lilgit
A read-only HTTP(S) frontend for git, built on Lilush runtime.
Features:
git clone/fetchover smart-HTTPbrowsing UI:
repo index
directory trees at any ref
markdown/djot rendered as HTML
raw file serving.
Everything is served straight from the git object database, i.e. from bare repositories on disk.
Pushes to served repositories appear immediately — the git core's mtime caches invalidate themselves.
No support for git push over HTTP, push over ssh to the bare repo instead.
URL scheme
| Path | Behavior |
|---|---|
/ | repo index |
/{repo} | redirect to the default-branch tree |
/{repo}/tree/{ref}/{path}/ | directory listing, README rendered below |
/{repo}/blob/{ref}/{path} | markdown/djot as HTML; source as text; images/binaries raw |
/{repo}/raw/{ref}/{path} | raw bytes, extension-guessed MIME |
/{repo}/refs | branches and tags |
/{repo}/log/{ref} | commit log (first-parent, paged via ?after=<sha>) |
/{repo}/commit/{sha} | commit view: metadata, message, changed files |
{repo} is either a plain name (lilush) or a category-qualified one
(tools/lilgit) for repositories one directory level deeper in
repos_dir. {ref} is a branch (slashes allowed), tag, full refs/...
path, HEAD, or a full 40-hex sha; sha-pinned URLs are served as
immutable. Clone URLs (/{repo} or /{repo}.git) coexist with browse
URLs.
Tree and blob pages carry breadcrumbs and a ref switcher; setting
show_sizes in the config adds blob sizes to listings (costs a full
blob inflate per entry).
Configuration
Read from LILGIT_CONFIG_FILE (default /etc/lilgit/config.json); a
missing file means pure defaults. CLI flags (--ip, --port, --dir,
--title) override everything.
{
"ip": "127.0.0.1",
"port": 8091,
"site_title": "my code",
"repos_dir": "/srv/git",
"repos": [
{
"name": "lilush",
"path": "/srv/git/lilush.git",
"description": "Linux Shell & Lua Framework",
"default_branch": "master"
}
],
"ssl": { "default": { "cert": "...", "key": "..." } }
}
Repositories are discovered in repos_dir at startup (dirs with HEAD
or .git/HEAD). A top-level directory that is not itself a repository
is treated as a category and scanned one level deep: /srv/git/repo.git
serves as repo, /srv/git/tools/lilgit.git serves as tools/lilgit,
so repositories with the same basename can live in different categories.
A repository directory is never scanned for nested repositories, and
discovery never goes deeper than one category level. Explicit repos
entries (plain or category-qualified names) win on name collision. The
ssl table enables built-in TLS (SNI-capable); omit it when running
behind a reverse proxy.
markdown_cache sets the size of the rendered-markdown cache, keyed by
blob sha: the number of documents held per cache generation (at most
twice that many are live). The default is 32; 0 disables caching.
Tests
Run from the pack root:
lilush tests/run.lua
LILGIT_E2E=1 lilush tests/run.lua
The e2e spec forks a real server and drives it with the git and curl binaries.
Roadmap
Performance sweep:
Header-only object reads (
read_object_header) in the lilush git core, soshow_sizeslistings stop inflating every blob.Pack building on
git clone, profiled against the lilush repo (~9.5k objects, 21 MB generated pack, ~3.5 s clone wall time, of which ~1 s iscollect_objectsand ~2 s isbuild_pack):Every object is read and fully inflated twice — once during collection, once during serialization (2N
read_objectcalls, ~116 MB inflated for the 21 MB pack). Memoizing contents between the two passes, or header-only reads for blobs during collection (collection parses only commits, trees and tags), halves the read cost.zlib.compressaccounts for roughly a third of the build (58 MB in, 21 MB out); the trailing sha1 over the pack is negligible.Undeltified output makes the pack about 3.4x larger than git's own for the same repo (20.7 MB vs 6.1 MB), which inflates both compression and transfer cost. Delta reuse from existing packs is the larger, deferred fix.
Deferred features:
SIGHUP rescan of
repos_dir(today: restart to pick up new repos).Source blob view with line numbers and optional client-side syntax highlighting.
Content diffs in the commit view (needs a line-diff implementation; today it lists changed files only, against the first parent).
Full-history log across all parents (today: first-parent walk).
Search across repos.
Tarball snapshots (needs a tar writer).