So you wanna host your own git repos? Got Leopard? Got Git? Read On...

Assumptions: You have git installed.

Create a git server on leopard with gitosis

Download and install gitosis

  mkdir src
  git clone git://eagain.net/gitosis.git
  cd gitosis
  sudo python setup.py install

Create a git user and group on the server

Create a unix user and group for git, using dscl: leopard's directory service cli

1. Find an unused uid and gid

  sudo dscl . list /Users uid
  sudo dscl . list groups gid

(check that, say, 401, is unused in both)

2. Create the git group

  sudo dscl . create groups/git
  sudo dscl . create groups/git gid 401

3. Create the git user

  sudo dscl . create users/git
  sudo dscl . create users/git uid 401
  sudo dscl . create users/git NFSHomeDirectory /Users/git
  sudo dscl . create users/git gid 401
  sudo dscl . create users/git UserShell /bin/bash
  sudo dscl . create users/git Password '*'

4. Create the git home directory (make this location match the end of line 3 above)

  sudo mkdir /Users/git
  sudo chown git /Users/git
  sudo chgrp git /Users/git

Create an ssh key, and copy it to the server

1. If you don't already have one, create an ssh key, on your local machine if it is not the server

  ssh-keygen -t rsa

2. Copy the public key to /tmp on the server

(if your local machine is the server)

  cp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub /tmp/my_key.pub

(if the server is different from your local machine)

  scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub your.server.com:/tmp/my_key.pub

Setup gitosis in git user's home directory

1. Initialise gitosis [on the git server]

  sudo -H -u git gitosis-init < /tmp/my_key.pub

  Initialized empty Git repository in ./
  Reinitialized existing Git repository in ./

2. Make sure git's paths are set to your current ones (where you can see gitosis and git)

  sudo su git  (enter your password)
  echo "export PATH=$PATH" > ~/.bashrc
  exit

Clone the gitosis repo to your local machine

  git clone git@your.server.com:gitosis-admin.git

If you see something like this, then you're all set

  remote: Counting objects: 5, done.
  remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
  remote: Total 5 (delta 0), reused 5 (delta 0)
  Receiving objects: 100% (5/5), done.

What next?

Get familiar with gitosis. scie.nti.st has a great writeup for *nix systems, which I used as a reference point. The end of that blog has some general intro to gitosis.

Troubles? Make sure that you can ssh to the server as git (make sure that Leopard's ssh settings allow any user to login, or edit /etc/sshd_config). Otherwise post your troubles here in the comments.