Git: Set up a fetch-only remote?

Question

When I run git remote -v in one of my Git repositories that has a remote(s) configured, I see that each remote has both fetch and push specs:

$ git remote -v
<remote-name> ssh://host/path/to/repo (fetch)
<remote-name> ssh://host/path/to/repo (push)

For remotes that point to peer developers there's no need to push, and Git will refuse to push to a non-bare repository anyway. Is there any way to configure these remotes as "fetch-only" with no push address or capabilities?

Answer 1

I don't think you can remove the push URL, you can only override it to be something other than the pull URL. So I think the closest you'll get is something like this:

$ git remote set-url --push origin no-pushing
$ git push
fatal: 'no-pushing' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

You are setting the push URL to no-pushing, which, as long as you don't have a folder of the same name in your working directory, git will not be able to locate. You are essentially forcing git to use a location that does not exist.

Answer 2

Apart from changing the push URL to something invalid (e.g., git remote set-url --push origin DISABLED), one can also use the pre-push hook.

One quick way to stop git push is to symlink /usr/bin/false to be the hook:

$ ln -s /usr/bin/false .git/hooks/pre-push
$ git push
error: failed to push some refs to '...'

Using a hook allows for more fine-grained control of pushes if desirable. See .git/hooks/pre-push.sample for an example of how to prevent pushing work-in-progress commits.

Answer 3

The general statement "Git will refuse to push to a non-bare repository" is not true. Git will only refuse to push to a non-bare remote repository if you are attempting to push changes that are on the same branch as the remote repository's checked-out working directory.

This answer gives a simple explanation: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2933656/1866402

(I am adding this as an answer because I don't have enough reputation to add comments yet)

Answer 4

If you have control over the repository, you can achieve this by making use of permissions. The user who is fetching repository shouldn't have write permissions on master repository.