Question around git-shell usage in Everyday Git

[Alan Chandler <alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk>]

In the Repository Administrator section of the Everyday Git document it shows 
how to allocate accounts to developers so that you can have fine grained 
control over access to the repository (I assume it is because of that.  
Otherwise I assume you would do what I have done, and that is create a "git" 
user, with a home directory where you want to locate your repositories and 
then tell your users to put the following sort of entry in .git/remotes/xxx

URL:git@host.com:repository.git

and in ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys putting all the developers public keys.

).  But the example shows creating independant home directories for each of 
the developers - but then limiting their access by giving them git-shell as 
their shell.

I assume they would then user a .git/remotes entry of the form
URL:host.com:/absolute/path/to/repositories

My question, in this case is there any reason (such as git creating home 
directoriy temp files or something) why each developer could not have their 
home directory as the root of all the repositories (ie where my git user in 
the above example had its home directory).

This would then mean each user (unless he had a real account on that machine) 
would then use the following in .git/remotes

URL:host.com:repository.git

Which has the advantage of not revealing exactly where on your filesystem you 
have chosen to store the repository (or more precisely allowing you to move 
it without all users having to change their.git/remotes urls)


-- 
Alan Chandler
http://www.chandlerfamily.org.uk
Open Source. It's the difference between trust and antitrust.