the access control file `gitolite.conf`

Gitolite has an advanced access control language that is designed to be powerful but easy to use. Other objectives were that it should be even easier to read, review and audit the rules, and it should scale to thousands of repos and users. There was also, in the author's mind, a desperate need to create something as different as possible from the brain-dead, nausea-inducing "Windows INI" style syntax that some other popular tools seem to favour.

a quick summary of the conf file

This is a quick recap of the most common elements in a typical config file. (In the following description, the angle brackets are not part of the syntax).

(optional) group definitions

@<groupname> = <list of users and groups>

repo access rules
```
repo <reponame>
    # one or more access rules like
    <permission> <optional refex> = <list of users and groups>
```
The most common permissions are:
- R, for read only
- RW, for push existing ref or create new ref
- RW+, for "push -f" or ref deletion allowed (i.e., destroy information)
- - (the minus sign), to deny access
If no refex is supplied, the access rule applies to all refs.

Later, gitolite acquired
- RWC and RW+C, for ref creation. Once you use this in a repo, a normal RW/RW+ can no longer create a ref; it can only push existing refs (Note also that a standalone "C" permission is something completely different)
- RWD and RW+D, for ref deletion. Once you use this in a repo, a normal RW+ can no longer delete a ref; it can only rewind
- (RWCD and RW+CD, which is just a combination of these two)
Even later, gitolite acquired, if you want to enforce a rebase-only workflow.

The following sections dig deeper into the syntax and semantics of the access control rules and other configuration directives in the gitolite.conf file. If narrative descriptions scare you, or your English is not upto scratch, try gitolite config by example also.

lexical syntax: Link

basic access control: Link

advanced access control: Link

summary: permissions

The full set of permissions, in regex syntax: -|R|RW+?C?D?M?. This expands to one of -, R, RW, RW+, RWC, RW+C, RWD, RW+D, RWCD, or RW+CD, all but the first one optionally followed by an M. And by now you know what they all mean.

[Side note: There is one more very important permission to be dealt with -- the standalone C, which is not really a "ref" level permission and can be found in doc/wildcard-repositories.mkd.]