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## Troubleshooting
### Eclipse/Egit/JGit complains that it "can't open upload pack"?
There are a few ways this can occur:
1. You are using https with a self-signed certificate and you **did not** configure *http.sslVerify=false*
1. Window->Preferences->Team->Git->Configuration
2. Click the *New Entry* button
3. <pre>Key = *http.sslVerify*
Value = *false*</pre>
2. Gitblit GO's default self-signed certificate is bound to *localhost* and you are trying to clone/push between machines.
1. Review the contents of `makekeystore.cmd`
2. Set *your hostname* in the *HOSTNAME* variable.
3. Execute the script.<br/>This will generate a new certificate and keystore for *your hostname* protected by *server.storePassword*.
3. The repository is clone-restricted and you don't have access.
4. The repository is clone-restricted and your password changed.
5. A regression in Gitblit. :(
### Why can't I access Gitblit GO from another machine?
1. Please check *server.httpBindInterface* and *server.httpsBindInterface* in `gitblit.properties`, you may be only be serving on *localhost*.
2. Please see the above answer about "**can't open upload pack**".
3. Ensure that any firewall you may have running on the Gitblit server either has an exception for your specified ports or for the running process.
### How do I run Gitblit GO on port 80 or 443 in Linux?
Linux requires root permissions to serve on ports < 1024.<br/>
Run the server as *root* (security concern) or change the ports you are serving to 8080 (http) and/or 8443 (https).
### Gitblit GO does not list my repositories?!
1. Confirm that the value *git.repositoriesFolder* in `gitblit.properties` actually points to your repositories folder.
2. Confirm that the Gitblit GO process has full read-write-execute permissions to your *git.repositoriesFolder*.
### Gitblit WAR does not list my repositories?!
1. Confirm that the <context-param> *git.repositoriesFolder* value in your `web.xml` file actually points to your repositories folder.
2. Confirm that the servlet container process has full read-write-execute permissions to your *git.repositoriesFolder*.
### Gitblit WAR will not authenticate any users?!
Confirm that the <context-param> *realm.userService* value in your `web.xml` file actually points to a `users.properties` file.
### Gitblit won't open my grouped repository (/group/myrepo.git) or browse my branch/tag/ref?!
This is likely an url encoding/decoding problem related to your servlet container's security. There are two possible workarounds for this issue. In `gitblit.properties` or `web.xml`:
1. try setting *web.mountParameters* to *false*.<br/>This changes the url scheme from mounted (*/commit/myrepo.git/abcdef*) to parameterized (*/commit/?r=myrepo.git&h=abcdef*).
2. try changing *web.forwardSlashCharacter* to an asterisk or a **!**
## General Interest Questions
### Gitblit? What kind of name is that?
It's a phonetic play on [bitblt][bitblt] which is an image processing operation meaning *bit-block transfer*.
### Why use Gitblit?
It's a small tool that allows you to easily manage shared repositories and doesn't require alot of setup or git kung-foo.
### Who is the target user for Gitblit?
Small workgroups that require centralized repositories.
Gitblit is not meant to be a social coding resource like [Github](http://github.com) or [Bitbucket](http://bitbucket.com) with 100s or 1000s of users. Gitblit is designed to fulfill the same function as your centralized Subversion or CVS server.
### Why does Gitblit exist when there is Git and Gitweb?
As a Java developer I prefer that as much of my tooling as possible is Java.<br/>
Originally, I was going to use [Mercurial](http://mercurial.selenic.com) but...
- MercurialEclipse [shells to Python, writes to System.out, and captures System.in](http://mercurial.808500.n3.nabble.com/Hg4J-Mercurial-pure-Java-library-tp2693090p2694555.html)<br/>
Parsing command-line output is fragile and suboptimal.<br/>Unfortunately this is necessary because Mercurial is an application, not a library.
- Mercurial HTTP/HTTPS needs to run as CGI through Apache/IIS/etc, as mod_python through Apache, or served with a built-in http server.<br/>
This requires setup and maintenance of multiple, mixed 3rd party components.
Gitblit eliminates all that complication with its 100% Java stack and simple single configuration file.
Additionally, Git and Gitweb do not offer repository creation or user management.
### Do I need real Git?
No (mostly). Gitblit is based on [JGit][jgit] which is a pure Java implementation of the [Git version control system][git].<br/>
Everything you need for Gitblit (except Java) is either bundled in the distribution file or automatically downloaded on execution.
**mostly**<br/>
JGit does not fully support the git-gc featureset (garbage collection) so you may want native Git to periodically run git-gc until [JGit][jgit] fully supports this feature.
### Can I run Gitblit in conjunction with my existing Git tooling?
Yes.
### Do I need a JDK or can I use a JRE?
Gitblit will run just fine with a JRE. Gitblit can optionally use `keytool` from the JDK to generate self-signed certificates, but normally Gitblit uses [BouncyCastle][bouncycastle] for that need.
### Does Gitblit use a database to store its data?
No. Gitblit stores its repository configuration information within the `.git/config` file and its user information in `users.properties` or whatever filename is configured in `gitblit.properties`.
### Can I manually edit users.properties, gitblit.properties, or .git/config?
Yes. You can manually manipulate all of them and (most) changes will be immediately available to Gitblit.<br/>Exceptions to this are noted in `gitblit.properties`.
**NOTE:**<br/>Care must be taken to preserve the relationship between user roles and repository names.<br/>Please see the *User Roles* section of the [setup](/setup.html) page for details.
### Can I restrict access to paths within a repository?
No. Access restrictions apply to the repository as a whole.
Gitblit's simple authentication and authorization mechanism can be used to facilitate one or more of the [workflows outlined here](http://progit.org/book/ch5-1.html). Should you require more fine-grained access controls you might consider using [gitolite](https://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite).
### Can I authenticate users against XYZ?
Yes. The user service is pluggable. You may write your own user service by implementing the *com.gitblit.IUserService* interface. Set the fully qualified classname as the *realm.userService* property.
### Why doesn't Gitblit support SSH?
Gitblit could integrate [Apache Mina][mina] to provide SSH access. However, doing so violates Gitblit's first design principle: [KISS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle).<br/>
SSH support requires creating, exchanging, and managing SSH keys (arguably not more complicated than managing users). While this is possible, JGit's SmartHTTP implementation is a simpler and universal transport mechanism.
You might consider running [Gerrit](http://gerrit.googlecode.org) which does integrate [Apache Mina][mina] and supports SSH or you might consider serving [Git][git] on Linux which would offer real SSH support and also allow use of [many other compelling Git solutions](https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/InterfacesFrontendsAndTools).
### What types of Search does Gitblit support?
Gitblit supports case-insensitive searches of *commit message* (default), *author*, and *committer*.<br/>
To search by *author* or *committer* use the following syntax in the search box:
author: james
committer: james
Alternatively, you could enable the search type dropdown list in your `gitblit.properties` file.
### Why did you call the setting federation.N.frequency instead of federation.N.period?!
Yes, yes I know that you are really specifying the period, but Frequency sounds better to me. :)
### Can Gitblit be translated?
Yes. Most messages are localized to a standard Java properties file.
[bitblt]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_blit "Wikipedia Bitblt"
[jgit]: http://eclipse.org/jgit "Eclipse JGit Site"
[git]: http://git-scm.com "Official Git Site"
[mina]: http://mina.apache.org "Apache Mina"
[bouncycastle]: http://bouncycastle.org "The Legion of the Bouncy Castle"
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