Hello, friends. In this post, we’ll show you how to install Gitea on Ubuntu 20.04
Gitea 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 Ubuntu 20.04
Preparing the system
Before we start with the installation, we need to make a few adjustments so that we can get it right.
First, open a terminal or an SSH session and update Ubuntu
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade
Next, install some packages needed for the installation:
sudo apt install git unzip gnupg2
After that, install and configure MariaDB. With this post, you will have no problems with that:
How to install MariaDB 10.5 on Ubuntu 20.04 / Ubuntu 18.04?
Then we can continue
Configuring MariaDB for Gitea
Now we need to configure MariaDB to work with Gitea.
First, create a new database, user for Gitea.
sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE giteadb CHARACTER SET 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'; GRANT ALL ON giteadb.* TO 'giteauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'giteapss'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit;
You can replace the database name, username, and password with whatever you want.
Next, you need to add some parameters to the MariaDB configuration file.
sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
In short, you have to add the following values inside the [mysqld] section
innodb_file_format = Barracuda innodb_large_prefix = 1 innodb_default_row_format = dynamic
Save the changes and exit the editor.
Now to apply these changes to the program, you have to restart the MariaDB service.
sudo systemctl restart mariadb
Install Gitea on Ubuntu 20.04
Before installing Gitea, you should create a new system user so that you can use Git without any problems.
sudo adduser --system --shell /bin/bash --gecos 'Git Version Control' --group --disabled-password --home /home/git git
Next, create the directory structure necessary for Gitea to work.
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/{custom,data,log}
Now assign the appropriate owner and permissions.
sudo chown -R git:git /var/lib/gitea/{custom,data,log}
sudo chmod -R 750 /var/lib/gitea/{custom,data,log}
Do the same with any other configuration directory that is required:
sudo mkdir /etc/gitea sudo chown root:git /etc/gitea sudo chmod 770 /etc/gitea
After this, you can download the Gitea binary.
wget https://dl.gitea.io/gitea/1.13.1/gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64 --2021-01-26 18:17:28-- https://dl.gitea.io/gitea/1.13.1/gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64 Resolving dl.gitea.io (dl.gitea.io)… 2604:1380:2000:c600::5, 147.75.84.81 Connecting to dl.gitea.io (dl.gitea.io)|2604:1380:2000:c600::5|:443… connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK Length: 115836856 (110M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: ‘gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64’ gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64 100%[=====================================================================================>] 110.47M 66.5MB/s in 1.7s 2021-01-26 18:17:30 (66.5 MB/s) - ‘gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64’ saved [115836856/115836856]
After downloading it, copy it to the system binaries folder and assign it execution permissions
sudo cp gitea-1.13.1-linux-amd64 /usr/bin/gitea sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/gitea
It is recommended to manage Gitea as a system service, so let’s create a new systemd entry for Gitea.
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/gitea.service
And add the following:
[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.
Then, refresh all system daemons.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Now, make Gitea start with the system and run it:
sudo systemctl enable gitea sudo systemctl start gitea
You can check the status of the Gitea service with the command:
sudo systemctl status gitea
Gitea is available at http://localhost:3000 but it is convenient to use a reverse proxy like Nginx.
Configuring Nginx as the reverse proxy for Gitea
The best thing to do is to make Nginx the reverse proxy for Gitea. This will make access easier.
So, install it:
sudo apt install nginx
And then, create a new configuration file for Gitea.
sudo 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 osradartest.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;
}
}
Save the changes and close the editor. To apply the changes, just restart the service.
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Optionally, but recommended, you can enable HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt.
So, install it together with the Nginx plugin.
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
And get the certificate, by running:
sudo certbot --nginx --agree-tos --redirect --hsts --staple-ocsp --email [email protected] -d your-domain
Then restart Nginx.
Remember that certificates expire after 90 days, so you will have to renew them.
Access to Gitea
Now open a web browser and go to http://your-domain or https://your-domain.
You will see the Gitea installation screen.
At first, you will have to configure the parameters of the database we have created.
Further down you will have more options, the most relevant are the Base Url that you will have to modify for your domain. And the creation of the administrator account.
If all goes well, when you click on Install Gitea, you will be redirected to the dashboard where you can start administering Gitea.
So, enjoy it
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.
