TableOfContents

Publishing Repositories with `hgwebdir.cgi`

1. Introduction

Well, we have a certain setup with subversion. I'd like to reproduce it using Mercurial.

2. Pre-requisites

I run all this on an Ubuntu system. Edgy one.

The installed software is:

• apache2 (apache2, apache2-common, apache2-mpm-prefork, apache2-utils)
• some version of mercurial (mine was 0.9 taken from Debian/unstable)
• python:
  • Ubuntu/Edgy comes with python 2.4
  • you will need python2.4-dev package as well
• sudo (in general, I prefer sudo to su)

3. Getting proper Mercurial

The whole point was to try pull/push over http. So the following was done (I'm a real newbie for hg, so please bear me :)):

$ cd working-directory
$ hg clone http://selenic.com/hg/
$ cd hg
$ hg pull http://hg.intevation.org/mercurial/crew
$ wget http://www.selenic.com/pipermail/mercurial/attachments/20060615/2893c03e/push-http.bin -O push-http.patch
$ hg import -p1 push-http.patch
$ python setup.py build
$ sudo python setup.py install

4. Directory Structure

Create the necessary directories:

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/hg/repos
$ sudo chown www-data:www-data -R /var/hg

It's usually a good idea to keep special directories out of the tree served by apache.

5. Putting the right stuff in place

Put the script in place (remember, we are still in that working-directory/hg :)):

$ sudo -u www-data cp hgwebdir.cgi /var/hg
$ sudo -u www-data chmod +x /var/hg/hgwebdir.cgi 

Prepare the config:

$ cat > /tmp/hgweb.config
[collections]
repos/ = repos/
^D
$ sudo -u www-data cp /tmp/hgweb.config /var/hg
$ rm /tmp/hgweb.config

6. Making it accessible

Ok, now it's time for apache.

First of all, do not really change the config of apache directly:

$ sudo mkdir /etc/apache2/hg

Create the config with the following contents (e.g by using sudo vim /etc/apache2/hg/main.conf):

ScriptAliasMatch        ^/hg(.*)        /var/hg/hgwebdir.cgi$1

<Directory /var/hg>
  Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks

  AllowOverride None
</Directory>

This config says that we are going to serve our repositories through '<yourhost>/hg/'.

Now make it really available, by changing your favourite site in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled. For this experiment I used /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/default:

  ...
  Include /etc/apache2/hg/main.conf
</VirtualHost>

Make sure that everything is OK:

$ sudo apache2ctl configtest
Syntax is OK

Restart your web server:

$ sudo apache2ctl stop
$ sudo apache2ctl start

Check if it works by directing your browser to <yourhost>/hg/

7. You are done

Hooray!

8. Final Bits

8.1. Create a new repository

$ sudo -u www-data hg init /var/hg/repos/<repository-name>

8.2. Provide more information about it

Add the following to the /var/hg/repos/<repository-name>/.hg/hgrc file:

[web]
contact = Bilbo Baggins       # Whom to contact, plain text,
                              # no fancy stuff
description = My precious!    # Nice description what this is about,
                              # you can include HTML (like <a>)

8.3. Customize the look

Add the following to the /var/hg/repos/<repository-name>/.hg/hgrc file:

[web]
style = gitweb                # looks cleaner from my point of
                              # view :)
allow_archive = gz, zip, bz2  # If you think people should be able
                              # to download snapshots as .tar.gz,
                              # .zip, .tar.bz2 respectively

9. Disclaimer

Well, it works (worked) for me. Please do not hesitate to update this page to include small bits I've forgotten or just plainly am not aware of.