Git Backend

The default implementation of EnvironmentRepository uses a Git backend, which is very convenient for managing upgrades and physical environments and for auditing changes. To change the location of the repository, you can set the spring.cloud.config.server.git.uri configuration property in the Config Server (for example in application.yml). If you set it with a file: prefix, it should work from a local repository so that you can get started quickly and easily without a server. However, in that case, the server operates directly on the local repository without cloning it (it does not matter if it is not bare because the Config Server never makes changes to the "remote" repository). To scale the Config Server up and make it highly available, you need to have all instances of the server pointing to the same repository, so only a shared file system would work. Even in that case, it is better to use the ssh: protocol for a shared filesystem repository, so that the server can clone it and use a local working copy as a cache.

This repository implementation maps the {label} parameter of the HTTP resource to a git label (commit id, branch name, or tag). If the git branch or tag name contains a slash (/), then the label in the HTTP URL should instead be specified with the special string ({special-string}) (to avoid ambiguity with other URL paths). For example, if the label is foo/bar, replacing the slash would result in the following label: foo({special-string})bar. The inclusion of the special string ({special-string}) can also be applied to the {application} parameter. If you use a command-line client such as curl, be careful with the brackets in the URL — you should escape them from the shell with single quotes ('').

Skipping SSL Certificate Validation

The configuration server’s validation of the Git server’s SSL certificate can be disabled by setting the git.skipSslValidation property to true (default is false).

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://example.com/my/repo
          skipSslValidation: true

Setting Connection Timeout

You can configure the time, in seconds, that the configuration server will wait to acquire an HTTP or SSH connection. Use the git.timeout property (default is 5).

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://example.com/my/repo
          timeout: 4

Placeholders in Git URI

Spring Cloud Config Server supports a git repository URL with placeholders for the {application} and {profile} (and {label} if you need it, but remember that the label is applied as a git label anyway). So you can support a “one repository per application” policy by using a structure similar to the following:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/myorg/\{application}

You can also support a “one repository per profile” policy by using a similar pattern but with {profile}.

Additionally, using the special string "({special-string})" within your {application} parameters can enable support for multiple organizations, as shown in the following example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/\{application}

where {application} is provided at request time in the following format: organization({special-string})application.

Pattern Matching and Multiple Repositories

Spring Cloud Config also includes support for more complex requirements with pattern matching on the application and profile name. The pattern format is a comma-separated list of {application}/{profile} names with wildcards (note that a pattern beginning with a wildcard may need to be quoted), as shown in the following example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/spring-cloud-samples/config-repo
          repos:
            simple: https://github.com/simple/config-repo
            special:
              pattern: special*/dev*,*special*/dev*
              uri: https://github.com/special/config-repo
            local:
              pattern: local*
              uri: file:/home/configsvc/config-repo

If {application}/{profile} does not match any of the patterns, it uses the default URI defined under spring.cloud.config.server.git.uri. In the above example, for the “simple” repository, the pattern is simple/* (it only matches one application named simple in all profiles). The “local” repository matches all application names beginning with local in all profiles (the /* suffix is added automatically to any pattern that does not have a profile matcher).

The “one-liner” short cut used in the “simple” example can be used only if the only property to be set is the URI. If you need to set anything else (credentials, pattern, and so on) you need to use the full form.

The pattern property in the repo is actually an array, so you can use a YAML array (or [0], [1], etc. suffixes in properties files) to bind to multiple patterns. You may need to do so if you are going to run apps with multiple profiles, as shown in the following example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/spring-cloud-samples/config-repo
          repos:
            development:
              pattern:
                - '*/development'
                - '*/staging'
              uri: https://github.com/development/config-repo
            staging:
              pattern:
                - '*/qa'
                - '*/production'
              uri: https://github.com/staging/config-repo

Spring Cloud guesses that a pattern containing a profile that does not end in * implies that you actually want to match a list of profiles starting with this pattern (so */staging is a shortcut for ["*/staging", "*/staging,*"], and so on). This is common where, for instance, you need to run applications in the “development” profile locally but also the “cloud” profile remotely.

Every repository can also optionally store config files in sub-directories, and patterns to search for those directories can be specified as search-paths. The following example shows a config file at the top level:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/spring-cloud-samples/config-repo
          search-paths:
            - foo
            - bar*

In the preceding example, the server searches for config files in the top level and in the foo/ sub-directory and also any sub-directory whose name begins with bar.

By default, the server clones remote repositories when configuration is first requested. The server can be configured to clone the repositories at startup, as shown in the following top-level example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://git/common/config-repo.git
          repos:
            team-a:
                pattern: team-a-*
                cloneOnStart: true
                uri: https://git/team-a/config-repo.git
            team-b:
                pattern: team-b-*
                cloneOnStart: false
                uri: https://git/team-b/config-repo.git
            team-c:
                pattern: team-c-*
                uri: https://git/team-a/config-repo.git

In the preceding example, the server clones team-a’s config-repo on startup, before it accepts any requests. All other repositories are not cloned until configuration from the repository is requested.

Setting a repository to be cloned when the Config Server starts up can help to identify a misconfigured configuration source (such as an invalid repository URI) quickly, while the Config Server is starting up. With cloneOnStart not enabled for a configuration source, the Config Server may start successfully with a misconfigured or invalid configuration source and not detect an error until an application requests configuration from that configuration source.

Authentication

To use HTTP basic authentication on the remote repository, add the username and password properties separately (not in the URL), as shown in the following example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/spring-cloud-samples/config-repo
          username: trolley
          password: strongpassword

If you do not use HTTPS and user credentials, SSH should also work out of the box when you store keys in the default directories (~/.ssh) and the URI points to an SSH location, such as [email protected]:configuration/cloud-configuration. It is important that an entry for the Git server be present in the ~/.ssh/known_hosts file and that it is in ssh-rsa format. Other formats (such as ecdsa-sha2-nistp256) are not supported. To avoid surprises, you should ensure that only one entry is present in the known_hosts file for the Git server and that it matches the URL you provided to the config server. If you use a hostname in the URL, you want to have exactly that (not the IP) in the known_hosts file. The repository is accessed by using JGit, so any documentation you find on that should be applicable. HTTPS proxy settings can be set in ~/.git/config or (in the same way as for any other JVM process) with system properties (-Dhttps.proxyHost and -Dhttps.proxyPort).

If you do not know where your ~/.git directory is, use git config --global to manipulate the settings (for example, git config --global http.sslVerify false).

JGit requires RSA keys in PEM format. Below is an example ssh-keygen (from openssh) command that will generate a key in the corect format:

ssh-keygen -m PEM -t rsa -b 4096 -f ~/config_server_deploy_key.rsa

Warning: When working with SSH keys, the expected ssh private-key must begin with -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----. If the key starts with -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY----- then the RSA key will not load when spring-cloud-config server is started. The error looks like:

- Error in object 'spring.cloud.config.server.git': codes [PrivateKeyIsValid.spring.cloud.config.server.git,PrivateKeyIsValid]; arguments [org.springframework.context.support.DefaultMessageSourceResolvable: codes [spring.cloud.config.server.git.,]; arguments []; default message []]; default message [Property 'spring.cloud.config.server.git.privateKey' is not a valid private key]

To correct the above error the RSA key must be converted to PEM format. An example using openssh is provided above for generating a new key in the appropriate format.

Authentication with AWS CodeCommit

Spring Cloud Config Server also supports AWS CodeCommit authentication. AWS CodeCommit uses an authentication helper when using Git from the command line. This helper is not used with the JGit library, so a JGit CredentialProvider for AWS CodeCommit is created if the Git URI matches the AWS CodeCommit pattern. AWS CodeCommit URIs follow this pattern:

https://git-codecommit.${AWS_REGION}.amazonaws.com/v1/repos/${repo}

If you provide a username and password with an AWS CodeCommit URI, they must be the AWS accessKeyId and secretAccessKey that provide access to the repository. If you do not specify a username and password, the accessKeyId and secretAccessKey are retrieved by using the Default Credential Provider Chain.

If your Git URI matches the CodeCommit URI pattern (shown earlier), you must provide valid AWS credentials in the username and password or in one of the locations supported by the default credential provider chain. AWS EC2 instances may use IAM Roles for EC2 Instances.

The software.amazon.awssdk:auth jar is an optional dependency. If the software.amazon.awssdk:auth jar is not on your classpath, the AWS Code Commit credential provider is not created, regardless of the git server URI.

Authentication with Google Cloud Source

Spring Cloud Config Server also supports authenticating against Google Cloud Source repositories.

If your Git URI uses the http or https protocol and the domain name is source.developers.google.com, the Google Cloud Source credentials provider will be used. A Google Cloud Source repository URI has the format source.developers.google.com/p/${GCP_PROJECT}/r/${REPO}. To obtain the URI for your repository, click on "Clone" in the Google Cloud Source UI, and select "Manually generated credentials". Do not generate any credentials, simply copy the displayed URI.

The Google Cloud Source credentials provider will use Google Cloud Platform application default credentials. See Google Cloud SDK documentation on how to create application default credentials for a system. This approach will work for user accounts in dev environments and for service accounts in production environments.

com.google.auth:google-auth-library-oauth2-http is an optional dependency. If the google-auth-library-oauth2-http jar is not on your classpath, the Google Cloud Source credential provider is not created, regardless of the git server URI.

Git SSH configuration using properties

By default, the JGit library used by Spring Cloud Config Server uses SSH configuration files such as ~/.ssh/known_hosts and /etc/ssh/ssh_config when connecting to Git repositories by using an SSH URI. In cloud environments such as Cloud Foundry, the local filesystem may be ephemeral or not easily accessible. For those cases, SSH configuration can be set by using Java properties. In order to activate property-based SSH configuration, the spring.cloud.config.server.git.ignoreLocalSshSettings property must be set to true, as shown in the following example:

  spring:
    cloud:
      config:
        server:
          git:
            uri: [email protected]:team/repo1.git
            ignoreLocalSshSettings: true
            hostKey: someHostKey
            hostKeyAlgorithm: ssh-rsa
            privateKey: |
                         -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
                         MIIEpgIBAAKCAQEAx4UbaDzY5xjW6hc9jwN0mX33XpTDVW9WqHp5AKaRbtAC3DqX
                         IXFMPgw3K45jxRb93f8tv9vL3rD9CUG1Gv4FM+o7ds7FRES5RTjv2RT/JVNJCoqF
                         ol8+ngLqRZCyBtQN7zYByWMRirPGoDUqdPYrj2yq+ObBBNhg5N+hOwKjjpzdj2Ud
                         1l7R+wxIqmJo1IYyy16xS8WsjyQuyC0lL456qkd5BDZ0Ag8j2X9H9D5220Ln7s9i
                         oezTipXipS7p7Jekf3Ywx6abJwOmB0rX79dV4qiNcGgzATnG1PkXxqt76VhcGa0W
                         DDVHEEYGbSQ6hIGSh0I7BQun0aLRZojfE3gqHQIDAQABAoIBAQCZmGrk8BK6tXCd
                         fY6yTiKxFzwb38IQP0ojIUWNrq0+9Xt+NsypviLHkXfXXCKKU4zUHeIGVRq5MN9b
                         BO56/RrcQHHOoJdUWuOV2qMqJvPUtC0CpGkD+valhfD75MxoXU7s3FK7yjxy3rsG
                         EmfA6tHV8/4a5umo5TqSd2YTm5B19AhRqiuUVI1wTB41DjULUGiMYrnYrhzQlVvj
                         5MjnKTlYu3V8PoYDfv1GmxPPh6vlpafXEeEYN8VB97e5x3DGHjZ5UrurAmTLTdO8
                         +AahyoKsIY612TkkQthJlt7FJAwnCGMgY6podzzvzICLFmmTXYiZ/28I4BX/mOSe
                         pZVnfRixAoGBAO6Uiwt40/PKs53mCEWngslSCsh9oGAaLTf/XdvMns5VmuyyAyKG
                         ti8Ol5wqBMi4GIUzjbgUvSUt+IowIrG3f5tN85wpjQ1UGVcpTnl5Qo9xaS1PFScQ
                         xrtWZ9eNj2TsIAMp/svJsyGG3OibxfnuAIpSXNQiJPwRlW3irzpGgVx/AoGBANYW
                         dnhshUcEHMJi3aXwR12OTDnaLoanVGLwLnkqLSYUZA7ZegpKq90UAuBdcEfgdpyi
                         PhKpeaeIiAaNnFo8m9aoTKr+7I6/uMTlwrVnfrsVTZv3orxjwQV20YIBCVRKD1uX
                         VhE0ozPZxwwKSPAFocpyWpGHGreGF1AIYBE9UBtjAoGBAI8bfPgJpyFyMiGBjO6z
                         FwlJc/xlFqDusrcHL7abW5qq0L4v3R+FrJw3ZYufzLTVcKfdj6GelwJJO+8wBm+R
                         gTKYJItEhT48duLIfTDyIpHGVm9+I1MGhh5zKuCqIhxIYr9jHloBB7kRm0rPvYY4
                         VAykcNgyDvtAVODP+4m6JvhjAoGBALbtTqErKN47V0+JJpapLnF0KxGrqeGIjIRV
                         cYA6V4WYGr7NeIfesecfOC356PyhgPfpcVyEztwlvwTKb3RzIT1TZN8fH4YBr6Ee
                         KTbTjefRFhVUjQqnucAvfGi29f+9oE3Ei9f7wA+H35ocF6JvTYUsHNMIO/3gZ38N
                         CPjyCMa9AoGBAMhsITNe3QcbsXAbdUR00dDsIFVROzyFJ2m40i4KCRM35bC/BIBs
                         q0TY3we+ERB40U8Z2BvU61QuwaunJ2+uGadHo58VSVdggqAo0BSkH58innKKt96J
                         69pcVH/4rmLbXdcmNYGm6iu+MlPQk4BUZknHSmVHIFdJ0EPupVaQ8RHT
                         -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

The following table describes the SSH configuration properties.

Table 1. SSH Configuration Properties
Property Name	Remarks
ignoreLocalSshSettings	If `true`, use property-based instead of file-based SSH config. Must be set at as `spring.cloud.config.server.git.ignoreLocalSshSettings`, not inside a repository definition.
privateKey	Valid SSH private key. Must be set if `ignoreLocalSshSettings` is true and Git URI is SSH format.
hostKey	Valid SSH host key. Must be set if `hostKeyAlgorithm` is also set.
hostKeyAlgorithm	One of `ssh-dss, ssh-rsa, ssh-ed25519, ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, ecdsa-sha2-nistp384, or ecdsa-sha2-nistp521`. Must be set if `hostKey` is also set.
strictHostKeyChecking	`true` or `false`. If false, ignore errors with host key.
knownHostsFile	Location of custom `.known_hosts` file.
preferredAuthentications	Override server authentication method order. This should allow for evading login prompts if server has keyboard-interactive authentication before the `publickey` method.

Placeholders in Git Search Paths

Spring Cloud Config Server also supports a search path with placeholders for the {application} and {profile} (and {label} if you need it), as shown in the following example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/spring-cloud-samples/config-repo
          search-paths: '\{application}'

The preceding listing causes a search of the repository for files in the same name as the directory (as well as the top level). Wildcards are also valid in a search path with placeholders (any matching directory is included in the search).

Force pull in Git Repositories

As mentioned earlier, Spring Cloud Config Server makes a clone of the remote git repository in case the local copy gets dirty (for example, folder content changes by an OS process) such that Spring Cloud Config Server cannot update the local copy from remote repository.

To solve this issue, there is a force-pull property that makes Spring Cloud Config Server force pull from the remote repository if the local copy is dirty, as shown in the following example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/spring-cloud-samples/config-repo
          force-pull: true

If you have a multiple-repositories configuration, you can configure the force-pull property per repository, as shown in the following example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://git/common/config-repo.git
          force-pull: true
          repos:
            team-a:
                pattern: team-a-*
                uri: https://git/team-a/config-repo.git
                force-pull: true
            team-b:
                pattern: team-b-*
                uri: https://git/team-b/config-repo.git
                force-pull: true
            team-c:
                pattern: team-c-*
                uri: https://git/team-a/config-repo.git

The default value for force-pull property is false.

Deleting untracked branches in Git Repositories

As Spring Cloud Config Server has a clone of the remote git repository after check-outing branch to local repo (e.g fetching properties by label) it will keep this branch forever or till the next server restart (which creates new local repo). So there could be a case when remote branch is deleted but local copy of it is still available for fetching. And if Spring Cloud Config Server client service starts with --spring.cloud.config.label=deletedRemoteBranch,master it will fetch properties from deletedRemoteBranch local branch, but not from master.

In order to keep local repository branches clean and up to remote - deleteUntrackedBranches property could be set. It will make Spring Cloud Config Server force delete untracked branches from local repository. Example:

spring:
  cloud:
    config:
      server:
        git:
          uri: https://github.com/spring-cloud-samples/config-repo
          deleteUntrackedBranches: true

The default value for deleteUntrackedBranches property is false.

Git Refresh Rate

You can control how often the config server will fetch updated configuration data from your Git backend by using spring.cloud.config.server.git.refreshRate. The value of this property is specified in seconds. By default the value is 0, meaning the config server will fetch updated configuration from the Git repo every time it is requested. If the value is a negative number the refresh will not occur.

Default Label

The default label used for Git is main. If you do not set spring.cloud.config.server.git.defaultLabel and a branch named main does not exist, the config server will by default also try to checkout a branch named master. If you would like to disable to the fallback branch behavior you can set spring.cloud.config.server.git.tryMasterBranch to false.

Running The Config Server Using Git In A Container

If you are getting a java.io.IOException when running the Config Server in a container that is similar to:

2022-01-03 20:04:02,892 [tributeWriter-2] ERROR org.eclipse.jgit.util.FS$FileStoreAttributes.saveToConfig - Cannot save config file 'FileBasedConfig[/.config/jgit/config]'
java.io.IOException: Creating directories for /.config/jgit failed

You must either:

Provide a user with a writeable home directory inside the container.
Set the environment variable XDG_CONFIG_HOME inside the container to point to a directory where the Java process has write permissions.