Publishing with git + ssh

This recipe is to describe the steps for taking a local folder that's managed by git and using a remote server where you have ssh access, creating an "as-simple-as-possible" remote that can be pushed to (and eventually pulled from) and that is also mirrored on the same server. In other words, there's also a public working directory that automatically gets updated (via a githook) when the repo is pushed to. This recipe does not require that you use a git server like gitea, gitlab, or github. Just that you have ssh access to a server, and that git (client) is installed there too. You can combine this with also using a git server (as git repos can have multiple remotes).

The steps

• Convert local folder into a bare repo
• scp the bare repo to a (non-public) part of your server
• Create the webhook in the bare repo on the server

Convert local folder into a bare repo

   git clone --bare project project.git

Converts normal folder project (that is already git-managed!), into a bare repository project.git.

A bare repo is basically only the .git folder part of a git-managed folder (it's insides if you like). You could in principle just copy this (inner) folder, but git's clone command has a bare option that does it for you. It's a good idea to name a bare repo .git to remind yourself that it's a bare git repo.

scp the bare repo to your server

Here assuming you have a folder called git in your remote home folder.

   scp -r project.git remote:git/

clone the bare repo to a (public) working directory on the server

   ssh server
   cd public_html
   git clone ~/git/project.git

create the webhook on the server

Now ssh to the server and edit a post-receive githook.

   cd ~/git/project.git

You can ls and see the "insides" of the repo:

   branches/  config  description  HEAD  hooks/  info/  objects/  packed-refs  refs/

Make sure there's not already a post-receive script...

   ls hooks

Ok, let's create one...

   nano git/project.git/hooks/post-receive

GIT_WORK_TREE=~/public_html/project git checkout -f⏎