wrong, Jessie will only boot into "emergency mode", in which you can't connect to it via ssh. With no USB keyboard and micro SD card reader at hand, i'm pretty much locked out of my pi right now :(.
So i strongly suggest to double check the /etc/fstab entries before rebooting. The mounts specified in the files should in fact be executed once you save the file. Check if the mount can be executed with
sudo mount -a
before rebooting!
PaulM529 7 years ago
You can also add the 'nofail' flag to the entry, it should boot through anyways.
I've never had problems since I started using that flag.
AdrienH1 8 years ago
At step 4 you instruct to turn off the RPI by unplugging it : doing this may CORRUPT THE SD CARD. You must turning it off with the command : "sudo halt" and THEN unplugging it.
Please modify your guide.
ChristopherM84 8 years ago
Amazing Tutorial. Thank you for this, I was able to get a usb stick gitting on my pi in 30min. No permissions problems either!
MiguelR43 8 years ago
Thanks!
Works great!
dcprime 8 years ago
Hi @kilall,
Its a great guide to set up a git server.
I have made a script to create project folders by keeping this file in the home folder and making it executable by "chmod a+x create_project.sh" and running it by following command
ssh pi@<raspberrypi's IP> ./create_project.sh <project_name>
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u77ydkhbjp4hdkm/create_p...
andyzez 9 years ago
Was able to couple this with an external drive project using an authenticated share. Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing this.
Gravefield 9 years ago
Hi, thx you for this tutorial.
It's work very well on my first test.
But I try to create another project and I ve this error :
"src refspec master does not match any".
I miss something? Where I can search?
Thx you for your support.
scottkildall 9 years ago
Did you try any of these solutions here? I've never actually seen this before, but I do know that git can be an ornery beast at times.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5802426/git-error-src-refspec-master-does-not-match-any
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10568641/git-error-src-refspec-master-does-not-match-any
Gravefield 9 years ago
Well I already try this solution yesterday but doesn't work :
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5802426/git-err...
I retry today and now it's fix my problem. I Suppose I made a mistake yersterday.
Anyway, thx you for your support, and sry for my bad english ;)
fwonkas 9 years ago
scottkildall 9 years ago
Good point and good advice. I didn't know about the performance issues with FAT.
The main reason I stuck with the FAT file system was that it was the easiest for cross-platform compatibility.