将 Git 存储库导入 GitLab 时会发生什么

Question

I am wondering if someone could please help me understand what exactly happens when we import Git Repos to Gitlab. Does metadata change? Are some database entries made on Gitlab side. The reason I am asking this is why we cannot use gitlab without importing git repos to gitlab first. Is there a way to make gitlab work with git repos out of the box without importing them.

Furthermore, any helpful links that describe overall architecture of gitlab and how its different components interact or its workflow?

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

To host a repository on Gitlab, you must first create the repository in the web interface. The project page will give you a repo URL.

Push an existing repo to GitLab

If you want to add an existing git repo to gitlab:

git remote add gitlab <gitlab repo URL>
git push gitlab master

Creating a new repo and push to GitLab

If you're starting a repo from scratch, you can either clone it empty and add stuff to it like this:

git clone <gitlab repo URL>
cd repo_folder
# copy files there, create new ones,...
git add your_files
git commit -m "Added new files"
git push origin master

Or, initialize a git repository (in empty folder or folder that has existing code, both are OK), then add/commit:

cd some_project_folder
git init
git remote add gitlab <gitlab repo URL>
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git push gitlab master

Answer 2

This is a very old question, and things may have changed since it was asked, but to answer them today (the latest GitLab release currently is 14.10, with 15.0 due on 22nd May 2022):

• A high-level architecture overview describes the components of GitLab. The component which holds the git repositories is Gitaly
• One does not need to import git repositories before using GitLab, but can create a new Project without any repository, and then begin to add to it, or create a project from a template
• Each GitLab Project can contain a Repository for code (or other project files). This is the git repository, that provides the revision control functionality in GitLab
• When a project is imported , a new Repository is made to contain the git history, as well as metadata in a database. The database stores information about the repository, but also other Project features such as issues, merge requests, links to other features such as the container registry, a second repository for a wiki, and so on.
• Information about who made commits in a repository, their email address, when the commit was made and so on, is part of the usual git data store. When importing, GitLab will attempt to find users matching the email addresses on these commits, but does not create new user accounts for them, or grant permissions on a private project just because a commit was made with a particular email address. Users in GitLab must be granted membership to perform actions on private projects.