Hello, friends. In this post, we’ll show you how to install Gitea on CentOS 8
GITEA IS A COMMUNITY MANAGED LIGHTWEIGHT CODE HOSTING SOLUTION WRITTEN IN GO. IT IS PUBLISHED UNDER THE MIT LICENSE.
So we can assume that it is a lightweight alternative to Gitlab but with many features that make it ideal for many homes.
So if you have small teams or are just starting, Gitea is for you.
Install Gitea on CentOS 8
Before we start, we have to prepare the system by upgrading it and installing some pre-installation packages.
So, open a terminal or via SSH run
dnf update dnf install git unzip gnupg2 nano wget
Although Gitea supports several database drivers, including SQLite I think MariaDB is very convenient to use.
So, install MariaDB on CentOS 8 with our post.
1) Working with MariaDB before installing Gitea
Now we can create a new database for Gite and its respective user.
So, access the MariaDB shell
mysql -u root -p
And start creating the database and the user with the corresponding permissions:
CREATE DATABASE giteadb CHARACTER SET 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'; GRANT ALL ON giteadb.* TO 'giteauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'giteapss'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit;
After that, you have to add some parameters to the MariaDB configuration.
So, open the file:
nano /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf
And add the following just below the [mysqld] section
innodb_file_format = Barracuda innodb_large_prefix = 1 innodb_default_row_format = dynamic
Save your changes and close the editor. And restart the MariaDB service to apply the changes.
systemctl restart mariadb
2) Install Gitea on CentOS
Now we can download the Gitea binary which is the easiest way to do this process.
So, as of this writing, the latest stable version of Gitea is 1.13.1 so you have to update the commands with the number of the latest stable version.
So, download it using wget
wget https://dl.gitea.io/gitea/1.13.1/gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64
Move it to the system binaries folder:
mv gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64 /usr/bin/gitea
And assign it to run permissions:
chmod 755 /usr/bin/gitea
It is a good idea to handle Gitea as a system service so we have to create a new entry for it
nano /etc/systemd/system/gitea.service
And add the following content
[Unit] Description=Gitea After=syslog.target After=network.target After=mysql.service [Service] RestartSec=2s Type=simple User=git Group=git WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/gitea/ ExecStart=/usr/bin/gitea web -c /etc/gitea/app.ini Restart=always Environment=USER=git HOME=/home/git GITEA_WORK_DIR=/var/lib/gitea [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Save the changes and close the editor.
To apply the changes refresh the system services cache:
systemctl daemon-reload
Now, enable and start Gitea-
systemctl enable gitea systemctl start gitea
And check the status of it
systemctl status gitea
● gitea.service - Gitea
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/gitea.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-02-20 16:27:12 CET; 8s ago
Main PID: 54969 (gitea)
Tasks: 8 (limit: 24338)
Memory: 153.6M
CGroup: /system.slice/gitea.service
└─54969 /usr/bin/gitea web -c /etc/gitea/app.ini
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 …s/storage/storage.go:145:initAvatars() [I] Initialising Avatar storage with type:
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 …les/storage/local.go:43:NewLocalStorage() [I] Creating new Local Storage at /var/lib/gitea/data/avatars
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 …s/storage/storage.go:163:initRepoAvatars() [I] Initialising Repository Avatar storage with type:
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 …les/storage/local.go:43:NewLocalStorage() [I] Creating new Local Storage at /var/lib/gitea/data/repo-avatars
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 …s/storage/storage.go:157:initLFS() [I] Initialising LFS storage with type:
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 …les/storage/local.go:43:NewLocalStorage() [I] Creating new Local Storage at /var/lib/gitea/data/lfs
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 routers/init.go:174:GlobalInit() [I] SQLite3 Supported
Feb 20 16:27:12 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:12 routers/init.go:56:checkRunMode() [I] Run Mode: Production
Feb 20 16:27:13 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:13 cmd/web.go:163:runWeb() [I] Listen: http://0.0.0.0:3000
Feb 20 16:27:13 osradar gitea[54969]: 2021/02/20 16:27:13 …s/graceful/server.go:55:NewServer() [I] Starting new server: tcp:0.0.0.0:3000 on PID: 54969
By default, Gite uses port 3000 so we have to open it in the Firewall.
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=3000/tcp firewall-cmd --reload
This will set it up, but it’s a good idea to do some more configuration.
Optional: Configuring Ngnix as the reverse proxy
To facilitate access you need to configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy.
First, install it:
dnf install nginx
And now create the configuration file for Gitea:
nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/gitea.conf
And add the following content:
upstream gitea {
server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name angtest.ga;
root /var/lib/gitea/public;
access_log off;
error_log off;
location / {
try_files maintain.html $uri $uri/index.html @node;
}
location @node {
client_max_body_size 0;
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For
$proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_max_temp_file_size 0;
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_read_timeout 120;
}
}
From this content, you have to replace the server_name value with yours.
Save the changes and close the file.
To apply the changes, restart the Nginx service.
Optional: Enable HTTPS for Gitea
We can install certificates thanks to Let’s Encrypt using Certbot. This process is recommended to secure web access.
Certbot is not in the CentOS 8 repositories but we can install it thanks to Snap.
So, enable the EPEL repository:
dnf install epel-release
Install the snapd package:
dnf install snapd
Enable it by running the following command:
systemctl enable --now snapd.socket
And enable the installation of classics packages.
ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snapd/snap /snap
After that install the core package which is the initial Snapd package.
snap install core
Now install Certbot by running:
snap install --classic certbot
And create a symbolic link to use the snap command from anywhere in promt without any problems:
ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
Finally, download and install the certificates by running
certbot --redirect --hsts --staple-ocsp --agree-tos --email [email protected] --nginx -d angtest.ga
In this command you have to replace the values of --email and -d with your own.
Testing Gitea installation
You can now open your web browser and go to https://your-domain/install to complete the installation.
First, enter the database credentials we defined earlier.
On the bottom section, we have some other settings that we can change. The most important thing here is the BaseURL which you have to replace with your domain and the creation of the admin user and password.
When finished, you can complete the installation and the installer will redirect you to the dashboard. From there you can start working.
Conclusion
Gitea aims to be a solid alternative to Gitlab for hosting code in private workgroups. Gitea is lighter but has the capabilities to become a powerful and compliant software.
