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GitLab FI

GitLab is a web manager for Git repositories, similar to the well-known service GitHub . In addition to managing repositories (which are called projects here), GitLab can also do this Wiki and Issue tracking .

Rules of use

  • it is forbidden to change your name even though GitLab allows it
  • it is forbidden to change the group path
  • repositories are not designed to embed very large files
  • the size of one repository has a hard limit of 3 GiB, after exceeding 2 GiB in total, a notification e-mail will be sent automatically
    (Project → Settings → Housekeeping can reduce the size of individual repositories)
  • users have a global limit of 100 repositories , which can be increased on request
  • pay attention to compliance operating rules

Login

If you have an active account at the Faculty of Informatics, you can log in using LDAP authentication at the following URL:


https://gitlab.fi.muni.cz/

Enter your faculty login and password, the account will be created automatically after the first login.

More login options

without having to enter a password

SSH key
Kerberos SPNEGO

External accounts

GitLab allows you to create a type of account that you cannot own or create projects with. They can only contribute to projects to which they are given explicit access. These accounts are referred to as external . It is possible to use them to make projects accessible to researchers and colleagues from other institutions, opponents or consultants of final theses, etc.

Management of external accounts

It is not possible to create external accounts directly in GitLab FI, FI employees (members of the group fi-int ) can, however, create, manage and block external accounts in external account management application in the Faculty Administration. Documentation and help can be found directly in the application.

Account validity

The GitLab account associated with the faculty account is only valid if the faculty account is active and unblocked. If the faculty account is blocked or expired, access to GitLab, including SSH keys , will also be blocked.

SSH key

If you want to work with the repository from your computer without having to enter the password every time, you can upload a public SSH key to your profile. Follow the instructions , here are only tips especially for UN * X systems.

Creating an SSH key

Program ssh-keygen may ask for a password while creating the key. It is not mandatory, using a key without a password is then easier, however, a key with a password is more secure.

Use a key without a password

You can test the functionality of the key with the command

ssh -i $cesta_k_PRIVATNIMU_klici git@gitlab.fi.muni.cz

The output of the command should be similar to the following:

Welcome to GitLab, 
(Jmeno, Prijmeni)
Connection to gitlab.fi.muni.cz closed.

Add the following lines to ~/.ssh/config (file may not already exist):

Host gitlab gitlab.fi.muni.cz
    HostName gitlab.fi.muni.cz
    IdentityFile cesta_k_PRIVATNIMU_klici

The meaning of individual lines see ssh_config(5) . Try that command ssh git@gitlab has the same output as above without explicitly specifying the key.

Using a password key

If you use this type of key as if it were without a password, every operation with GitLab will require a password to the key, which brings almost no advantages over normal login. With the help of the SSH agent, the key can be unlocked only once and then used repeatedly:

ssh-agent $SHELL
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_gitlab

The first command starts the agent, which then starts a new shell from the variable $SHELL . If your shell does not set this variable, enter the path to the program instead (e.g. /bin/sh ). Exiting the shell also terminates the agent. For more information on commands, see the manual pages for ssh-agent(1) and ssh-add(1) .

Please note that in the older version of this documentation and on the various discussion forums, you can find the procedure that uses the command eval $(ssh-agent -c) or similar. We do not recommend using this procedure because it does not guarantee the correct termination of the agent.

Kerberos

GitLab allows you to log in to the interface and clone repositories using Kerberos tickets .

Use on Nymph stations

After logging in to the graphical environment of the computers nymfe* the user automatically receives a Kerberos ticket, which can be verified by a command klist : 


login@nymfe01:~$ klist
Ticket cache: FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_15291
Default principal: 
login@FI.MUNI.CZ

Valid starting       Expires              Service principal
12/17/2019 16:16:56  12/18/2019 16:16:51  krbtgt/FI.MUNI.CZ@FI.MUNI.CZ

  • Login

    When logging in to Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome (or Chromium), you can use the Kerberos Spnego button instead of entering a password with a valid ticket.
    GitLab Spnego

  • Cloning

    When cloning a repository, use the address from Clone with KRB5 .
    GitLab KRB5 clone

  • Synchronization

    Commands git pull and git push they will also work without a password with a valid ticket.

Tip
You can request a ticket explicitly by order kinit . This can be useful for remote SSH access with SSH key authentication (eg on Aisa), where the ticket is not created automatically.

Use from Aisa, Anxur or Aura servers

This logon mechanism can generally be used on other UNIX machines that have Kerberos for the domain FI.MUNI.CZ configured.

  • Login

    1. Login with a password

    If you enter a password when logging in to the server, then you should have a ticket available immediately. Try the command:

    
login@aisa$ klist

    2. Login without a password

    Login without a password (eg using an SSH key) does not create a ticket. If you do not have another, type the command:

    
login@aisa$ kinit

    After entering the password, verify with klist that you have a ticket.

  • Working with Git

    You can now use operations in Git that work with Kerberos authentication ( Cloning and Synchronization above).

  • Ticket renewal

    If the ticket expires, the operations will stop working. For security reasons, GitLab reports a non-existent repository for each unauthorized access (even though it actually exists), so the error message may be a bit unexpected.

    In any case, check with klist that you have a valid ticket, and if not, create a new one with the command kinit .

Setting up your own computer

This option can only be used for machines in the FI network. See also Restrictions on access to the FI network .

  • Kerberos

    To use Kerberos authentication on your own computer, you must have the tools for this authentication mechanism installed, such as from packages krb5-user (Ubuntu, Debian) or krb5-workstation (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora). To obtain a ticket, use the command: 
    
user@machine:~$ kinit login@FI.MUNI.CZ

  • Git

    Git may require a password during cloning and synchronization, which will result in an error when authenticating with Kerberos HTTP Basic: Access denied .
    This can be solved with the following command: 
    
# nastavení pro uživatele

user@machine:~$ git config --global http.emptyAuth true

# nastavení pro celý systém

user@machine:~$ sudo git config --system http.emptyAuth true

  • Mozilla Firefox

    Enter in the address bar about:config . Locate the key in the configuration network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris and add value fi.muni.cz .

  • Chromium

    Launch the browser with the parameter --auth-server-whitelist=*.fi.muni.cz . It may be helpful to create your own script that will run Chromium with this parameter and place it in /usr/local/bin .

Documentation of services and functions

Documentation on GitLab features can be found on the page help . We especially recommend

Repository sharing

If you want to access the repository to other people beyond the "visibility" project (Private, Public or Internal), you can set them as members (members) of the project, see adding members .

If you want to make a private or internal project available to a person without a faculty account and that person only needs access to download the project (ie does not need access to Issues, wikis, etc.), you can use Deploy keys (basically read-only access to the project using an SSH key). If access to other services or the opportunity to contribute to the project is required, the project must be published or an external account must be created for the person (ask the administrators).

Email replies

Faculty GitLab has the Reply by E-mail feature enabled, which allows you to reply to comments, "issues" and "milestones" directly by e-mail. However, for proper operation, it is important to follow a few rules:

  • reply directly to incoming email using the feature Reply , do not write a new e-mail
  • write your answer only above the citation or preferably delete the citation, as GitLab may not delete the citation correctly
  • if you digitally sign your e-mails, it is better not to add a signature to the reply to GitLab

Markdown can be used in e-mail and attachments can be added, which will then appear as attachments in the reply in GitLab.

Backup

Git Repositories

User and group repositories are regularly backed up automatically as git bundles . Backup takes place early every morning. Request recovery of a mistakenly deleted repository at gitlab@fi.muni.cz .

Repository usually can not be restored directly to GitLabu but provide bundle with full backup and any other files with incremental backup. This backup can be restored as follows:

  • Files

    Assume a full backup in the file repo.9RhwIP.0.bundle and two incremental file backups repo.9RhwIP.1.bundle and repo.9RhwIP.2.bundle .

  • Restore a full backup

    Create a clone of the repository from a full backup to a directory repo : 
    git clone --mirror repo.9RhwIP.0.bundle repo

  • Incremental backups

    Move the full backup to use the cycle: 
    mv -i repo.9RhwIP.0.bundle repo.9RhwIP.bundle
    Restore incremental backups: 
    for bundle in repo.9RhwIP.*.bundle; do
    git -C repo remote set-url origin "${PWD}/${bundle}"
    git -C repo remote update
done

  • Restore to GitLab FI

    If you want to return the repository to GitLab FI, create a new project for it and run the following commands: 
    git -C repo remote set-url origin ${url_repozitáře}
git -C repo push --all
git -C repo push --tags
Project wiki pages are also stored as Git repositories and can be restored from backups in a similar way.

Issues, Milestones,…

Other project components (eg Issues) are backed up together with the GitLab database. However, restoring these backups is difficult and only the overall state of the database can be restored.

Therefore, these backups are for recovery purposes only in the event of a total outage. Complete renewal of individual projects (except for repositories, see above) is not possible.

For information on backing up other systems, see the document Backup to FI .

Other interesting features

The Faculty of Informatics has a license for the version GitLab Ultimate which contains all the options including Starter and Premium versions. On the linked page you will find a list and comparison of versions. Of these, the following could be of interest to users at the Faculty of Informatics:

More links and tutorials