git-hackme

Git Hackme is intended for spontaneous collaboration with mob¹.

It will turn a local repository into an collaboration server, allowing login from your current local network via a public SSH certificate. It intended use case are maker meetup events where someone's project is worked on by a trusted group which do not have or need access to the authoritative code repository.

Quick start for contributing

See the web page shared by a hosting person. Boils down to something similar to the commands:

# Only once and for updates:
cargo install git-hackme@1.0.0-beta.8

# Adjust as listed on the hosting person's web page:
git hackme clone "http://aurelia@192.168.0.1:8000/flip-fix-blade-fantasy"

Quick start for sharing

# Only once and for updates:
cargo install git-hackme@1.0.0-beta.8
git hackme init

# Then, assuming you're in a git repository:
git hackme share

Then spin up a web server such as python -m http.server to the indicated path and see its instructions for joining. Use init anytime to regenerate the HTML index page etc.

¹Note that the mob program creates a temporary branch, derived from the main branch of which it is created. This effectively mitigates an issue with sharing a local repository, which is that one can not pushed to a branch checked-out in a non-bare git remote. One simply has to ensure that mob stop is ran by the hosting person.

Known and Fixed Problems (beta.8)

• Sharing an existing project does not always update the mnemonic folder. This is an optimization but might cause the key file to be out-of-date or its signature to be invalid. We should somehow validate freshness.

• The share command should check if SSH is running and reachable, not only an HTTP server. This can detect if the CA is changed or the sshd daemon down.

• The original repository name could be used as the target directory name, avoid confusion when looking through previous repositories.

• The index page should copy repository descriptions and names.

• The index page should get better UX optimized for sharing. The color scheme should remain readable when text is selected since this is the most basic workflow. There should be a 'Copy' button.

• The shell doesn't diagnose a missing directory. If the remote deletes or unshares the repository it should nudge you towards the reset command.

• Does not support OS-X.

• The unshare command is not yet implement, delete the mnemonic directory in the runtime directory as a workaround. (Slightly problematic, does not validate against reuse of that mnemonic).

Unsupported Problems (please contribute)

• Does not support the Windows target, even for contributors. I have no clue how to programmatically write a key with proper permissions and configure its use. Maybe just WSL the problem away.

Requirements

You need:

• Linux or OS X
• openssh and ssh-keygen
• git