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$ sudo chown www-data:www-data -R /var/hg $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/hg

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

The installed software is:

  • apache2 (apache2, apache2-common, apache2-mpm-prefork, apache2-utils)
    • But it is not necessary (see below)
  • 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 with me :)):

$ cd working-directory
$ hg clone http://selenic.com/hg/
$ cd hg
$ python setup.py build
$ sudo python setup.py install

4. Directory Structure

Create the necessary directories:

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

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

5. Preparing 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. Two possibilities

Either choose Apache or a standalone install.

6.1. Apache

6.1.1. 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 

6.1.2. 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/

6.2. Standalone

Simply run

sudo -u www-data hg serve --webdir-conf /var/hg/hgweb.config

and enjoy this speedy method of serving multiple repos. It should be faster than using Apache.

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. Allow pushing to the repository

By default, nobody is allowed pushing.

To allow pushing to everybody, add the following line to the /var/hg/repos/<repository-name>/.hg/hgrc file:

[web]
allow_push = *

To allow only selected users to push changes, add the following line to the /var/hg/repos/<repository-name>/.hg/hgrc file:

[web]
allow_push = frodo, sam

These are virtual users (for instance, as defined using a .htpasswd file), and not real system users.

8.4. Deny pushing to the repository

Most likely you will want to use it together with allow_push = *. If you want allow pushing to everybody, but a selected list of people, add the following line to the /var/hg/repos/<repository-name>/.hg/hgrc file:

[web]
deny_push = saruman

8.5. Allow pushing only over a non-secure channel

(I still need to check how it works :) )

By default, pushes are allowed only over https. If you are certain and do not want to enforce https for pushes, add the following line to the /var/hg/repos/<repository-name>/.hg/hgrc file:

[web]
push_ssl = false

8.6. 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.

HgWebDirStepByStep (last edited 2018-11-26 18:38:58 by JordiGH)