Executing git commands via PHP

Question

How can git commands like git add . and git commit -m be executed using php?

It is for a project that creates a centralized repository facility for maintaining academic projects.

exec() didn't seem to work.

<?php
$path = "/var/www/repos/$_POST[project]"; 
$a='';
chdir($path);
exec("git add .");  
exec("git commit -m'message'");
echo "<h3 align = center> Succesfully commited all the files.</h3>";
?>

`exec` should work fine as long as the PHP script has permissions to update your repo. Try using `system()` and see what the return value is. — Prisoner, Dec 19 '11 at 14:12
solved...problem was with the ownership of .git,it was not www-data — rjv, Dec 19 '11 at 14:31
Using a library like [php-git](https://github.com/libgit2/php-git) — Mark Baker, Dec 19 '11 at 14:11
Is it possible to do it by making modifications to the code given? — rjv, Dec 19 '11 at 14:14

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '11 at 14:20

14

It is definetly possible. I implemented it in one of my projects. However you should be careful about permissions.

On linux, usually, the exec command will execute using the www-data user. So you should allow www-data to write and read on your work directory.

One quick and dirty way to do it is : chmod o+rw -R git_directory

answered Dec 19 '11 at 14:20

Oli

15,935
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simply put,the git init command must be run by the user "www-data".That solved my problem,doing it by using a php script – rjv Dec 21 '11 at 16:03
I am new to GIT and linux(I am windows user) can you please explain how did this worked for you? Where did you executed chmod command (in php of cmd?) & what is git_directory? is it '.git'? – Abhishek Sachan Apr 17 '14 at 15:08
@asachanfbd, 1) chmod should be executed in the command line using sudo, 2) git_directory is the parent directory of .git – Oli Apr 18 '14 at 01:46
how about in windows (xampp server), its not working for me. when running `whoami` , the user is `nt authority\system` . how can i give authorization for that user? – reignsly Jul 10 '15 at 10:02

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 29 '16 at 19:16

5

There is another solution, which is to simply use php backticks like so

$message = `git log -1 --pretty=%B`; // get commit message

or

$deploy_tag = `git describe --tags`; // get commit tags

or

$hash = `git log -1 --pretty=%h`; // get the hash

answered Nov 29 '16 at 19:16

Tim Hallman

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15
27

webcoder.co.uk · Answer 3 · 2017-05-03T08:02:19.930

I first run a test against my bitbucket server instance to get any error messages output on screen:

echo shell_exec("cd /website/root/htdocs && git status 2>&1");

this threw an error that it could not find git command hence had to provide a full path to git's binary:

'which git'

returned (further called YOU_FULL_GIT_BINARY_PATH_HERE):

/usr/local/git/bin/git

A full path e.g. '/usr/local/git/bin/git status' now runs git commands nicely.

This doesn't overcome git password required to use 'git pull' command for a set in .git/config git user. Running below command in git repo:

git config credential.helper store

[command][1] will prompt for password and let you store it locally unencrypted (protected only by file system e.g. in /root/.git-credentials). This will allow to run 'git pull' without prompting for password. Alternatively (probably better) is to generate ssh keys for your web server such as apached then add them to your bitbucket user dedicated account or repo keys.

All my folders have been set to be owned by apache user (Centos 6.8 other releases might be www-data:www-data etc.):

chown -R apache:apache YOUR_WEB_FODLER

I did not have to use the dirty trick 'chmod o+rw -R' to get all working.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 23 '17 at 02:03

I found a pretty simple solutions to 2 problems here

1) Git pull from a secured remote without using password

create a ssh key pairs , using ssh-keygen
upload public key to ur git remote host
configure ~/.ssh/config file to add instruct to use this generated private key by git
```
host gitlab.com
 HostName gitlab.com
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/private_key
 User git
```
That's all now any git command will use this private_key to connect to remote

2) Running git command from www-data user

update sudoers file to allow www-data user to run git commands, to edit run following command
```
$ sudo visudo
```
add folowing line under user preferences
```
www-data    ALL=(raaghu) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/git
```
meaning www-data user from ALL terminals acting as raaghu can run /usr/bin/git with NOPASSWD

Please Note: Don't try this method if you don't understand the sudoers file , otherwise this may create security hole

Create git-pull.sh file to run git commands

cd /var/www/my-repo
sudo -u raaghu git pull origin

run this git-pull.sh file from php

exec("/bin/bash /var/www/git-pull.sh");

Executing git commands via PHP

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