Using cgit
This is the last post in a three part series about cgit. Previously we saw how to install and configure cgit and then we saw how to make cgit pretty. This last post has to do with actually using cgit. There are a couple of tools out there to make the process of adding, removing, and modifying git repositories within cgit much simpler but we will focus here on how to do it manually and I will leave it up to you to decide which tools works best for you. cgit does not impose any special requirements for adding, removing, or modifying repositories so the entire process is based around core git functionality. Below is a workflow that works well for me.
Creating a Git User
Creating a git user that has access to/srv/git just makes good sense. To add a new user in Debian you will need to run the following commands and follow the on screen instructions to complete this process. adduser git
Adding your public key
In order to authenticate to the server and work with git it is good to add your public key to avoid working with passwords. If you do not already have a key, go ahead and create one on your local machine.ssh-keygen -b 8192 Follow the on screen instructions, and be sure to add a password to this key! Once you have create this key, copy the public key over to your git server under the git users .ssh/authorized_keysfile. scp $USER/.ssh/id_rsa.pub [email protected]:/home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys
Creating a new repository
Log into the git server as the git user and create a bare repositorycd /srv/git mkdir myrepo.git cd myrepo.git git init --bare
Push to the new repository
On your local computermkdir myrepo cd myrepo git init echo "My Awesome Repo" >> README.md git add README.md git commit -m 'initial commit' git remote add origin [email protected]:/srv/git/myrepo.git git push origin master
Add the new repository to cgit
Now that your repository is on your server, you can add it cgit by editing/etc/cgitrc and adding it as we did before.
repo.url = myrepo repo.path = /srv/git/myrepo.git repo.desc = My Awesome Repo repo.owner = Your Name
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
- 2025
- My Custom Miniflux CSS Theme
- Setting up ANTLR4 on Windows
- 2024
- Convert Markdown to PDF in Sublime Text
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- Fedora Magazine: Contribute to Fedora 44 KDE and GNOME Test Days from Fedora People
- Pluralistic: bunnie's piggyback hack (09 Jan 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- Clicks Communicator from Chris Hannah
- A Year Of Vibes from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- Pluralistic: A perfect distillation of the social uselessness of finance (18 Dec 2025) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- Moving from WordPress to Substack from charity.wtf
- Grow, Like a Tree Not a Cancer from Jim Nielsen’s Blog
- Pluralistic: All the books I reviewed in 2025 (02 Dec 2025) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
Doing less, for her
My daughter will be born soon, and I’m reflecting on what that means for my OpenSource work.
via Carlos Becker February 1, 2026The Browser’s Little White Lies
So I’m making a thing and I want it to be styled different if the link’s been visited. Rather than build something myself in JavaScript, I figure I’ll just hook into the browser’s mechanism for tracking if a link’s been visited (a sensible approach, if I d…
via Jim Nielsen’s Blog February 1, 2026$29 million stolen from from Step Finance treasury wallets
The Solana-based defi portfolio tracker Step Finance lost 261,854 SOL (~$28.7 million) when a thief gained access to treasury and fee wallets. It's not yet clear how the attacker was able to steal the funds, although Step Finance…
via Web3 is Going Just Great February 1, 2026Generated by openring