zig-gitweb

A fast web frontend for git repositories, implemented in Zig. This is implemented as a lightweight CGI application for browsing git repositories through a web interface.

Features

📊 Repository summary with recent commits, branches, and tags
📜 Commit log with pagination
🌳 Tree/file browser with syntax highlighting
🔍 Commit diff viewer
📦 Snapshot downloads (tar.gz, zip)
🏷️ Tag and branch browsing
⚡ Fast and lightweight CGI application
🔧 Written in Zig for performance and safety

Requirements

Zig 0.15.1 or later
libgit2
zlib

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install libgit2

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install libgit2-dev zlib1g-dev

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/mrjbq7/zig-gitweb.git
cd zig-gitweb
zig build

This will create gitweb.cgi in zig-out/bin/.

Usage

As a CGI Application

Configure your web server to execute gitweb.cgi as a CGI script. The application reads repository locations from a configuration file.

Apache Configuration Example

ScriptAlias /git "/path/to/gitweb.cgi"
<Directory "/path/to">
    Options ExecCGI
    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Nginx Configuration Example (with fcgiwrap)

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name zig-gitweb;
    root /zig-gitweb;

    # Index redirects to cgi
    location = / { rewrite ^ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi last; }

    # Try and load static files
    location / { try_files $uri $uri/ @gitweb; }

    # Otherwise forward to the cgi
    location @gitweb { rewrite ^ /cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?url=$uri&$args last; }

    # Allow only *.cgi to execute
    location ~ ^/cgi-bin/(.+\.cgi)$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/cgi-bin/$1;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME     /cgi-bin/$1;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO       "";
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/fcgiwrap.socket;
    }

    # Everything else under /cgi-bin is blocked (prefix location has lower prio than regex)
    location /cgi-bin/ { return 404; }
}

Factor Configuration Example

You can use Factor to serve this also:

TUPLE: zig-gitweb < file-responder ;

: <zig-gitweb> ( root -- responder )
    zig-gitweb new
        swap >>root
        [ (serve-static) ] >>hook
        H{ } clone >>special
    enable-cgi ;

M: zig-gitweb call-responder*
    dup file-responder set
    over [ f ] [ "/" join serving-path file-exists? ] if-empty [
        url get
            rot "/" join "url" set-query-param
            "gitweb.cgi" >>path drop { "gitweb.cgi" } swap
    ] unless call-next-method ;

Testing Locally

# Create a test repository
mkdir -p /tmp/git
git init --bare /tmp/git/myproject.git

# Create a minimal configuration
echo "scan-path=/tmp/git" > /tmp/gitweb.conf

# Test the CGI directly
GITWEB_CONFIG=/tmp/gitweb.conf QUERY_STRING="r=myproject" REQUEST_METHOD=GET ./zig-out/bin/gitweb.cgi

URL Parameters

r - Repository name (e.g., ?r=myproject)
cmd - Command/page to display:
- summary - Repository overview (default)
- log - Commit history
- tree - File browser
- commit - Commit details
- diff - Commit differences
- refs - Branches and tags
- snapshot - Download archive
id - Commit/tree/tag ID
path - File or directory path
h - Branch/tag reference

Example URLs

/git?r=myproject - Repository summary
/git?r=myproject&cmd=log - Commit log
/git?r=myproject&cmd=tree - Browse files
/git?r=myproject&cmd=commit&id=abc123 - View specific commit
/git?r=myproject&cmd=snapshot&h=main&fmt=tar.gz - Download tarball

Configuration

Configuration File

zig-gitweb uses a configuration file (gitweb.conf) to specify repository locations and settings. The configuration file is read from:

The path specified in the GITWEB_CONFIG environment variable
/etc/gitweb.conf (default location)

See gitweb.conf.example for a complete example configuration.

Repository Setup

There are several ways to configure repositories:

1. Automatic scanning with scan-path

# In gitweb.conf:
scan-path=/srv/git

All bare git repositories under /srv/git will be automatically discovered.

2. Manual repository configuration

# In gitweb.conf:
repo.url=myproject
repo.path=/path/to/myproject.git
repo.desc=My Project Description
repo.owner=John Doe

3. Project list file

# In gitweb.conf:
project-list=/etc/gitweb-projects.txt

Where the project list file contains repository paths, one per line.

Example: Setting up repositories

# Create a directory for git repositories
sudo mkdir -p /srv/git
sudo chown $USER:$USER /srv/git

# Create a bare repository
git init --bare /srv/git/myproject.git

# Push an existing project
cd /path/to/existing/project
git remote add web /srv/git/myproject.git
git push web main

# Configure gitweb.conf
sudo tee /etc/gitweb.conf <<EOF
scan-path=/srv/git
root-title=My Git Repositories
root-desc=Source code repository browser
EOF

Customization

Static files are located in the static/ directory:

gitweb.css - Stylesheet customization
gitweb.js - JavaScript enhancements

Development

Building

zig build                 # Build the project
zig build test            # Run tests
zig build --release=fast  # Build optimized version

Project Structure

zig-gitweb/
├── src/
│   ├── main.zig       # CGI entry point
│   ├── gitweb.zig     # Core types and configuration
│   ├── git.zig        # libgit2 wrapper
│   ├── cmd.zig        # Command dispatcher
│   ├── html.zig       # HTML generation utilities
│   └── ui/            # UI handlers for each command
│       ├── log.zig
│       ├── commit.zig
│       ├── tree.zig
│       └── ...
├── static/            # CSS, JS, and other static files
├── build.zig          # Build configuration
└── build.zig.zon      # Package manifest

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

Acknowledgments

This project is inspired by cgit, but freshly implemented in Zig. It currently uses libgit2 for git repository access, and zlib for compression.