How to Install Cgit on Linux Mint Latest

Cgit is a fast web interface for Git repositories, which allows users to browse repositories and view commit history. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps of installing and configuring Cgit on Linux Mint Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we get started, you must have the following prerequisites:

• A Linux Mint Latest distribution.
• Sudo user privileges.
• Git installed on your system.

Step 1 – Downloading Cgit

The first step is downloading the latest version of Cgit from the official website (https://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/about/).

$ git clone git://git.zx2c4.com/cgit

Cgit can be downloaded using git or from the website as a tarball file (use the latest version).

Step 2 – Compiling Cgit

After downloading the Cgit source code, you need to compile it.

Note: You will need to install the following dependencies for Cgit to function correctly:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential git-core libssl-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

Once you have all the dependencies installed, navigate to the downloaded Cgit source directory and compile it:

$ cd cgit
$ make

Step 3 – Configuring Cgit

After building the Cgit binary, we need to configure it for use with our Git repositories.

Create a cgit.conf configuration file in the cgit directory by copying the example file:

$ cd cgit
$ cp cgitrc cgit.conf

Edit the new cgit.conf file with your preferred text editor:

$ nano cgit.conf

And make the following changes:

# Change this to your desired title (e.g., My Git Repository).
repo.name=My Git Repository

# Set the path to your Git repositories.
# This can be an absolute or relative path (e.g., /var/git or ../git).
# Remember to use the correct Git user permissions.
repo.url=/path/to/your/repositories

# You can also configure the following options:
# cgit logo
# number of commits to show
# virtual hosts
# and more...

Save the new file and exit.

Step 4 – Testing Cgit

Now that we have Cgit configured let's test our installation. Navigate to the cgit directory, run the executable binary and allow connections to the HTTP server.

$ cd ~/cgit
$ sudo ./cgit -f

Point your web browser to http://localhost:1234/ and you should see your Git repositories. If it did not work check your firewall settings.

Step 5 – Running Cgit as a Systemd Service

To keep Cgit running as a service when the server is restarted, we can configure Cgit as a systemd service.

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/cgit.service

Copy the following configuration and paste it to the file:

[Unit]
Description=Cgit HTTP Service
After=syslog.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/cgit -f
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/cgit

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file and exit.

Reload systemd to pick up the new configuration, start the service and enable it to run on boot:

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl start cgit.service
$ sudo systemctl enable cgit.service

You have now installed and configured Cgit on Linux Mint Latest, and set it up as a systemd service that will start automatically when your machine boots.

Conclusion

We hope this tutorial has helped you install and configure Cgit on Linux Mint Latest, and that you are now ready to browse your Git repositories using the fast and flexible interface that Cgit provides.

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