Overview

Using Nginx as a reverse-proxy for Apache ensures that Apache is only used for dynamic content and the lighter Nginx web-server handles static content like images and css files.

Most installation guides for GitWeb assume that it will be hosted by a single web-server process (either Nginx or Apache). This article will show how to host GitWeb with Nginx acting as a front-end for Apache.

• The Server OS is Debian/Lenny “stable”
• Nginx is setup to listen for incoming connections on a publicly-accessible IP
• Apache is configured to allow for multiple virtual hosts on the localhost IP

For GitWeb to work correctly, the installed version of Nginx must support the try_files directive. Unfortuantely, the Debian “stable” version of Nginx (0.6.xx) does not. Hence, the Nginx install will need to be upgraded to 0.7.27 or higher. In Debian/Lenny, this can be easily accomplished with Backports - refer the Backports FAQ on adding backports to your sources.list file. Once that is done, the only command required is:

aptitude -t lenny-backports install nginx

Add the following to your website configuration file under /etc/nginx/sites-available:

server {

            listen   my.ip.add.ress:80;
            server_name gitweb.domain.com;
            server_name_in_redirect off;

log_format domain_gitweb '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] $status '
                '"$request" $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

            access_log /var/log/nginx/gitweb-domain_access.log domain_gitweb;
            error_log /var/log/nginx/gitweb-domain-error.log;

    gzip  on;
    gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    gzip_min_length 0;
    gzip_proxied no-cache;
    gzip_types 	text/plain text/xml text/css
    		        text/comma-separated-values
    		        text/javascript application/x-javascript;
    gzip_disable     "MSIE [1-6]\.";
    gzip_comp_level 6;
						
	    ## Only allow GET and HEAD request methods
            if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD)$ ) {
                        return 444;
                        }
						
            root   /usr/share/gitweb;
            #root has to be moved outside any location directives, otherwise adding expire headers
            #will break

        location / {
                         try_files $uri @gitweb;
                        }
						
	location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|html)$ {
                                  expires 30d;
                }
						                         
        location ~* ^.+\.(css|js)$ {
                expires 30d;
                gzip_vary on;
            }
            
        location @gitweb {
            			rewrite ([^/]+)/(.*)  /gitweb.cgi/$1 break;
            			rewrite ^(/)$ /gitweb.cgi last;
           			
		        }
	#End Rewrites
						
	#Pass to Apache										
            location ~* ^.*\.cgi(.*) {
    	        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
    	        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    	        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    	        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:80;
	    }

	}

Some of the core parameters that affect the setup are explained below:

Add The following to the site configuration file in /etc/apache2/sites-available:

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1>
        ServerName gitweb.domain.com
        ServerAdmin webmaster@domain.com
        LogLevel warn
        ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/gitweb-domain_com-error.log
        DeflateFilterNote Input input_info
        DeflateFilterNote Output output_info
        DeflateFilterNote ratio_info
        LogFormat '%h %t "%r" %{input_info}n/%{output_info}n (%{ratio_info}n%%)' compressed
        CustomLog /var/log/apache2/gitweb-domain-access.log combined
        CustomLog /var/log/apache2/gitweb-domain-deflate.log compressed

       DocumentRoot /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
        #Compression Directives
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-perl
        #Additional Compression Directives
        BrowserMatch \bMSIE\s(7|8) !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html #This will need to be modified  everytime a new IE version is released
        #Following Directives ensure mod_deflate is not used for binary file types
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:exe|t?gz|zip|bz2|sit|rar)$ no-gzip dont-vary
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.pdf$ no-gzip dont-vary
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.avi$ no-gzip dont-vary
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mov$ no-gzip dont-vary
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp3$ no-gzip dont-vary
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp4$ no-gzip dont-vary
        SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.rm$ no-gzip dont-vary

          <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin/>
          AllowOverride AuthConfig
          Order allow,deny
          Allow from all
          Options +ExecCGI +Indexes
          DirectoryIndex gitweb.cgi
          SetEnv GITWEB_CONFIG "/etc/gitweb.conf"
          AddType application/x-perl .cgi
          AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
          RewriteEngine On
          RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
          RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
          RewriteRule ^.* /gitweb.cgi/$0 [L,PT]
          </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Much of the configuration here is directly from the GitWeb README. The only additional directives here pertains to gzip compression of the output, i.e.:

Reload Nginx and Apache and then navigate to gitweb.domain.com. The familiar GitWeb page should come up. You can see a working example of this setup on my Git repositories page