Git Pocket Guide

Chapter 12. Remote Access

As mentioned in Chapter 6, Git can access remote repositories for push and pull using different network protocols; the most common are HTTP(S), SSH, and the native Git protocol. Especially if the remote repository accepts push requests, the access protocol may require you to identify yourself in order to grant access; this is called “authentication,” and may be accomplished in various ways, such as by providing a username and password. The Git protocol does not support authentication, so this is usually done via HTTP or SSH; the native Git server, accessed on port 9418 with the URL scheme git://, is used almost exclusively for read-only access to repositories (for which it is a good choice, since it is fast and easy to set up).

The question of how to configure the server side for these protocols generally is well beyond the scope of this text; entire books have been written on SSH, the Apache web server, the Windows IIS web server, etc. However, we will touch on a few common cases from the client perspective, and on some Git features that help with this.

SSH

When you access a repository with a URL of the form:

[user@]host:path/to/repository

Git runs ssh, or the program given by the environment variable GIT_SSH, to log into the remote host and access the repository by running the appropriate remote command: git upload-pack for pull, and git receive-pack for push. The local and remote Git programs then communicate over the SSH channel to perform the requested ...