How do I prevent apache from serving the .git directory?

Question

I have started using git for deployment of websites for testing. How do I prevent apache from serving the .git directory contents?

I tried

<Directorymatch "^/.*/\.git/">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directorymatch>

with no success.

I know that I can create a .htaccess file in each .git directory and deny access, but I wanted something I could put into the main config file that makes this global across all websites.

Answer 1

It's not because you have 'svn' and not 'git' in the rule is it?

<Directorymatch "^/.*/\.git/">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directorymatch>

Answer 2

If you're on a shared hosting service and don't have access to apache.conf, you can still do it in your .htaccess file, like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule "^(.*/)?\.git/" - [F,L]

Answer 3

If you don't use .htaccess files but instead want to use /etc/apache2/httpd.conf (or whatever your server's master conf file is) to hide both .git directories and .gitignore files, you can use the following. I found the answer above for master conf setting did not hide the gitignore file.

# do not allow .git version control files to be issued
<Directorymatch "^/.*/\.git+/">
  Order deny,allow
  Deny from all
</Directorymatch>
<Files ~ "^\.git">
    Order allow,deny
    Deny from all 
</Files>

Answer 4

To protect both the .git directory as well as other files such as .gitignore and .gitmodules using .htaccess, use:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?\.git+ - [F,L]
ErrorDocument 403 "Access Forbidden"

Answer 5

Assuming your webserver is using a different user than the one you use to access the .git repository, you could disable the execute bit for others on the .git directory.

This should work with other webservers and doesn't rely on performance-consuming .htaccess files.