Manual: git-daemon
GIT-DAEMON(1) Git Manual GIT-DAEMON(1)
NAME
git-daemon - A really simple server for Git repositories
SYNOPSIS
git daemon [--verbose] [--syslog] [--export-all]
[--timeout=] [--init-timeout=] [--max-connections=]
[--strict-paths] [--base-path=] [--base-path-relaxed]
[--user-path | --user-path=]
[--interpolated-path=]
[--reuseaddr] [--detach] [--pid-file=]
[--enable=] [--disable=]
[--allow-override=] [--forbid-override=]
[--access-hook=] [--[no-]informative-errors]
[--inetd |
[--listen=] [--port=]
[--user= [--group=]]]
[--log-destination=(stderr|syslog|none)]
[...]
DESCRIPTION
A really simple TCP Git daemon that normally listens on port "DEFAULT_GIT_PORT" aka 9418. It waits
for a connection asking for a service, and will serve that service if it is enabled.
It verifies that the directory has the magic file "git-daemon-export-ok", and it will refuse to
export any Git directory that hasnât explicitly been marked for export this way (unless the
--export-all parameter is specified). If you pass some directory paths as git daemon arguments, the
offers are limited to repositories within those directories.
By default, only upload-pack service is enabled, which serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote
clients, which are invoked from git fetch, git pull, and git clone.
This is ideally suited for read-only updates, i.e., pulling from Git repositories.
An upload-archive also exists to serve git archive.
OPTIONS
--strict-paths
Match paths exactly (i.e. donât allow "/foo/repo" when the real path is "/foo/repo.git" or
"/foo/repo/.git") and donât do user-relative paths. git daemon will refuse to start when this
option is enabled and no directory arguments are provided.
--base-path=
Remap all the path requests as relative to the given path. This is sort of "Git root" - if you
run git daemon with --base-path=/srv/git on example.com, then if you later try to pull from
git://example.com/hello.git, git daemon will interpret the path as /srv/git/hello.git.
--base-path-relaxed
If --base-path is enabled and repo lookup fails, with this option git daemon will attempt to
lookup without prefixing the base path. This is useful for switching to --base-path usage, while
still allowing the old paths.
--interpolated-path=
To support virtual hosting, an interpolated path template can be used to dynamically construct
alternate paths. The template supports %H for the target hostname as supplied by the client but
converted to all lowercase, %CH for the canonical hostname, %IP for the serverâs IP address, %P
for the port number, and %D for the absolute path of the named repository. After interpolation,
the path is validated against the directory list.
--export-all
Allow pulling from all directories that look like Git repositories (have the objects and refs
subdirectories), even if they do not have the git-daemon-export-ok file.
--inetd
Have the server run as an inetd service. Implies --syslog (may be overridden with
--log-destination=). Incompatible with --detach, --port, --listen, --user and --group options.
--listen=
Listen on a specific IP address or hostname. IP addresses can be either an IPv4 address or an
IPv6 address if supported. If IPv6 is not supported, then --listen= is also not
supported and --listen must be given an IPv4 address. Can be given more than once. Incompatible
with --inetd option.
--port=
Listen on an alternative port. Incompatible with --inetd option.
--init-timeout=
Timeout (in seconds) between the moment the connection is established and the client request is
received (typically a rather low value, since that should be basically immediate).
--timeout=
Timeout (in seconds) for specific client sub-requests. This includes the time it takes for the
server to process the sub-request and the time spent waiting for the next clientâs request.
--max-connections=
Maximum number of concurrent clients, defaults to 32. Set it to zero for no limit.
--syslog
Short for --log-destination=syslog.
--log-destination=
Send log messages to the specified destination. Note that this option does not imply --verbose,
thus by default only error conditions will be logged. The must be one of:
stderr
Write to standard error. Note that if --detach is specified, the process disconnects from the
real standard error, making this destination effectively equivalent to none.
syslog
Write to syslog, using the git-daemon identifier.
none
Disable all logging.
The default destination is syslog if --inetd or --detach is specified, otherwise stderr.
--user-path, --user-path=
Allow ~user notation to be used in requests. When specified with no parameter, a request to
git://host/~alice/foo is taken as a request to access foo repository in the home directory of
user alice. If --user-path= is specified, the same request is taken as a request to access
/foo repository in the home directory of user alice.
--verbose
Log details about the incoming connections and requested files.
--reuseaddr
Use SO_REUSEADDR when binding the listening socket. This allows the server to restart without
waiting for old connections to time out.
--detach
Detach from the shell. Implies --syslog.
--pid-file=
Save the process id in . Ignored when the daemon is run under --inetd.
--user=, --group=
Change daemonâs uid and gid before entering the service loop. When only --user is given without
--group, the primary group ID for the user is used. The values of the option are given to
getpwnam(3) and getgrnam(3) and numeric IDs are not supported.
Giving these options is an error when used with --inetd; use the facility of inet daemon to
achieve the same before spawning git daemon if needed.
Like many programs that switch user id, the daemon does not reset environment variables such as
HOME when it runs git programs, e.g. upload-pack and receive-pack. When using this option, you
may also want to set and export HOME to point at the home directory of before starting the
daemon, and make sure any Git configuration files in that directory are readable by .
--enable=, --disable=
Enable/disable the service site-wide per default. Note that a service disabled site-wide can
still be enabled per repository if it is marked overridable and the repository enables the
service with a configuration item.
--allow-override=, --forbid-override=
Allow/forbid overriding the site-wide default with per repository configuration. By default, all
the services may be overridden.
--informative-errors, --no-informative-errors
When informative errors are turned on, git-daemon will report more verbose errors to the client,
differentiating conditions like "no such repository" from "repository not exported". This is more
convenient for clients, but may leak information about the existence of unexported repositories.
When informative errors are not enabled, all errors report "access denied" to the client. The
default is --no-informative-errors.
--access-hook=
Every time a client connects, first run an external command specified by the with service
name (e.g. "upload-pack"), path to the repository, hostname (%H), canonical hostname (%CH), IP
address (%IP), and TCP port (%P) as its command-line arguments. The external command can decide
to decline the service by exiting with a non-zero status (or to allow it by exiting with a zero
status). It can also look at the $REMOTE_ADDR and $REMOTE_PORT environment variables to learn
about the requestor when making this decision.
The external command can optionally write a single line to its standard output to be sent to the
requestor as an error message when it declines the service.
The remaining arguments provide a list of directories. If any directories are specified, then the
git-daemon process will serve a requested directory only if it is contained in one of these
directories. If --strict-paths is specified, then the requested directory must match one of these
directories exactly.
SERVICES
These services can be globally enabled/disabled using the command-line options of this command. If
finer-grained control is desired (e.g. to allow git archive to be run against only in a few selected
repositories the daemon serves), the per-repository configuration file can be used to enable or
disable them.
upload-pack
This serves git fetch-pack and git ls-remote clients. It is enabled by default, but a repository
can disable it by setting daemon.uploadpack configuration item to false.
upload-archive
This serves git archive --remote. It is disabled by default, but a repository can enable it by
setting daemon.uploadarch configuration item to true.
receive-pack
This serves git send-pack clients, allowing anonymous push. It is disabled by default, as there
is no authentication in the protocol (in other words, anybody can push anything into the
repository, including removal of refs). This is solely meant for a closed LAN setting where
everybody is friendly. This service can be enabled by setting daemon.receivepack configuration
item to true.
EXAMPLES
We assume the following in /etc/services
$ grep 9418 /etc/services
git 9418/tcp # Git Version Control System
git daemon as inetd server
To set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles any repository within /pub/foo or /pub/bar,
place an entry like the following into /etc/inetd all on one line:
git stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git
git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
/pub/foo /pub/bar
git daemon as inetd server for virtual hosts
To set up git daemon as an inetd service that handles repositories for different virtual hosts,
www.example.com and www.example.org, place an entry like the following into /etc/inetd all on one
line:
git stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git
git daemon --inetd --verbose --export-all
--interpolated-path=/pub/%H%D
/pub/www.example.org/software
/pub/www.example.com/software
/software
In this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a subdirectory for each virtual host
name supported. Further, both hosts advertise repositories simply as
git://www.example.com/software/repo.git. For pre-1.4.0 clients, a symlink from /software into the
appropriate default repository could be made as well.
git daemon as regular daemon for virtual hosts
To set up git daemon as a regular, non-inetd service that handles repositories for multiple
virtual hosts based on their IP addresses, start the daemon like this:
git daemon --verbose --export-all
--interpolated-path=/pub/%IP/%D
/pub/192.168.1.200/software
/pub/10.10.220.23/software
In this example, the root-level directory /pub will contain a subdirectory for each virtual host
IP address supported. Repositories can still be accessed by hostname though, assuming they
correspond to these IP addresses.
selectively enable/disable services per repository
To enable git archive --remote and disable git fetch against a repository, have the following in
the configuration file in the repository (that is the file config next to HEAD, refs and
objects).
[daemon]
uploadpack = false
uploadarch = true
ENVIRONMENT
git daemon will set REMOTE_ADDR to the IP address of the client that connected to it, if the IP
address is available. REMOTE_ADDR will be available in the environment of hooks called when services
are performed.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.53.0 03/02/2026 GIT-DAEMON(1)