If you compiled OpenWRT’s Chaos Calmer 15.05.1 stable release from source and installed git by opkg, you will get a git version which is both outdated (version 2.3.5-1 while the current version at the time of writing is 2.8.4) and “crippled”. This post shows how to get a more recent version without any limitations.

Major turn-offs of OpenWRT’s default git package

If you want to install git on your OpenWRT router, you have two options:

Either you use the opkg install command to add the git package to a running router or…
…you compile it from the package sources after you activated the package in the menuconfig.

If you go for option 1 as recommended in my contribution about setting up a git server on OpenWRT, the drawback is that you will get a ridiculously outdated version (something around 2.3.5 while the current version at the time of writing is 2.8.4) and your git installation will be crippled in the sense that essential parts like the templates will not be installed.

If you go for option 2, at least there is a more recent vesion (2.8.2 at the time of writing), but the installation will still be crippled. For instance, gitolite which runs on top of git was unable to create new repos. You will get some kind of warning and FATAL messages which include some hint that git lacks a template folder:

warning: templates not found /usr/share/git-core/templates

1	warning: templates not found /usr/share/git-core/templates

Solution

Strangely the maintainer of the oWRT git package deliberately removed the template files from the installation. The idea therefore is a to create a simplified Makefile ressembling the one which was in place prior to the modifications done in the commit linked above.

So we checkout the current package sources for git:

ilek@i7:~/myowrt/custpacks$ svn checkout https://github.com/openwrt/packages/trunk/net/git
A    git/Makefile
A    git/patches
A    git/patches/100-convert_builtin.patch
A    git/patches/200-disable_fasthash.patch
A    git/patches/300-configure_for_crosscompiling
A    git/patches/400-imapsend_without_curl.patch
Checked out revision 6018.

ilek@i7:~/myowrt/custpacks$ svn checkout https://github.com/openwrt/packages/trunk/net/git

A git/Makefile

A git/patches

A git/patches/100-convert_builtin.patch

A git/patches/200-disable_fasthash.patch

A git/patches/300-configure_for_crosscompiling

A git/patches/400-imapsend_without_curl.patch

Checked out revision 6018.

And then change the Makefile to:

# Copyright (C) 2009-2015 OpenWrt.org
#
# This is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.
# See /LICENSE for more information.
#

include $(TOPDIR)/rules.mk

PKG_NAME:=git
PKG_VERSION:=2.8.2
PKG_RELEASE:=1

PKG_SOURCE:=$(PKG_NAME)-$(PKG_VERSION).tar.xz
PKG_SOURCE_URL:=@KERNEL/software/scm/git/
PKG_MD5SUM:=b8edb4ae34828fda6aa2a4478089b107

PKG_INSTALL:=1
PKG_BUILD_PARALLEL:=1

include $(INCLUDE_DIR)/package.mk

define Package/git
  SECTION:=net
  CATEGORY:=Network
  SUBMENU:=Version Control Systems
  DEPENDS:=+libopenssl +libpthread +librt
  TITLE:=The fast version control system
  URL:=http://git-scm.com
  MAINTAINER:=Peter Wagner <tripolar@gmx.at>
endef

define Package/git/description
 2.8.2 is a free & open source, distributed version control system
 designed to handle everything from small to very large projects
 with speed and efficiency.
endef

MAKE_FLAGS := \
	CC="$(TARGET_CC)" \
	CFLAGS="$(TARGET_CFLAGS)" \
	CPPFLAGS="$(TARGET_CPPFLAGS)" \
	LDFLAGS="$(TARGET_LDFLAGS)" \
	NO_EXPAT="YesPlease" \
	NO_MKSTEMPS="YesPlease" \
	NO_GETTEXT="YesPlease" \
	NO_UNIX_SOCKETS="YesPlease" \
	NO_ICONV="YesPlease" \
	NO_NSEC="YesPlease" \
	NO_PERL="YesPlease" \
	NO_PYTHON="YesPlease" \
	NO_TCLTK="YesPlease" \
	NO_INSTALL_HARDLINKS="yes" \

CONFIGURE_ARGS += \
	--without-iconv \

define Build/Configure
	$(MAKE) -C $(PKG_BUILD_DIR) \
		configure

	( cd $(PKG_BUILD_DIR); \
		./configure --prefix=/usr \
	);
endef

define Package/git/install
	$(INSTALL_DIR) $(1)
	$(RM) $(PKG_INSTALL_DIR)/usr/bin/git-cvsserver
	$(CP) $(PKG_INSTALL_DIR)/* $(1)/
endef

$(eval $(call BuildPackage,git))

# This is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.

# See /LICENSE for more information.

include $(TOPDIR)/rules.mk

PKG_NAME:=git

PKG_VERSION:=2.8.2

PKG_RELEASE:=1

PKG_SOURCE:=$(PKG_NAME)-$(PKG_VERSION).tar.xz

PKG_SOURCE_URL:=@KERNEL/software/scm/git/

PKG_MD5SUM:=b8edb4ae34828fda6aa2a4478089b107

PKG_INSTALL:=1

PKG_BUILD_PARALLEL:=1

include $(INCLUDE_DIR)/package.mk

define Package/git

SECTION:=net

CATEGORY:=Network

SUBMENU:=Version Control Systems

DEPENDS:=+libopenssl +libpthread +librt

TITLE:=The fast version control system

URL:=http://git-scm.com

MAINTAINER:=Peter Wagner <tripolar@gmx.at>

endef

define Package/git/description

2.8.2 is a free & open source, distributed version control system

designed to handle everything from small to very large projects

with speed and efficiency.

endef

MAKE_FLAGS := \

CC="$(TARGET_CC)" \

CFLAGS="$(TARGET_CFLAGS)" \

CPPFLAGS="$(TARGET_CPPFLAGS)" \

LDFLAGS="$(TARGET_LDFLAGS)" \

NO_EXPAT="YesPlease" \

NO_MKSTEMPS="YesPlease" \

NO_GETTEXT="YesPlease" \

NO_UNIX_SOCKETS="YesPlease" \

NO_ICONV="YesPlease" \

NO_NSEC="YesPlease" \

NO_PERL="YesPlease" \

NO_PYTHON="YesPlease" \

NO_TCLTK="YesPlease" \

NO_INSTALL_HARDLINKS="yes" \

CONFIGURE_ARGS += \

--without-iconv \

define Build/Configure

$(MAKE) -C $(PKG_BUILD_DIR) \

configure

( cd $(PKG_BUILD_DIR); \

./configure --prefix=/usr \

);

endef

define Package/git/install

$(INSTALL_DIR) $(1)

$(RM) $(PKG_INSTALL_DIR)/usr/bin/git-cvsserver

$(CP) $(PKG_INSTALL_DIR)/* $(1)/

endef

$(eval $(call BuildPackage,git))

In order to avoid collisions between our customized git and the default git which ships with oWRT, we first uninstall the default git from the menuconfig:

ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds uninstall git
Uninstalling package 'git'

1 2	ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds uninstall git Uninstalling package 'git'

We then physically remove the default oWRT git feed:

ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt/feeds/packages/net$ rm -rf git

1	ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt/feeds/packages/net$ rm -rf git

And then activate our own git feed from the menuconfig:

ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds update custom
Updating feed 'custom' from '/home/ilek/myowrt/custpacks' ...
Create index file './feeds/custom.index' 
Collecting package info: done
ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds install git
Installing package 'git'
ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds update -i
Create index file './feeds/packages.index' 
Collecting package info: done
Create index file './feeds/luci.index' 
Create index file './feeds/routing.index' 
Create index file './feeds/telephony.index' 
Create index file './feeds/management.index' 
Create index file './feeds/custom.index'
ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ scripts/feeds install -p custom git

ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds update custom

Updating feed 'custom' from '/home/ilek/myowrt/custpacks' ...

Create index file './feeds/custom.index'

Collecting package info: done

ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds install git

Installing package 'git'

ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ ./scripts/feeds update -i

Create index file './feeds/packages.index'

Collecting package info: done

Create index file './feeds/luci.index'

Create index file './feeds/routing.index'

Create index file './feeds/telephony.index'

Create index file './feeds/management.index'

Create index file './feeds/custom.index'

ilek@i7:~/codelab/openwrt$ scripts/feeds install -p custom git

Once the correct git appears in your menuconfig, M-select the package. There is no need to add the git-http package. Then trigger a build run by issuing make package/git/compile.