A Step-By-Step Tutorial to Set Up a GitHub Repository for a DirectAdmin Hosting

Keeping your website in a GitHub repository gives you a full history of every change and a clean way to move code from your computer to your hosting. This tutorial sets up a GitHub repository for a site on Domain India's DirectAdmin hosting: create the repository, connect your hosting account to it over jailed SSH, deploy with one command, and avoid the traps that are specific to shared hosting.

1. How the pieces fit together

Your computer holds a working copy where you edit and commit. GitHub holds the shared copy and history. Your hosting account holds the live files. There are three ways to get code from GitHub to DirectAdmin hosting:

The push method is described in Deploying your website with Git; this tutorial uses the pull method.

2. What our DirectAdmin hosting gives you

Measured on our DirectAdmin server on 23 September 2026:

• SSH: jailed SSH access is available on every shared hosting plan (cPanel, DirectAdmin, Webuzo). It is off by default; ask support to enable it for your account. Login is by SSH key only, on port 22.
• Git: the git command is present inside the jailed environment. Tools available inside the jailed shell vary, so confirm with support when you ask for SSH.
• DirectAdmin's own Git feature in the panel is switched on for only a small number of accounts. If you would like it, ask support; this tutorial doesn't need it.
• Outgoing connections: the server firewall allows outgoing SSH (port 22) and HTTPS (443), which is what git needs to reach GitHub.
• Disabled PHP functions: exec, shell_exec, proc_open and popen are disabled, so Composer and webhook scripts that run git pull from PHP don't work on the server.

Your sites live under domains/yourdomain.com/public_html in your home folder.

3. Create the repository and push your site

git init -b main
git add .
git commit -m "First commit"
git remote add origin [email protected]:yourname/yoursite.git
git push -u origin main

Set your name and email for commits once on your own computer with git config --global user.name and user.email. GitHub accepts SSH keys or a personal access token over HTTPS; account passwords no longer work for Git.

4. Connect to your DirectAdmin account

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -p 22 [email protected]

Full details, including PuTTY on Windows, are in enabling and accessing SSH on DirectAdmin hosting.

5. Give the server read-only access with a deploy key

A deploy key is an SSH key that can read one repository and nothing else. If your hosting account is ever compromised, the attacker gets read access to that one repository, not your GitHub account.

On the server:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/github_deploy -N "" -C "[email protected]"
cat ~/.ssh/github_deploy.pub

On GitHub, open the repository's Settings › Deploy keys › Add deploy key, paste the public key, and leave Allow write access unticked. Then tell SSH on the server to use that key for GitHub by adding this to ~/.ssh/config:

Host github.com
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_deploy
    IdentitiesOnly yes

Test it with ssh -T [email protected]. GitHub answers that you have authenticated but have no shell access, which is correct.

6. Clone and deploy into public_html

Keep the repository outside public_html, so nobody can download your .git history from the web, and check the files out into the web folder:

git clone --bare [email protected]:yourname/yoursite.git ~/repos/yoursite.git

Save this deploy script as ~/deploy.sh and make it executable with chmod +x ~/deploy.sh:

#!/bin/bash
set -e
REPO="$HOME/repos/yoursite.git"
WEB="$HOME/domains/yourdomain.com/public_html"
git --git-dir="$REPO" fetch origin '+refs/heads/main:refs/heads/main'
git --git-dir="$REPO" --work-tree="$WEB" checkout -f main
echo "Deployed $(git --git-dir="$REPO" rev-parse --short main)"

From now on, your workflow is: commit and push on your computer, then run ~/deploy.sh over SSH. The first checkout overwrites files with the same name in public_html, so take a copy of the folder first. Files that are not in the repository, such as your config file and uploads, are left alone.

7. Troubleshooting

• Permission denied (publickey) when connecting to your hosting: your key is not in .ssh/authorized_keys, or SSH is not enabled yet.
• Permission denied (publickey) from GitHub: the deploy key is not added to the repository, or ~/.ssh/config doesn't point to it. Run ssh -vT [email protected] to see which key is offered.
• git: command not found: ask support to confirm Git is available in your jail.
• The site doesn't change after a deploy: check the branch name (main or master) and the WEB path for your domain.
• A GitHub webhook to a PHP script does nothing: shell_exec and exec are disabled. For deploy on every push, use the App Platform or a VPS.

8. Where Domain India hosting fits

DirectAdmin hosting suits PHP and WordPress sites that you deploy from GitHub with jailed SSH. The price on the card is live and excludes 18% GST.

If you want every push to GitHub to deploy automatically, the App Platform builds and runs your app from a repository or a deploy token in your CI. For any workflow with full root access, see VPS plans.

Ready to connect GitHub? Ask support to enable jailed SSH, then follow sections 4 to 6. For the other Git routes, read Deploying your website with Git.