git instaweb

Browse your repo locally on 127.0.0.1.

🎯 What & why

git instaweb spins up a local gitweb instance against the current repository so you can browse history, blobs, and refs in a real web UI without any server setup. It is the fastest path from 'I want to look at my repo in a browser' to actually doing it.

🧠 Mental model

A throwaway HTTP daemon plus gitweb CGI, configured on the fly and pointed at your repo. You start it, it opens a browser at 127.0.0.1, you stop it, nothing persists.

🛠️ Synopsis

git instaweb [--local] [--httpd=<httpd>] [--module-path=<path>]
              [--port=<port>] [--browser=<browser>]
              [--start | --stop | --restart]

🎚️ Switches & options

Flag	What it does
`--httpd=<httpd>`	Pick the daemon: lighttpd, apache2, mongoose, plackup, webrick.
`--port=<n>`	Bind port (default 1234) on 127.0.0.1.
`--browser=<browser>`	Override which browser command to launch.
`--start`	Start the daemon without launching a browser.
`--stop`	⚠️ Kill the running instaweb daemon for this repo.
`--restart`	Bounce the daemon, useful after config changes.
`--local`	Bind to loopback only; defensive default for laptops.

💡 Use cases

Eyeballing a fresh clone's history graph in a real UI before diving into CLI work.
Showing a colleague a tree/blob URL during a screen share without pushing anywhere.
Sanity-checking that gitweb renders your repo before deploying it on a real server.
Quickly diffing two commits visually when the terminal output gets unwieldy.

🧪 Examples

Start with lighttpd on default port

git instaweb --httpd=lighttpd --start

Custom port, no browser launch

git instaweb --httpd=webrick --port=8080 --start

Open in a specific browser

git instaweb --httpd=mongoose --browser=firefox

Stop the running instance

git instaweb --stop

🎓 Recommendations

Pick mongoose or webrick on personal machines: zero config, no root, no leftover state.
Always pair --start with an eventual --stop; orphan daemons squat on ports across reboots.
Keep it bound to 127.0.0.1; gitweb is not hardened for hostile networks.

🪤 Common pitfalls

Apache/lighttpd modes can fail silently if module paths differ from what git expects on your distro.
Forgetting --stop leaves the daemon running and the port held; next --start may collide.
Some packagers ship git without instaweb's CGI bits; you get cryptic 500s instead of a clear error.

🔗 Related modules

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.