HowTo: Easily integrate a (SSH secured) GIT repository into redmine¶

• Table of contents
• HowTo: Easily integrate a (SSH secured) GIT repository into redmine
  • Scope
  • Prerequisites
    • Example configuration
  • Step 1: Clone the repositories
  • Step 2: Introduce the repository to redmine
  • Step 3: Adding a cronjob to fetch the GIT-repository

Scope¶

This HowTo will show how to integrate a GIT repository to your redmine project and how to keep the repository up to date.

Prerequisites¶

• The owner of your redmine-directory needs an SSH-Key and (reading) access to the repository you want to integrate in redmine.
• A directory to clone the GIT-repository is needed.
• Redmine must find the GIT-binaries, that means GIT must be installed. You can check this in redmine in the "administration > repositories" settings. If there is green checkmark everything is fine. If not you have to install GIT first, e.g. via "apt-get install"

Example configuration¶

To better understand this HowTo I will use the following configuration

• My owner of redmine is called "redmine"
• My redmine main directory is "/var/lib/redmine" and I will create a subdirectory "repos" there, where I clone the repositories. So the full path of this directory is "/var/lib/redmine/repos/"
• The URL of my repo is "git.my-url.com", the name "my_repo", so full URL is "git@git.my-url.com:my_repo"

Step 1: Clone the repositories¶

First we need to clone the repository as a MIRROR (not BARE!) repository. A mirror repository has no workfiles but only the commit information what is all we need for redmine.

We switch to redmine-user and clone the repository into the choosen directory.

sudo -su redmine
cd /var/lib/redmine/repos/
git clone --mirror git@git.my-url.com:my_repo my_repo

Now all repository information are on disk, but redmine don't knows anything about that. So in the next step we will change this.

Step 2: Introduce the repository to redmine¶

Inside redmine we open the "administration > project -> repositories" dialog. You can access this dialog also via "project -> settings -> repositories". There we add a new repository

Type: GIT
Main-repository: check this if the cloned repository is you main repository, if not leave it unchecked.
Name (redmine intern): I suggest to choose the same name as the repository, e.g. "my_repo" 
Path: Absolute path of the repository, e.g. "/var/lib/redmine/repos/my_repo" 

Now redmine knows the repository. If you open the "repository"-tab inside your project you will see the repository tree, last commits and so on.

Note: When you open the dialog redmine fetchs all changeset the local repository and the redmine database since the last time anyone opend this dialog. Especially opening the dialog for the first time of a large repository may take very long. Don't cancel the progress, just let redmine work until it has finished. Possible Fallacy: When opening the dialog redmine DOESN'T fetch new commits out of GIT! This means that you will never see new commits inside redmine if you don't update the local GIT repository. For that we will write a cronjob in step 3.

Step 3: Adding a cronjob to fetch the GIT-repository¶

To keep the GIT repository automatically up to date we will add a cronjob.

We open the user specified crontab for the user "redmine" and add a cronjob to fetch all branches every five minutes.

sudo crontab -e -u redmine

*/5 * * * * cd /var/lib/redmine/repos/my_repo && git remote update --prune

Alternatively we can directly edit the "/etc/crontab"-file. If we do this we have to add the username of the repository-owner who should execute the commands.

nano /etc/crontab
*/5 * * * * redmine cd /var/lib/redmine/repos/my_repo && git fetch --all --prune

NOTE If you clone multiple repositories you have to add a crontab-line for every repository.