HOWTO setup a private git server on Ubuntu 18.04

September 23, 2018 (Last Modified: February 20, 2019)

There are plenty of reasons to host your own git server vs using services like GitHub or GitLab. Beyond just learning something new, I prefer to use a private git server for pass (my password manager).

Step 1: Setup an Ubuntu 18.04 server

There are quite a few ways you can do this however I prefer to have the server accessible on the Internet so I can sync my computer(s) while I’m traveling. Check out my previous post “First steps to securing Ubuntu Server 18.04 on Digital Ocean” if you want some pointers. Then, ssh into your server.

Step 2: Install git and git-shell

We’ll create a new user and restrict that user to a git-only shell. So let’s first make sure we have the necessary software installed and up to date.

Update your package list

$ sudo apt update

Install git

$ sudo apt install git

See if git-shell is already setup in /etc/shells

$ cat /etc/shells
# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/sh
/bin/bash
/bin/rbash
/bin/dash
/usr/bin/tmux
/usr/bin/screen

If you don’t see git-shell listed, find out it’s location

$ which git-shell
/usr/bin/git-shell

and add it to /etc/shells

$ sudo vim /etc/shells  # and add the path to git-shell from last command

Step 3: Setup a dedicated (non-sudo) git user

You don’t want to run the git server under your user (especially if you are in the superuser group) so let’s create a user dedicated for git access.

Create git user

$ sudo adduser --disabled-password git

Switch to git user

$ sudo su git

Change to git user’s home directory

$ cd

Make directory for ssh files

$ mkdir ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh

and create the authorized keys file

$ touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

And add the public keys of any users you want to access your private git server

$ vim ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Finally let’s set the git user’s shell to the git-shell

$ sudo chsh git -s $(which git-shell)

Step 4: Create individual repo directories

For each repo you want to host, you need to create a directory for the files and properly set permissions. We use sudo for this since you cannot su - git as the git user’s shell is set to the non-interactive git-shell.

First let’s change to the git user’s home directory

$ cd /home/git

Then we’ll create the repo directory

$ sudo mkdir ios-backup-extractor.git

Next init the git repo

$ cd ios-backup-extractor.git && sudo git init --bare && cd ..

and then change the ownership of the directories and files to git

$ sudo chown -R git.git ios-backup-extractor.git/

Step 5: Use your private git repo

You’re all set to use your private git repos now! If you are not that familiar with git, there’s a lot of great documentation online and it’s far too much to cover in this post. But here are a few commands that might be helpful as you use your new private git server.

To clone a new repo you initialized on your private git server

$ git clone git@<IPADDRESS>:<repo-name> ~/git/

To add your new private git server to an existing repo

$ git remote add origin git@<IPADDRESS>:<repo-name>.git