Installing cgit + nginx on Debian Jessie
cgit is a hyperfast web frontend for git repositories written in C. Coupled with nginx, this makes a super quick git repository viewer for your web server. I was not able to find a good tutorial on how to get this installed with nginx on a Debian server. The latest version of Debian Stable (Jessie) comes with cgit already in the repositories so a lot of previous tutorials that had you compile cgit are no longer necessary unless you really need the latest and greatest version of cgit.
Install some software
In order to run cgit with nginx, you will need to install cgit, nginx, and fcgiwrap.
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install cgit nginx fcgiwrap
Configure your nginx.conf to work with cgit
The contents of /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
file should look something like this:
worker_processes 1; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { include mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; sendfile on; keepalive_timeout 65; gzip on; server { listen 80; server_name git.example.com; # update to be your own domain root /usr/share/cgit; try_files $uri @cgit; location @cgit { include fastcgi_params; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/lib/cgit/cgit.cgi; fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $uri; fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $args; fastcgi_param HTTP_HOST $server_name; fastcgi_pass unix:/run/fcgiwrap.socket; } } }
Configure cgit Edit /etc/cgitrc
Your file should look like this:
#cgit config #=========== #see cgitrc(5) for details #========================= css=/cgit.css logo=/cgit.png virtual-root=/
Fire it up!
Now you are ready to see cgit. Restart nginx and navigate to your web server.
/etc/init.d/nginx restart
You should see the cgit home screen at your domain name or IP address now.
Add some repos
You can add repos to your /etc/cgitrc
file and they will show up in
cgit. The repo section of this file should look something like this:
# List of repositories. # This list could be kept in a different file (e.g. '/etc/cgitrepos') # and included like this: # include=/etc/cgitrepos repo.url=MyRepo repo.path=/srv/git/MyRepo.git repo.desc=This is my git repository repo.url=MyOtherRepo repo.path=/srv/git/MyOtherRepo.git repo.desc=That's my other git repository
Since cgit is packaged in Debian now, getting up and running is easier than ever. If you ran into any issues following this guide let me know in the comments.
Credits: I got a lot of inspiration from this guide via the awesome Arch Wiki. There were some minor changes that had to be made due to some configuration differences between Arch and Debian.
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- 2024
- Reinstalling Windows at 1am
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- My Custom Miniflux CSS Theme
- How to Disable Wayland in Debian Testing
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- 21st Century C++ from Communications of the ACM
- Submarines DevCon 2025 Keynote Speech from JoshHaines.com
- How I Use AI: Meet My Promptly Hired Model Intern from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- DeepSeek from Maggie Appleton
- Digital Reality Digital Shock from Christopher Butler
- 10 habits to help becoming a Debian Maintainer from Optimized by Otto
- Tiny corners from Manuel Moreale RSS Feed
- Build It Yourself from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
Pluralistic: America and "national capitalism" (18 Feb 2025)
Today's links America and "national capitalism": How the EU should respond to Trumpism. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 2005, 2010, 2015 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I've bee…
via Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow February 18, 2025My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani
OMG. Life perspective through UI. I freaking love it. Check out My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani
via Blog – Brad Frost February 18, 2025Argentinian president Javier Milei promotes memecoin that then crashes 95% in apparent $100 million+ rug pull
A tweet from Argentina's president Javier Milei promoted a memecoin called Libra, which he described as a "private project [that] will [be] dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small Argenti…
via Web3 is Going Just Great February 18, 2025Generated by openring