Despite having very simple installation instruction, I’ve been fighting with installing Gitolite every single time I’ve tried. Here I present a short summary in the steps needed to install Gitolite on Mac OS X, an amalgamation of the sources linked below.

Gitolite requires a (local) account on the server, with SSH access. Using a network account (created through Server.app) is certainly possible, the easiest way is to simply create a local account (with password!) and give it ssh access. Administrator privileges not advised.

• Make a local user called ‘git’
• Go to Sharing > Remote login and add the git user
• Create an SSH key on the machine that will be used to administer gitolite (workstation) and copy that key to the server
• ssh git@server: mkdir ~/.ssh/
• scp key.pub git@server: ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
• Run the following commands as the git user (use login git):
• git clone git://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite
• gitolite/install -This installs gitolite into /Users/git/gitolite/src/gitolite
• Create a symbolic link to the gitolite folder:
• ln -s /Users/git/gitolite/src/gitolite* /usr/bin (or to /usr/local/bin)
• Either relog or open a new terminal window
• gitolite setup -pk YourName.pub

Editing the configuration can now be done from the workstation by running the following command:

• git clone git@host:gitolite-admin

To allow for password-less login to the server, do the following:

• cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub | ssh user@remotehost ‘cat » ~/.ssh/authorized_keys’ To confirm do:
• ssh user@remotehost.com

Creating an ssh alias: Add the following to ~/.ssh/config on your workstation:

• Host alias
• User git
• Hostname server.address
• Port 22
• IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Sources:

• Gitolite readme: https://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite
• Passwordless SSH: