GIT-REMOTE-GCRYPT(1) | GIT-REMOTE-GCRYPT(1) |
git-remote-gcrypt - GNU Privacy Guard-encrypted git remote
git-remote-gcrypt is a git remote helper to push and pull from repositories encrypted with GnuPG, using a custom format. This remote helper handles URIs prefixed with gcrypt::.
Supported backends are local, rsync:// and sftp://, where the repository is stored as a set of files, or instead any <giturl> where gcrypt will store the same representation in a git repository, bridged over arbitrary git transport. See "Performance" below for backends comparison.
There is also an experimental rclone:// backend for early adoptors only (you have been warned).
The aim is to provide confidential, authenticated git storage and collaboration using typical untrusted file hosts or services.
Create an encrypted remote by pushing to it:
git remote add cryptremote gcrypt::rsync://example.com/repo git push cryptremote master > gcrypt: Setting up new repository > gcrypt: Remote ID is :id:7VigUnLVYVtZx8oir34R > [ more lines .. ] > To gcrypt::[...] > * [new branch] master -> master
The following git-config(1) variables are supported:
If this option is not set, we encrypt to your default key and accept any valid signature. This behavior can also be requested explicitly by setting participants to simple.
The gcrypt-participants setting on the remote takes precedence over the repository variable gcrypt.participants.
The problem with using gpg -R is that to decrypt, gpg tries each available secret key in turn until it finds a usable key. This can result in unnecessary passphrase prompts.
If this flag is set to true, git-remote-gcrypt will refuse to push, unless --force is passed, or refspecs are prefixed with +.
How to set up a remote for two participants:
git remote add cryptremote gcrypt::rsync://example.com/repo git config remote.cryptremote.gcrypt-participants "KEY1 KEY2" git push cryptremote master
How to use a git backend:
# notice that the target git repo must already exist and its # `next` branch will be overwritten! git remote add gitcrypt gcrypt::git@example.com:repo#next git push gitcrypt master
The URL fragment (#next here) indicates which backend branch is used.
The rclone backend is considered experimental and is for early adoptors only. You have been warned.
EncSign(X): Sign and Encrypt to GPG key holder Encrypt(K,X): Encrypt using symmetric-key algorithm Hash(X): SHA-2/256 B: branch list L: list of the hash (Hi) and key (Ki) for each packfile R: Remote ID To write the repository: Store each packfile P as Encrypt(Ki, P) → P' in filename Hi
where Ki is a new random string and Hash(P') → Hi
Store EncSign(B || L || R) in the manifest To read the repository: Get manifest, decrypt and verify using GPG keyring → (B, L, R) Warn if R does not match previously seen Remote ID for each Hi, Ki in L:
Get file Hi from the server → P' Verify Hash(P') matches Hi Decrypt P' using Ki → P then open P with git
Example manifest file (with ellipsis for brevity):
$ gpg -d 91bd0c092128cf2e60e1a608c31e92caf1f9c1595f83f2890ef17c0e4881aa0a 542051c7cd152644e4995bda63cc3ddffd635958 refs/heads/next 3c9e76484c7596eff70b21cbe58408b2774bedad refs/heads/master pack :SHA256:f2ad50316...cd4ba67092dc4 z8YoAnFpMlW...3PkI2mND49P1qm pack :SHA256:a6e17bb4c...426492f379584 82+k2cbiUn7...dgXfyX6wXGpvVa keep :SHA256:f2ad50316...cd4ba67092dc4 1 repo :id:OYiSleGirtLubEVqJpFF
Each item extends until newline, and matches one of the following:
To detect if a git url is a gcrypt repo, use: git-remote-gcrypt --check url Exit status is 0 if the repo exists and can be decrypted, 1 if the repo uses gcrypt but could not be decrypted, and 100 if the repo is not encrypted with gcrypt (or could not be accessed).
Note that this has to fetch the repo contents into the local git repository, the same as is done when using a gcrypt repo.
Every git push effectively has --force. Be sure to pull before pushing.
git-remote-gcrypt can decide to repack the remote without warning, which means that your push can suddenly take significantly longer than you were expecting, as your whole history has to be reuploaded. This push might fail over a poor link.
git-remote-gcrypt might report a repository as "not found" when the repository does in fact exist, but git-remote-gcrypt is having authentication, port, or network connectivity issues.
The original author of git-remote-gcrypt was GitHub user bluss.
The de facto maintainer in 2013 and 2014 was Joey Hess.
The current maintainer, since 2016, is Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>.
This document and git-remote-gcrypt are licensed under identical terms, GPL-3 (or 2+); see the git-remote-gcrypt file.