Is gitosis or gitolite necessary to push changes via HTTP/HTTPS to remote git repository?

Question

I have an apache2 server running a virtual host with HTTPS and basic authentication enabled. The virtual host serves GIT repositories via gitweb script. Authenticated users pull repositories from virtual host.

I don't need fine access control since I am using basic authentication mechanism. Therefore, my questions are:

1. Is gitweb the only thing I need to pull AND push changes with this setup?
2. If not enough, do I need gitolite or gitosis to push changes?

Answer 1

gitweb is only a vizualization mechanism. You don't need it to pull/push.
A simple Apache server calling the git-http-backend mechanism is enough.

Gitolite (please, no gitosis: it is obsolete) is an authorization mechanism, also not needed to push/pull (unless you want to restrict access to a group of users).

More details in:

• Distributed Version Control Systems and the Enterprise - a Good mix?
• My presentation I gave to CodeKen London 2011: "Introducing Git in big corporation"