GReWritter

Gitlab Raw Files URL Rewritter

Gitlab up to version 13, does not support serving raw files without query strings, see issue 19189.

Serving raw files without query strings is necessary to use Gitlab as a Source Server for Microsoft Debugging Tools.

This small express application acts as a proxy, receiving raw file requests without query strings and converting them to Gitlab API request (that use query strings).

The target Gitlab instance URL is specified by setting the environmental viriable GITLAB_URL before runing the server.

As an example, if grewritter is ran with the example.com domain and the target Gitlab instance URL is gitlab.com, then the request:

https://example.com/token/${gitlab_pa_token}/proj/${project_name}/commit/${commit_hash}/path/${file_path}/file/${file_name}

Is rewritten as:

https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/${project_name}/repository/files/${file_path}%2F${file_name}/raw?ref=${commit_hash}&private_token=${gitlab_pa_token}

Where:

gitlab_pa_token : Is the Gitlab Personal Access Token which must have read permissions.
project_name : Is the combination of user name and repository name, separated by a percent encoded forward slash, e.g. username%2Freponame.
commit_hash : Is the full commit hash of the requested target file version.
file_path : Is the percent encoded relative directory of the target file (without the file name). Relative to the repository root.
file_name : Is the percent encoded target file name.

IMPORTANT : the project_name, file_path and file_name must be percent encoded, i.e. all forward slashes / must be converted to %2F.

An alternative API is requesting:

https://example.com/token/${gitlab_pa_token}/proj/${project_name}/commit/${commit_hash}/file/${file_name}

Is rewritten as:

https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/${project_name}/repository/files/${file_name}/raw?ref=${commit_hash}&private_token=${gitlab_pa_token}

In this case file_name must include the also the encoded relative directory of the target file.

Run with Node

npm install
export GITLAB_URL="https://my_gitlab.com"
node grewritter.js

Run with Docker

docker run --name grewritter --privileged \
--env GITLAB_URL="https://my_gitlab.com" \
-p 3000:3000 \
juangburgos/grewritter

Run behind Proxy

When running behind a reverse proxy, add the nocanon keyword to avoid double encoding of urls.

An example apache config is:

<VirtualHost *:443>

#   General setup for the virtual host
ServerName my_gitlab.com
ServerAdmin admin@my_gitlab.com

#   SSL Engine Switch:
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile "/etc/letsencrypt/live/my_gitlab.com/fullchain.pem"
SSLCertificateKeyFile "/etc/letsencrypt/live/my_gitlab.com/privkey.pem"

AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode
ProxyPreserveHost On
RewriteEngine On
ProxyPass / http://grewritter:3000/ nocanon
ProxyPassReverse / http://grewritter:3000/
RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Ssl on

<FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</FilesMatch>
<Directory "/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin">
    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</Directory>

BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-5]" \
         nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
         downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

CustomLog "/usr/local/apache2/logs/ssl_request_log" \
          "%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"

</VirtualHost>

juangburgos/GitlabRewritter

GReWritter

Run with Node

Run with Docker

Run behind Proxy