Makefile: add INSTALL var to set install command

[cgit.git] / README

diff --git a/README b/README
index 5917c37ce30b3f0a374c9fa376955f51f1d7bfbf..73ec332085cc3afda8023dd805552305c30fc587 100644 (file)
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,54 +1,102 @@
-Cache algorithm
-===============
-
-Cgit normally returns cached pages when invoked. If there is no cache file, or
-the cache file has expired, it is regenerated. Finally, the cache file is 
-printed on stdout.
-
-When it is decided that a cache file needs to be regenerated, an attempt is 
-made to create a corresponding lockfile. If this fails, the process gives up
-and uses the expired cache file instead.
-
-When there is no cache file for a request, an attempt is made to create a 
-corresponding lockfile. If this fails, the process calls sched_yield(2) before
-restarting the request handling.
-
-In pseudocode:
-
-       name = generate_cache_name(request);
-top:
-       if (!exists(name)) {
-               if (lock_cache(name)) {
-                       generate_cache(request, name);
-                       unlock_cache(name);
-               } else {
-                       sched_yield();
-                       goto top;
-               }
-       } else if (expired(name)) {
-               if (lock_cache(name)) {
-                       generate_cache(request, name);
-                       unlock_cache(name);
-               }
-       }
-       print_file(name);
-
-
-The following options can be set in /etc/cgitrc to control cache behaviour:
-  cache-root:        root directory for cache files
-  cache-root-ttl:    TTL for the repo listing page
-  cache-repo-ttl:    TTL for any repos summary page
-  cache-dynamic-ttl: TTL for pages with symbolic references (not SHA1)
-  cache-static-ttl:  TTL for pages with sha1 references
-
-TTL is specified in minutes, -1 meaning "infinite caching". 
-
-
-Naming of cache files
----------------------
-Repository listing:  <cachedir>/index.html
-Repository summary:  <cachedir>/<repo>/index.html
-Repository subpage:  <cachedir>/<repo>/<page>/<querystring>.html
-
-The corresponding lock files have a ".lock" suffix.

 
 

+                       cgit - cgi for git
+
+
+This is an attempt to create a fast web interface for the git scm, using a
+builtin cache to decrease server io-pressure.
+
+
+Installation
+
+Building cgit involves building a proper version of git. How to do this
+depends on how you obtained the cgit sources:
+
+a) If you're working in a cloned cgit repository, you first need to
+initialize and update the git submodule:
+
+  $ git submodule init     # register the git submodule in .git/config
+  $ $EDITOR .git/config    # if you want to specify a different url for git
+  $ git submodule update   # clone/fetch and checkout correct git version
+
+b) If you're building from a cgit tarball, you can download a proper git
+version like this:
+
+  $ make get-git
+
+
+When either a) or b) has been performed, you can build and install cgit like
+this:
+
+  $ make
+  $ sudo make install
+
+This will install cgit.cgi and cgit.css into "/var/www/htdocs/cgit". You can
+configure this location (and a few other things) by providing a "cgit.conf"
+file (see the Makefile for details).
+
+
+Dependencies:
+  -git 1.5.3
+  -zip lib
+  -crypto lib
+  -openssl lib
+
+
+Apache configuration
+
+A new Directory-section must probably be added for cgit, possibly something
+like this:
+
+  <Directory "/var/www/htdocs/cgit/">
+      AllowOverride None
+      Options ExecCGI
+      Order allow,deny
+      Allow from all
+  </Directory>
+
+
+Runtime configuration
+
+The file /etc/cgitrc is read by cgit before handling a request. In addition
+to runtime parameters, this file also contains a list of the repositories
+displayed by cgit.
+
+A template cgitrc is shipped with the sources, and all parameters and default
+values are documented in this file.
+
+
+The cache
+
+When cgit is invoked it looks for a cachefile matching the request and
+returns it to the client. If no such cachefile exist (or if it has expired),
+the content for the request is written into the proper cachefile before the
+file is returned.
+
+If the cachefile has expired but cgit is unable to obtain a lock for it, the
+stale cachefile is returned to the client. This is done to favour page
+throughput over page freshness.
+
+The generated content contains the complete response to the client, including
+the http-headers "Modified" and "Expires".
+
+
+The missing features
+
+* Submodule links in the directory listing page have a fixed format per
+  repository. This should probably be extended to a generic map between
+  submodule path and url.
+
+* Branch- and tag-lists in the summary page can get very long, they should
+  probably only show something like the ten "latest modified" branches and
+  a similar number of "most recent" tags.
+
+* There should be a new page for browsing refs/heads and refs/tags, with links
+  from the summary page whenever the branch/tag lists overflow.
+
+* The log-page should have more/better search options (author, committer,
+  pickaxe, paths) and possibly support arbitrary revision specifiers.
+
+* A set of test-scripts is required before cgit-1.0 can be released.
+
+Patches/bugreports/suggestions/comments are always welcome, please feel free
+to contact the author: hjemli@gmail.com