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I'm trying to install git server. When I set default shell for my git user to /usr/bin/git-shell I get an error upon login as git.

fatal: Interactive git shell is not enabled.
hint: ~/git-shell-commands should exist and have read and execute access.

Ssh key based access work, permissions are set correctly.

Google search does not show anything regarding this error.

I also used this method in past installations and no such error was shown. Also I looked at working server if it has some extra files or config but no such thing.

System spec:

  • Gentoo linux (latest)
  • Git 1.7.5.3

/etc/passwd line:

git:x:1002:1004::/home/git:/usr/bin/git-shell
Peter
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  • `git-shell` is a restricted shell to be used for push/pull functionality only (i.e. `git push`, `git fetch` and `git pull`). It's not meant to be interactive, so you should not login in an interactive shell. You can make it somewhat interactive by adding a `git-shell-commands` directory in the user's home and symlinking some binaries inside. But it's very limited (there's no binary for `cd`, for example), so a better alternative is to login as `root` or a `sudo`able user and do `sudo -u git -s` to get a full `bash` shell under the `git` user. – ADTC Jul 23 '16 at 03:06

5 Answers5

19

I found this after running locate git-shell-commands

cat /usr/share/doc/git-1.7.4.4/contrib/git-shell-commands/README

Sample programs callable through git-shell. Place a directory named 'git-shell-commands' in the home directory of a user whose shell is git-shell. Then anyone logging in as that user will be able to run executables in the 'git-shell-commands' directory.

Provided commands:

help: Prints out the names of available commands. When run interactively, git-shell will automatically run 'help' on startup, provided it exists.

list: Displays any bare repository whose name ends with ".git" under user's home directory. No other git repositories are visible, although they might be clonable through git-shell. 'list' is designed to minimize the number of calls to git that must be made in finding available repositories; if your setup has additional repositories that should be user-discoverable, you may wish to modify 'list' accordingly.

So I ran the following commands as root:

cp /usr/share/doc/git-1.7.4.4/contrib/git-shell-commands /home/git -R
chown git:developers /home/git/git-shell-commands/ -R
chmod +x /home/git/git-shell-commands/help
chmod +x /home/git/git-shell-commands/list
exit

I was then able to run the following as the git user:

[me@svn ~]$ su git
Password:
Run 'help' for help, or 'exit' to leave.  Available commands:
list
git> help
Run 'help' for help, or 'exit' to leave.  Available commands:
list
git> list
git> exit

Now I don't see what good help and list are, but the login worked. :)

Anthony Geoghegan
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david
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    there would have to be bare repositories in the users' home directories for "list" to do anything (as per the readme) – michael Sep 04 '12 at 02:36
6

i just had to do # mkdir ~git/git-shell-commands then su git worked for git 1.8.1.5-r1

pjammer
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    Yeah, it works. Now you're in the git shell. Then what? It's completely useless for interaction unless you symlink some binaries inside `git-shell-commands` folder. I think it's more useful to skip all that and do `sudo -u git -s` so that you get a full `bash` shell with access to all binaries. You also stay in the current directory. – ADTC Jul 23 '16 at 03:00
3

If you look at the code which triggers that error message (which seems to have been different in older versions of Git):

if (access(COMMAND_DIR, R_OK | X_OK) == -1) {
  die("Interactive git shell is not enabled.\n"
     "hint: ~/" COMMAND_DIR " should exist "
     "and have read and execute access.");

this should be a right issue on the git-shell directory.

The user must have read and execute permissions to the directory in order to execute the programs in it.

VonC
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1

I'm late to the party, but as stated in the git docs, all you have to do is run the following command on the remote host:

chsh -s $(command -v git-shell) <user>

Worked for me.

Dave M
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randmin
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0

Apply these two commands it will resolve this issue:

To enable git-shell for your_git_user:

usermod -s /usr/bin/git-shell your_git_user

To change owner of your_git_user directory recursively:

chown -R your_git_user:your_users_group /home/your_git_user

You may add git shell commands using below command:

cp /usr/share/doc/git-1.8.3.1/contrib/git-shell-commands/ /home/your_git_user/git-shell-commands -R

iamfnizami
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