repo2html

a command-line tool that turns git repositories in html pages

features

• static html files
• image support (we're working on this)
• svg support (we're working on this)
• markdown files are rendered as html (we're working on this)
• no background process (unless you're using this tool as a post-receive hook, then you only need git-daemon running)
• default repository view is an html-rendered README.md file

caveats

• binary file contents are just... shown
• directory tree is shown as a flat list of files, so git repositories with many files and directories will look awful
• no commit log (yet?)
• no line numbers (yet?)

disclaimer

no one is liable if this software breaks, deletes, corrupts, or ruins anything

requirements

• chicken scheme
• utf8 egg
• lowdown egg
• sxml-transforms egg
• clojurian egg
• git

note: if you have chicken scheme installed, then you can install the eggs above by running make dependencies as root.

compilation

chicken scheme runs faster if it's compiled to a binary file. by default, the binary is named repo2html, and is installed in /usr/local/bin.

to compile repo2html into a binary file, follow the steps below:

1. ensure you're in the repo2html git repository
2. as root, run make dependencies
3. run make

server setup

this section uses example.com as a placeholder value. ensure you replace example.com with your own domain below.

this section assumes the following about your server:

• you've generated public and private ssh keys on your local machine
• you can access your server through ssh and have root access
• you manage your firewall with ufw
• you use nginx as your web server
• you use letsencrypt to manage TLS certificates
• you've added an A record for git.example.com

setting up a git user

ensure you're in the repo2html git repository, and follow the steps below:

1. as root, run adduser git
2. as root, run mkdir /var/www/git
3. as root, run chown git:git /var/www/git
4. as root, run ufw allow 9418
5. run su git
6. run mkdir ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh
7. run touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
8. add your public ssh key from your local machine to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
9. run mkdir -p ~/projects/my-repository

setting up nginx

1. as root, add the following contents to /etc/nginx/sites-available/git.example.com:

    server {
        root /var/www/git;
        index index.html;
        server_name git.example.com;
    }
   

2. as root, run ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/git.example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

3. as root, run nginx -t to test your nginx configuration

4. as root, run certbot, and follow the prompts

5. as root, run systemctl restart nginx

installation

ensure you're in the repo2html git repository, and follow the steps below:

1. run make install as root
2. run cp post-receive ~/projects/my-repository/hooks/
3. run chmod u+x ~/projects/my-repository/hooks/post-receive
4. run cp git-daemon.service /etc/systemd/system/ as root
5. run systemctl enable --now git-daemon.service as root

using repo2html as a post-receive hook

this section uses example.com as a placeholder value. ensure you replace example.com with your own domain below.

on your local machine, follow the steps below:

1. run git init my-repository
2. run cd my-repository
3. run echo "hello" > my-file.txt
4. run git add my-file.txt
5. run `git commit -m "my first commit"
6. run git remote add origin git@example.com:~/projects/my-repository
7. run git push

configuration

this section uses example.com as a placeholder value. ensure you replace example.com with your own domain below.

you can configure repo2html by changing environment variables in the post-receive hook file.

for details about the environment variables, refer to the list below:

• REPO2HTML_PREFIX: the web directory where repo2html generates static git repositories. for example, /var/www/git/.
• REPO2HTML_CLONE_URL: the url that people will use when downloading your git repository. if you have git-daemon set up, then you can prefix the url with git://. otherwise, prefix the url with http://. for example, git://git.example.com. note: avoid slashes at the end of the url.
• REPO2HTML_TITLE: the text that populates the <title> html tag.
• REPO2HTML_DESCRIPTION: a string that populates the description meta information about your git repository.
• REPO2HTML_H1: the text that populates the <h1> html tag.

how it works

TODO

todos

• documentation: convert a lot of the stuff i (m455) made in the readme into an e2e tutorial
• documenation: scope the readme audience to folks who kind of know what they're doing with servers
• feature: if no README.md file exists in the root directory of the repository, then don't create the "about" nav link. instead, make the files page the index.html
• feature: add a "license" nav link if a LICENSE file exists in the root directory of the repository. if no LICENSE file exists, then don't create the "license" nav link

hopes

• feature: clickable line numbers in source files
• feature: make repos with more files and directories less daunting (recursively generate a files list page for each directory in a repo?)
• feature: nav link: Releases