Gitea

What is it?

Gitea is a self-hosted github-like web service, written in Go.

(insert screenshot here)

Main link: https://try.gitea.io/

Github project: https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea

Installing

To install it, you can build it using go, or you can use the binary.

Using Binary

I kept the gitea directory organized by putting the binary in its own folder, then separating out the certificates (for https/ssl), data (gitea's sqlite database), repositories (data for git repositories), and log (logging for gitea).

/path/to/www/gitea/
+--------- bin/
+--------- certs/
+--------- data/
+--------- repositories/
+--------- log/

To install it, you just navigate to the binary and run

$ ./gitea web

This runs a setup page on port 3000. Alternatively, you can use the admin command line interface to set things up securely, without exposing the (sensitive) setup page to anyone.

That's about it.

From Source

Before you do anything else, make sure your GOPATH is set:

export GOPATH="${HOME}/gocode"

To install gitea from source, first download the source into your go path:

go get -d -u code.gitea.io/gitea
cd $GOPATH/src/code.gitea.io/gitea

Now check out the release that you want:

git checkout release/v1.0

and then build it using make:

TAGS="bindata" make generate build

Errors

Nope...

$ TAGS="bindata" make generate build
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/code.gitea.io/git: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/code.gitea.io/git expects import "code.gitea.io/git"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/code.gitea.io/sdk/gitea: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/code.gitea.io/sdk/gitea expects import "code.gitea.io/sdk/gitea"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/github.com/golang/snappy: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/github.com/golang/snappy expects import "github.com/golang/snappy"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/github.com/shurcooL/sanitized_anchor_name: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/github.com/shurcooL/sanitized_anchor_name expects import "github.com/shurcooL/sanitized_anchor_name"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/curve25519: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/curve25519 expects import "golang.org/x/crypto/curve25519"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/md4: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/md4 expects import "golang.org/x/crypto/md4"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/pbkdf2: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/pbkdf2 expects import "golang.org/x/crypto/pbkdf2"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh expects import "golang.org/x/crypto/ssh"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/context: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/context expects import "golang.org/x/net/context"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/html: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/html expects import "golang.org/x/net/html"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/html/atom: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/html/atom expects import "golang.org/x/net/html/atom"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/html/charset: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/net/html/charset expects import "golang.org/x/net/html/charset"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/oauth2: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/oauth2 expects import "golang.org/x/oauth2"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/sys/unix: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/sys/unix expects import "golang.org/x/sys/unix"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding expects import "golang.org/x/text/encoding"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/charmap: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/charmap expects import "golang.org/x/text/encoding/charmap"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/japanese: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/japanese expects import "golang.org/x/text/encoding/japanese"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/korean: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/korean expects import "golang.org/x/text/encoding/korean"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/simplifiedchinese: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/simplifiedchinese expects import "golang.org/x/text/encoding/simplifiedchinese"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/traditionalchinese: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/traditionalchinese expects import "golang.org/x/text/encoding/traditionalchinese"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/unicode: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/encoding/unicode expects import "golang.org/x/text/encoding/unicode"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/internal/tag: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/internal/tag expects import "golang.org/x/text/internal/tag"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/language: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/language expects import "golang.org/x/text/language"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/runes: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/runes expects import "golang.org/x/text/runes"
can't load package: package code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/transform: code in directory /home/charles/gocode/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/golang.org/x/text/transform expects import "golang.org/x/text/transform"
go generate code.gitea.io/gitea code.gitea.io/gitea/cmd code.gitea.io/gitea/integrations/internal/utils code.gitea.io/gitea/models code.gitea.io/gitea/models/migrations code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/auth code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/auth/ldap code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/auth/oauth2 code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/auth/pam code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/avatar code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/base code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/context code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/cron code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/highlight code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/httplib code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/indexer code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/lfs code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/log code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/mailer code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/markdown code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/minwinsvc code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/notification code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/options code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/process code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/public code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/setting code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/ssh code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/sync code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/templates code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/user code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/util code.gitea.io/gitea/routers code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/admin code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1 code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1/admin code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1/convert code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1/misc code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1/org code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1/repo code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1/user code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/api/v1/utils code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/dev code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/org code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/repo code.gitea.io/gitea/routers/user
bindata.go
bindata.go
bindata.go
go build -i -v -tags 'bindata' -ldflags '-s -w -X "main.Version=1.1.0+7-g11ad296" -X "main.Tags=bindata"' -o gitea
modules/public/static.go:10:2: cannot find package "github.com/go-macaron/bindata" in any of:
        /usr/lib/go/src/github.com/go-macaron/bindata (from $GOROOT)
        /home/charles/gocode/src/github.com/go-macaron/bindata (from $GOPATH)
Makefile:96: recipe for target 'gitea' failed
make: *** [gitea] Error 1

Gitea with HTTPS

You can run gitea over HTTPS. The gitea binary can generate self-signed certificates, or you can use an existing HTTPS certificate.

Using existing HTTPS certificate

I needed to have gitea over HTTPS using an existing certificate. I already had an HTTPS certificate, in the form of a private .key and a public .cert, but it was set up to be restricted to root only, and nginx and Apache are perfectly okay running as www-data and not being able to read the private key file (which is only readable by root). We're fine there.

But when I pointed to these files with soft links,

$ ln -fs /sslkeys/key.pem /www/gitea/cert/key.pem
$ ln -fs /sslkeys/cert.pem /www/gitea/cert/key.pem

I was having some problems getting gitea to run. Gitea was raising a permissions error:

$ ./gitea web
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [T] Custom path: /www/gitea/bin/custom
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [T] Log path: /www/gitea/log
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] Gitea v1.0.1
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] Log Mode: File(Info)
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] Cache Service Enabled
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] Session Service Enabled
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] Git Version: 2.5.0
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] SQLite3 Supported
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] Run Mode: Production
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [I] Listen: https://0.0.0.0:3000
2017/03/21 15:21:12 [....io/gitea/cmd/web.go:632 runWeb()] [E] Fail to start server: open /www/gitea/certs/key.pem: permission denied

The solution was, the user that runs the Gitea web command also has to be able to read the private key file. Can just make the /sslkeys folder and contents group-readable to a new group ssl-group, and add any users that need access to the keys. Then add a git or gitea user, and run everything as the git user.

Add SSL group:

groupadd ssl-certs

Make a git user to run gitea:

useradd git

Add git user to ssl-certs group:

usermod -G ssl-certs git

Change permissions of SSL certs to be group-readable:

chgrp ssl-certs /sslcerts/{cert,key}.pem
chmod g+r /sslcerts/{cert,key}.pem

Now the keys are group-readable, and git is added to the group who can read SSL keys.

One more hurdle: we have to run gitea as the git user we just created. But we'll cover that below.

Using Self-Signed Cert

Using a self-signed HTTPS certificate is basically the equivalent to saying "Trust me!" at the end of every sentence. Any decent web browser raising an annoying warning or not loading the page at all. To use gitea to do it:

$ ./gitea cert --host mysite.com

This will create a key and certificate in the same directory, with pretty loose permissions.

Users and Permissions

Here's how I organized and arranged my gitea installation:

• set the git user as the user gitea runs as in the gitea config file
• the git user was running the gitea binary
• the git user was part of the ssl-certs group, which could read both public and private SSL keys
• the public and private keys were made group-readable and owned by the ssl-certs group
• to run gitea, I start up Screen and run the command sudo su git to get a shell as the user git. I then start up the gitea binary.

Here's what that requires:

Change the RUN_USER variable in the gitea config file, in custom/conf/app.ini:

RUN_USER = git

And then some commands to do user stuff and prepare to run the web server as git user:

# add group
groupadd ssl-certs

# add user
useradd git

# make user home directory for git user
mkdir /home/git

# add user to group
usermod -G ssl-certs git

# make ssl certs ownable
chgrp ssl-certs /sslkeys/{cert,key}.pem
chmod g+r /sslkeys/{cert,key}.pem

Now open up a screen and in the screen execute these commands:

# get a shell as user git
sudo su git

# run the gitea binary
cd /www/gitea/bin
./gitea web

Then detach the screen and voila.

Importing Repositories from Github

If you want to import a repository or move a repository from a different server to your gitea server, here's how you do it.

Summary:

• Get a local copy of the repo onto your server
• Fetch all the tags, commits, remote branches, etc. so you have a local copy
• Add a new remote server, e.g., new-origin
• Push all local branches and tags to the new-origin server
• Remove old origin, rename new-origin to origin

Link: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/05/moving-git-repository-new-server/

Getting local copy of repo locally

You'll be downloading a copy of the entire repository to a local disk. It doesn't need to be the remote server, although that can speed things up a bit.

Fetch all tags, commits, etc

If origin is the remote server you are migrating FROM:

git fetch origin

This will get all the latest branches and tags info, but won't necessarily grab a copy. To force git to grab a copy, do:

git branch -a

Get any branches prefixed with remote/origin/my-branch and check them out:

For example if you had remote/origin/my-branch-1 and remote/origin/my-branch-2:

git checkout -b my-branch-1 origin/my-branch-1
git checkout -b my-branch-2 origin/my-branch-2

Now verify you have local copies of all branches:

git branch -a

Create new remote

Now create your new remote, call it new-origin:

git remote add new-origin user@server:path/to/git/repo

Now we have two remotes. We'll push everything to the brand new remote, then sever any ties we had with the old remote.

Push everything to new server

To push everything to the remote new-origin:

git push --all new-origin
git push --tags new-origin

Update remote origin

Now get rid of the old origin and replace it with the new-origin:

git remote rm origin
git remote rename new-origin origin

Optional: delete old repo

At this point, you can delete the old remote repository on the old server if you so choose.

Works

Have confirmed this is working. Only trick is using a force flag when you send your commits to the remote server, so you don't get stuck in a conflict.

References

Main site: https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea

Config cheat sheet: https://docs.gitea.io/en-us/config-cheat-sheet/

Binary installation: https://docs.gitea.io/en-us/install-from-binary/

Can use Docker