A pre-receive environment for GitHub Enterprise Server is a Linux chroot
environment. Because pre-receive hooks execute on every push event, they should be fast and lightweight. The environment needed for such checks will typically be minimal.
GitHub Enterprise Server provides a default environment which includes these packages: awk
, bash
, coreutils
, curl
, find
, gnupg
, grep
, jq
, sed
.
If you have a specific requirement that isn't met by this environment, such as support for a particular language, you can create and upload your own 64-bit Linux chroot
environment.
Creating a pre-receive hook environment using Docker
You can use a Linux container management tool to build a pre-receive hook environment. This example uses Alpine Linux and Docker.
-
Ensure Docker is installed locally.
-
Create the file
Dockerfile.alpine-3.3
that contains this information:FROM gliderlabs/alpine:3.3 RUN apk add --no-cache git bash
-
From the working directory that contains
Dockerfile.alpine-3.3
, build an image:$ docker build -f Dockerfile.alpine-3.3 -t pre-receive.alpine-3.3 . > Sending build context to Docker daemon 12.29 kB > Step 1 : FROM gliderlabs/alpine:3.3 > ---> 8944964f99f4 > Step 2 : RUN apk add --no-cache git bash > ---> Using cache > ---> 0250ab3be9c5 > Successfully built 0250ab3be9c5
-
Create a container:
docker create --name pre-receive.alpine-3.3 pre-receive.alpine-3.3 /bin/true
-
Export the Docker container to a
gzip
compressedtar
file:docker export pre-receive.alpine-3.3 | gzip > alpine-3.3.tar.gz
This file
alpine-3.3.tar.gz
is ready to be uploaded to the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance.
Creating a pre-receive hook environment using chroot
-
Create a Linux
chroot
environment. -
Create a
gzip
compressedtar
file of thechroot
directory.cd /path/to/chroot tar -czf /path/to/pre-receive-environment.tar.gz .
Notes:
- Do not include leading directory paths of files within the tar archive, such as
/path/to/chroot
. /bin/sh
must exist and be executable, as the entry point into the chroot environment.- Unlike traditional chroots, the
dev
directory is not required by the chroot environment for pre-receive hooks.
- Do not include leading directory paths of files within the tar archive, such as
For more information about creating a chroot environment see "Chroot" from the Debian Wiki, "BasicChroot" from the Ubuntu Community Help Wiki, or "Installing Alpine Linux in a chroot" from the Alpine Linux Wiki.
Uploading a pre-receive hook environment on GitHub Enterprise Server
-
In the top-right corner of GitHub Enterprise Server, click your profile photo, then click Enterprise settings.
-
In the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.
-
Under " Settings", click Hooks.
-
Click Manage environments.
-
Click Add environment.
-
In the "Environment name" field, enter the desired name.
-
In the "Upload environment from a URL" field, enter the URL of the
*.tar.gz
file that contains your environment. -
Click Add environment.
Uploading a pre-receive hook environment via the administrative shell
-
Upload a readable
*.tar.gz
file that contains your environment to a web host and copy the URL or transfer the file to the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance viascp
. When usingscp
, you may need to adjust the*.tar.gz
file permissions so that the file is world readable. -
Connect to the administrative shell.
-
Use the
ghe-hook-env-create
command and type the name you want for the environment as the first argument and the full local path or URL of a*.tar.gz
file that contains your environment as the second argument.admin@ghe-host:~$ ghe-hook-env-create AlpineTestEnv /home/admin/alpine-3.3.tar.gz > Pre-receive hook environment 'AlpineTestEnv' (2) has been created.