Deploying site with Git: post-update hook works first time, then never again

Question

Having a strange issue with a git post-update hook. I created repository on my server (/var/www/vhosts/git/master.git) and in this repository added a post-update ho

Answer 1

You seem to have have a permission issue. Take a look on the permissions on the/var/www/* path and ensure that your git user has permission to read/write/delete on the files.

I have used a much simpler technique (here is a detailed script) that allowed me to use my server as git server with gitolite and deploy on push without having to clone the repository on the /var/www/myproject path. It is working for me on git 1.7.9 and Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS with Apache/2.2.22.

1. Create your rpository on the server:

   mkdir myproject.git && cd myproject.git
   git init --bare
   

2. Configure the repository:

   git config core.worktree /var/www/myproject
   git config core.bare false
   git config receive.denycurrentbranch ignore
   

3. Edit or create the hooks/post-receive and make it runnable

   touch hooks/post-receive
   chmod u+x hooks/post-receive
   

Here is the file content:

#!/bin/sh
git checkout -f

You are ready to do a push and have it working.

My git user is called git and my apache used the ubuntu user. I had to edit the apache configuration on /etc/apache2/conf.d/security (you can do it on /etc/apache2/http.conf also) to include:

User git
Group git

Now my /var/www/myproject deploys all the files on push, creating the files with git:git user/group and my apache uses the same user/group to run.

Now you just have to restart your server or do a service apache2 restart