Setting up a self-hosted git repository with Gitea

Reviewed on 04 April 2024 • Published on 28 May 2019

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Gitea
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Instance

Gitea is a Git service that can be self-hosted to provide a lightweight code hosting solution. Written in Go and licensed under the MIT license, it is a community-managed fork of Gogs.

Git itself, is a distributed version control system used to track changes in files. Created by Linus Torvalds in 2005, it was initially designed to manage the development of the Linux kernel among a community of developers.

Unlike many other client-server systems, Git allows every Git directory on every computer to contain the entire repository with a complete history and version tracking, enabling it to be independent of network access or a central server.

While Git was initially developed for software development purposes, it can track changes in any file.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

A Scaleway account logged into the console
Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
An SSH key
An Instance running on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver (18.04) or later

Installing Gitea

Log into your server via SSH.

Update the APT package cache, upgrade the already installed software and install Git:

apt update && apt upgrade -y && apt install git -y

Download the Gitea Binary and make it executable:

wget -O gitea https://dl.gitea.com/gitea/1.22/gitea-1.22-linux-amd64
chmod +x gitea

Add the user that will run the Gitea application:

adduser --system --shell /bin/bash --gecos 'Git Version Control' --group --disabled-password --home /home/git git

Create the folder structure that is used by Gitea to store data:

mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/custom
mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/data
mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/log
chown -R git:git /var/lib/gitea/
chmod -R 750 /var/lib/gitea/
mkdir /etc/gitea
chown root:git /etc/gitea
chmod 770 /etc/gitea

Set the working directory of Gitea:

export GITEA_WORK_DIR=/var/lib/gitea/

Copy the Gitea binary file to /usr/local/bin to make it available system-wide:

cp gitea /usr/local/bin/gitea

Running Gitea

Create a systemd service for Gitea by opening the file /etc/systemd/system/gitea.service in a text editor like nano.

Copy the following content into the service file:

[Unit]
Description=Gitea (Git with a cup of tea)
After=syslog.target
After=network.target
#Requires=mysql.service
#Requires=mariadb.service
#Requires=postgresql.service
#Requires=memcached.service
#Requires=redis.service
[Service]
# Modify these two values and uncomment them if you have
# repos with lots of files and get an HTTP error 500 because
# of that
##
#LimitMEMLOCK=infinity
#LimitNOFILE=65535
RestartSec=2s
Type=simple
User=git
Group=git
WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/gitea/
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/gitea web -c /etc/gitea/app.ini
Restart=always
Environment=USER=git HOME=/home/git GITEA_WORK_DIR=/var/lib/gitea
# If you want to bind Gitea to a port below 1024 uncomment
# the two values below
##
#CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
#AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable the service and start Gitea at system boot:

systemctl enable gitea.service
systemctl start gitea.service

Start Gitea for the first time from the command-line:

GITEA_WORK_DIR=/var/lib/gitea/ /usr/local/bin/gitea web -c /etc/gitea/app.ini

In a web browser go to http://<your_instance_ip>:3000/ to access the Gitea application:
Click Register to start the database initialization. Gitea supports SQLite which makes the application very lightweight and ideal for a self-hosted development Environment. If you require more performance, it is also possible to use MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL.
Choose SQLite as database type. Leave the other pre-filled settings as they are, they are already set to the required values and confirm the form.
The installation is now ready, and it is time to create the first user. Open http://<your_instance_ip>:3000/user/sign_up in a web browser and fill in the required parameters.
Note
The first user becomes automatically admin of the Gitea instance.
Once the form has been submitted, you are logged into your Gitea account:

You can now configure your profile and begin to host code on your instance.

Setting up a Nginx SSL/TLS reverse proxy

For increased security, it is possible to configure NGINX reverse proxy with TSL/SSL in front of the Gitea instance. It handles all requests sent from a client to the web interface and adds a layer of increased security and performance.

Install Nginx:

apt install nginx

Disable the default virtual host which has been configured during the installation of Nginx via the APT package manager:

unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Enter the directory /etc/nginx/sites-available and create a reverse proxy configuration file:

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available
nano reverse-proxy.conf

Paste the following Nginx configuration block in the text editor. The proxy server redirects all incoming connections to the web server listening on port 80, to the local Gitea application, listening on port 3000.

server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;
        server_name gitea.example.com;
        access_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-error.log;
        location / {
                    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
  }
}

Create a symbolic link from /etc/nginx/sites-available/reverse-proxy.conf to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/reverse-proxy.conf to activate the new configuration:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/reverse-proxy.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/reverse-proxy.conf

Restart Nginx:

service nginx restart

Certbot is a tool that is able to obtain and renew Let’s Encrypt TLS certificates. Add it to the APT repository and install the Certbot application
```
apt install software-properties-common
add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
apt update && apt install python-certbot-nginx -y
```

Certbot is able to configure the Nginx automatically. Run the application and specify the flag --nginx to configure the web server:

certbot --nginx

When asked to do so, enter your email address and press Enter.
Confirm the Terms of Service of Let’s Encrypt by pressing on A to agree.
Certbot asks you if you want to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Confirm it by pressing Y or refuse it by pressing N.

A list of domain names configured on the server is displayed. Press Enter to confirm:

Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: gitea.example.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel):

Certbot requests the certificate for the domain name indicated in the previous step. Decide whether you want to force HTTPS on all connections by pressing 1 or not, by pressing 2, followed by Enter:

Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
change by editing your web server's configuration.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel):

You can access Gitea via the Nginx Proxy now using an encrypted connection, by opening https://gitea.example.com in your web browser.

Disabling Port 3000 in the Firewall

For increased security it is possible to block the access to port 3000 from the exterior to avoid direct connections to the Gitea application without passing through Nginx. Start by installing UFW as firewall on the instance:

apt install ufw

Block all traffic by default:

ufw default deny

Then allow outgoing connections:

ufw default allow outgoing

Enable connections on the ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS) via TCP and 53 (DNS) via TCP and UDP as both are required for DNS:
```
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw allow 53
```

Activate the new firewall configuration:

ufw enable

Connections to all other ports than the ones mentioned above are blocked now. The access to the Gitea Application is only possible by passing through the Nginx proxy.