GitPort is a lightweight CLI tool for self-hosting LAN-accessible Git repositories, enabling fast collaboration. Whether you want to host your repository on a server, or on your local machine, GitPort streamlines the nitty-gritty server making overhead into a few simple commands.

Installing GitPort is as easy as 123. With these commands, you'll be able to build the executable and add it to your file path.

git clone
cd gitport
sudo make install

And that's it! You can now run GitPort from any directory on your system.

# Initialize a new Git repository
mkdir my-repo
cd my-repo
git init

# Initialize GitPort settings for my-repo
gitport init

# Start a GitPort server
gitport start <port>

When running gitport start <port> for the first time, you will be prompted with a few options to configure Git and SSH-level access permissions which will then be automatically be saved.

Then, your current repository will be cloned into a bare repository in your system's $CONFIG_DIR/gitport/ directory. This bare repo will now act as the server-side Git repository. Now, any changes comitted to your initial repository will point to that bare repo, as long as the server is running.

A .../.gitport folder will also be generated inside the bare repo to store all server-side data such as user permissions.

Future calls of gitport start <port> will allow you to pick up right where you left off without any additional fuss.

The server can be monitored during its uptime with the help of a Terminal User Interface (TUI). Accessing this TUI doesn't require any additional installation, as it can be accessed over SSH. Only users with admin permissions can access the TUI.

# To access the TUI, simply run this command on any host on the local network. The TUI should appear in full screen if you have the correct credentials and access level.
ssh -p <port> <server_ip_addr>

On the TUI, server configurations such as user permissions (admin, ...) and repository-level edit access (read, write, ...) can be modified. Note that a server reboot won't be necessary for those changes to apply. Additionally, the TUI displays the commit history and the respective diff's for each commit. Server-level logs can also be accessed directly on the TUI. Both the commit history and server-side logs can be filtered via a fuzzy finder.

During the development process, we were able to fully collaborate on this project with the help of GitPort upon the successful implementation of our first minimal viable product.