about-filter

cgit expects a README formatter with a peculiar mode of operation, where it receives a “filename” as its first argument, but doesn't open it. Instead, it's meant to use it as a cue to determine the format, then read from standard input, on which cgit will provide the README it extracts from the repository by whatever magic libgit call. The included formatter is a shell script that makes further calls out to assorted python scripts. This replaces that whole mess with a single statically-linkable executable, so in your cgitrc you can write:

about-filter=/whatever/bin/about-filter

and keep your chroot or container or what-have-you nice and small.

Functionality is equivalent to the script(s) included with cgit, with the exception of manpage support.