FAQ

Table of Contents

  1. How to support Gibbon Git Server
  2. Repository Management
  3. Password and Account
  4. Server Issues
  5. Common Errors
  6. Git Hooks and Username

How to support Gibbon Git Server?

You can:

  • Contribute
  • Promote on your blog
  • Tweet about it
  • Answer a question on StackOverflow
  • Recommend it to your friend or colleague
  • Donate

Repository Management

How do I clone a repository?

  1. Go to the Repository Details page.
  2. Copy the Git Repository Location.
  3. Select one of the following:
    • Open your git application of choice and clone the repository.
    • Run the following in your terminal:
      git clone http://your-server-name/repository-name.git

How to change repositories folder?

  1. Stop the server.
  2. Edit the appsettings.json file.
  3. Update the RepositoryPath key with the new path.
  4. Move existing repositories to the new folder (if applicable).
  5. Restart the server.

Why is it no longer possible to change the repository folder in the UI?

This feature was removed because the repository is linked to the database, and a simple switch could cause issues. If there is a strong reason to change the repository folder, it’s best to do this while the server is not running and make the change consciously in the appsettings.json file.

Can I allow anonymous access to a repository?

  • For allowing anonymous access to a repository, follow these steps:
    1. Edit the desired repository (or do this when creating the repository).
    2. Check the Anonymous checkbox.
    3. Save.
  • To allow anonymous push:
    1. Log in as an administrator.
    2. Go to Server Settings.
    3. Check the value Allow push for anonymous repositories.
    4. Save changes.

Password and Account

How do I change the password?

  1. Navigate to the Account Settings under your username in the top right corner.
  2. Go to the Password tab.
  3. Enter your old password and the new one with confirmation.
  4. Click Save.

Server Issues

How do I back up my data?

  • Copy the App_Data folder and your repositories into a backup directory.
  • Alternatively, use the Database Backup feature in the Server Site.

Gibbon Git Server doesn’t serve CSS

This is a common issue for Windows 8 users. To resolve it:

  1. Go to Turn Windows Features On or Off screen.
  2. Navigate to Internet Information Services (IIS) -> World Wide Web Services -> Common HTTP Features.
  3. Tick Static Content.

SSL and large repositories

If you experience issues while using SSL and pushing large repositories, increase the variable sizes as described above in the “Cloning Error - RPC failed” section. If that doesn’t help, apply the following Microsoft patch: (KB2634328).

Error 500.19 and file execution issues on IIS 8

To resolve these issues, run the following commands:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd unlock config -section:system.webServer/handlers
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd unlock config -section:system.webServer/modules

Common Errors

fatal: http: /info/refs not valid: is this a git repository?

This error occurs when the git client doesn’t receive a proper git stream as a response from the server. This typically indicates a server-side issue.

To diagnose the error, check the server log. With Kestrel it is written to the console; on IIS enable stdoutLogEnabled="true" in web.config and look in the logs folder of the installation.

Cloning Error - RPC failed

This error often relates to the size of the request. To resolve this, try increasing the following values:

  • On your client, run:
    git config http.postBuffer [desired size], try 524288000 (500MB).

  • In your web.config, increase:
    <requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="[desired size]">, try 1073741824 (1GB).

Note: The server itself accepts requests up to 100 MB.

Git Hooks and Username

I’d like to use git hooks to restrict access. How do I access the web frontend username?

Gibbon Git Server provides the following environment variables to help manage access via git hooks:

  • AUTH_USER: The username used to log in. This variable will be empty if the operation (e.g., clone, push, pull) was done anonymously.
  • REMOTE_USER: Same as AUTH_USER.
  • AUTH_USER_TEAMS: A comma-separated list containing all the teams the user belongs to.
  • AUTH_USER_ROLES: A comma-separated list containing all the roles assigned to the user.
  • AUTH_USER_DISPLAYNAME: This displays the user’s full name (Given Name + Surname), if available. Otherwise, it will display the username.

Important Note: Due to the way HTTP basic authentication works, if anonymous operations (such as push or pull) are enabled, the variables mentioned above will always be empty. This means that you won’t be able to retrieve the user details for anonymous requests.