1. Create an SSH public/private key pair

   [user@client ~]$ ssh keygen -t rsa
   

2. Upload the public key to the server

   [user@client ~]$ scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@server.example.org:/tmp/user.pub
   

3. SSH to the server and become root

   [user@client ~]$ ssh user@server.example.org
   user@server:~$ sudo su -
   

4. Install gitolite

   root@server:~# apt-get install gitolite
   

5. Switch to the gitolite user

   root@server:~# su - gitolite
   

6. Run the Gitolite setup script

   gitolite@server:~$ gl-setup /tmp/user.pub
   

7. From your client computer clone the gitolite-admin repository

   [user@client ~]$ git clone gitolite@server.example.org:gitolite-admin
   Cloning into gitolite-admin...
   remote: Counting objects: 6, done.
   remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
   remote: Total 6 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
   Receiving objects: 100% (6/6), done.
   

8. Switch to the gitolite-admin directory

   [user@client ~]$ cd gitolite-admin
   

9. Create a test repository

   [user@client gitolite-admin]$ vim conf/gitolite.conf
   [user@client gitolite-admin]$ git commit -a -m "Add test repository"
   [user@client gitolite-admin]$ git a
   [master 507045a] Add test repository
    1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
   [user@client gitolite-admin]$ git push
   Counting objects: 7, done.
   Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
   Compressing objects: 100% (3/3), done.
   Writing objects: 100% (4/4), 376 bytes, done.
   Total 4 (delta 1), reused 0 (delta 0)
   remote: Already on 'master'
   remote: creating test...
   remote: Initialized empty Git repository in /var/lib/gitolite/repositories/test.git/
   To gitolite@server.example.org:gitolite-admin
      87cc470..507045a  master -> master
   

10. Clone the test repository

    [user@client ~]$ git clone gitolite@server.example.org:test
    Cloning into test...
    warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.
    

11. Add a README file to the test repository

    [user@client test]$ echo "Test Repo" > README
    [user@client test]$ git commit -a -m "Initial commit"
    [master (root-commit) 4a49ee0] Initial commit
     1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
     create mode 100644 README
    

12. Push the changes to the server

    [user@client test]$ git push origin master
    Counting objects: 3, done.
    Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 218 bytes, done.
    Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
    To gitolite@server.example.org:test
     * [new branch]      master -> master
    

Check out the Gitolite wiki for more documentation.

Features

• Centralized configuration management
• Files live in their native locations (no symbolic linking)
• Home directory is not a Git repository
• All the power of git with a simple alias

Setup Repository

• Log into GitHub and create a repository named config
• Add your public keys to GitHub (if you haven't done so already)

• Open a terminal and switch to your home directory

  cd ~
  

• Create a configuration directory

  mkdir .config.git
  

• Add the following alias to your current session and your .bash_profile

  alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.config.git/ --work-tree=$HOME'
  echo "alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.config.git/ --work-tree=$HOME'" >> .bash_profile
  

• Add your .bash_profile to the configuration repository

  config add .bash_profile
  

• Commit the changes

  config commit -m 'Initial commit'
  

• Change the origin to GitHub

  config remote add origin git@github.com:GITHUB_USERNAME/config.git
  

• Push the changes

  config push origin master
  

If you get an error when running config pull to the effect of You asked me to pull without... run the follow:

    echo -e '[branch "master"]\n  remote = origin\n  merge = refs/heads/master' >> ~/.config.git/config

Setup Configuration Management on a Different System

1. Add your public keys to GitHub (if you haven't done so already)

2. Switch to your home directory

   cd ~
   

3. Backup your local configuration files, example:

   mv .bash_profile .bash_profile.bk
   

4. Clone your configuration repository

   git clone git@github.com:GITHUB_USERNAME/config.git config.git
   

5. Move the git metadata to ~/.config.git

   mv config.git/.git .config.git
   

6. Enable dotglob

   shopt -s dotglob
   

7. Move your configuration files to your home directory

   mv -i config.git/* .
   

8. Delete the config.git directory

   rmdir config.git
   

9. Logout and log back in

Basic Usage

• config pull - get latest configuration changes
• config add FILENAME - add a configuration file
• config commit -a - save all configuration changes
• config push - push configuration changes to GitHub
• and any other config GIT_OPTION

You can see my configuration repository at http://github.com/silas/config.

Source: Manage your $HOME with git by Robert Escriva