The following is combined from this and this.

Generate an SSH key

On the local machine:

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cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen

Follow the prompts. This will generate two files:

• id_rsa
• id_rsa.pub

You’ll need to send id_rsa.pub to the remote machine later.

Create the git user

Log on to the remote git-hosting machine as a sudo user:

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sudo adduser git
su - git

Set up the SSH directory

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mkdir .ssh && chmod 700 .ssh
touch .ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys

Restrict the git user

This sets the shell to git-shell so that the git user can only do git stuff.

Create the git-shell directory:

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mkdir git-shell-commands

Log out as git user (back to sudo user account):

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exit

Is git-shell already installed?

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cat /etc/shells

If not, make sure git-shell is installed and get its path:

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which git-shell

This will look something like this:

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/usr/bin/git-shell

Copy the path (assuming it is already installed) and paste it to the end of this file:

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sudo vim /etc/shells

Then change the shell:

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sudo chsh -s /usr/bin/git-shell git

Create a bare repository

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sudo mkdir -p /opt/git
cd /opt/git
sudo mkdir my-project.git
cd my-project.git
sudo git init --bare
sudo chown -R git:git .

Transfer the public key

Back on the local machine:

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cd ~/.ssh
scp id_rsa.pub user@example.com:~

This will put the public key in the user‘s home directory.

Append the public key to authorized_keys

The git user is restricted to doing git stuff, so this must be executed as root on the remote machine:

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su
cd /home/user
cat id_rsa.pub >> /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys
exit

Initialize the project locally

On the local machine:

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mkdir my-project
cd my-project
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Hello, my-project"
git remote add origin git@example.com:/opt/git/my-project.git
git push origin master

Clone

Now, anyone with a key appended to git‘s authorized_keys (as above) can clone, push, and pull to that repository.

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git clone git@example.com:/opt/git/my-project.git

I like to keep my project backups offsite. This is one quick way to set up a repository on a server machine.

For this you need a remote server installed with Ubuntu 14.04 (or whatever).

First, login

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ssh daniel@example.com

Update and install

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git

Create the git directory

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cd /opt
sudo mkdir git

Create the project directory

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sudo mkdir my-project.git
cd my-project.git

Initialize a bare repository

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sudo git init --bare

Change ownership recursively

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sudo chown -R daniel:daniel .

Logout. Back on your local machine, clone the bare repository

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git clone daniel@example.com:/opt/git/my-project.git

Initialize a new project, whatever it may be. I use a lot of node, so I might do this:

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cd my-project
npm init

Commit the changes

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git add .
git commit -m "Hello, my-project"
git push origin master

At this point, you may be told to set your name and email

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git config --global user.name "Daniel Bidulock"
git config --global user.email daniel@capitolhill.ca

Try pushing again

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git push origin master

Bingo, bango, sugar in the gas tank!