2021-12-13

Over the past few days, I've been moving all the repos from my old git server to the Gitea git server software.

The reason for this was frankly because I am going to start looking for jobs soon and in my opinion, gitea is easier to navigate (and read source code on) than cgit for hiring teams and other non-technical people, especially if they have interacted with GitHub in the past.

The process was extremely easy and quick. The only thing you need is a SQL (pronounced sequel) server, such as MariaDB/MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite.

I used PostgreSQL because I already had a server running; information about other database backends can be found at the ArchWiki.

The first thing you need to do is to back up all your repositories, because there's no other way to move all your repos from your cgit to gitea. (If I find out later there is, I'll change this.)

Now, install Gitea either by using a binary or using your Linux distribution's package manager.

Configuration

The user configuration file is located at /etc/gitea/app.ini. When you're done editing it, make sure to set its owner to the correct group and user, otherwise it will not start properly.

sudo chown gitea:gitea /etc/gitea/app.ini

PostgreSQL configuration

First, log into whichever user is running PostgreSQL. On most systems, this will be the postgres system user.

sudo -iu postgres

Then, create the gitea database user and the gitea database. Gitea will take care of making tables and stuff.

createuser -P gitea # you will be prompted for a password
createdb -O gitea gitea

Now, verify that it works (this can be done from any system user)

psql --host=ip_address --dbname=gitea --username=gitea --password

Replace ip_address with the IP address of the server running postgres.

Now, configure Gitea to use Postgres:

DB_TYPE = postgres
; Replace hostaddress with the IP address of the server running postgres
HOST = hostaddress:5432
NAME = gitea
USER = gitea
; Use PASSWD = `your password` if the database password contains special characters
PASSWD = password

Usage

Start the gitea service. On most Linux systems you can use the systemctl command to do so.

sudo systemctl enable --now gitea

Now, navigate to http://ip_address:3000. Replace ip_address with the IP address of the server running Gitea.

When running Gitea for the first time, you should be redirected to an installation screen, where you can configure your brand new Gitea server.

Epilogue

That's it! The first user to register should automatically become an admin user (unless you created an admin user during installation).

You should now be happily running a Gitea instance. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email!

---