How to Install Gitea on Rocky Linux 10 – Complete Guide

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Gitea is a lightweight, self-hosted Git service with features similar to GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. It's great for small teams or personal projects.

Prerequisites

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• Rocky Linux 10 server (minimal installation preferred)
• Root access (or a sudo-enabled user)

Update Your Server

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First, update your system packages and install epel-release using the following command

dnf update -y
dnf install epel-release -y

Install SQLite (for Gitea Database)

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Gitea supports many databases (SQLite, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MySQL, etc.). Here, we’ll use SQLite because it’s simple and works well for small Gitea instances.

If you want to use a different database (like PostgreSQL or MariaDB), you can install it here instead of SQLite.

dnf install sqlite -y

Verify SQLite Installation using the following Command:

sqlite3 --version

Output:

3.46.1 2024-08-13 09:16:08 c9c2ab54ba1f5f46360f1b4f35d849cd3f080e6fc2b6c60e91b16c63f69aalt1 (64-bit)

Install Git

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Gitea relies on Git, as it’s the core version control system used to manage your repositories. If you haven’t already installed Git, you’ll need to install it first.

Run the following command to install Git:

dnf install git -y

You can check the installed version to confirm it’s working:

git --version

Output:

git version 2.47.1

Create the git System User

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For security reasons, it is recommended to run Gitea under a dedicated system user. This ensures that Gitea has only the permissions it needs, reducing the risk in case of a security breach.

Run the following command to create a system user named git:

adduser \
  --system \
  --shell /bin/bash \
  --comment 'Git Version Control' \
  --create-home \
  --home /home/git \
  git

Download the Gitea binary

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Download the latest Gitea release from Gitea Downloads.

For example, for version 1.23.8:

dnf install wget
wget -O /tmp/gitea https://dl.gitea.com/gitea/1.23.8/gitea-1.23.8-linux-amd64
mv /tmp/gitea /usr/local/bin/gitea
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gitea

Replace the version number in the command with the version of Gitea you want to install

Set Up Directories and Permissions

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Gitea needs a directory structure to store its data, logs, configurations, and repositories.

Here’s what we’ll do:

• Create necessary folders for data storage (custom, data, indexers, public, log).

• Set ownership so that the git system user can read/write to them.

• Set permissions to control access and enhance security.

mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/{custom,data,indexers,public,log}
chown git: /var/lib/gitea/{data,indexers,log}
chmod 750 /var/lib/gitea/{data,indexers,log}

mkdir /etc/gitea
chown root:git /etc/gitea
chmod 770 /etc/gitea

Create Systemd Service

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A Systemd service lets you easily manage the Gitea application as a background service. This means you can start, stop, restart, and enable it to launch automatically at boot.

Download the Gitea Systemd service template:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/go-gitea/gitea/master/contrib/systemd/gitea.service -P /etc/systemd/system/

This downloads a pre-made service file configured to run Gitea with common settings.

Reload Systemd to detect the new service:

systemctl daemon-reload

Enable the Gitea service so it starts on boot:

systemctl enable --now gitea

Check the service status to confirm it’s running:

systemctl status gitea

If everything is set up properly, you’ll see Gitea listed as active (running).

Configure Firewall

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If your server has a firewall enabled (for example, firewalld on AlmaLinux), you need to allow Gitea’s port so that it can be accessed from your network or the internet.

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=3000/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload

Access Gitea Web UI

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To access Gitea, open your browser and go to:

http://<your-server-ip>:3000

Replace <your-server-ip> with your actual IP address.

Once you access Gitea at http://<your-ip>:3000, you’ll see the initial setup screen where you configure Gitea.

• Database Settings

  Database Type: SQLite3

  Path: /var/lib/gitea/data/gitea.db

As we've installed SQLite as a database, so we will use it. If you've installed any other database such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc., you can select it accordingly.

• General Settings

  Site Title: Your Project Name

  Repository Root Path: /home/git/gitea-repositories

  Git LFS Root Path: /var/lib/gitea/data/lfs

  Run As Username: git

  SSH Server Domain: Your server’s IP or domain

  SSH Port: 22 (or your custom SSH port)

  HTTP Port: 3000

  Base URL: http://<your-ip>:3000

  Log Path: /var/lib/gitea/log

Click Install to initialize Gitea.

Post-Installation Steps

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Create an Admin User

Go to http://<your-ip>:3000/user/sign_up and register the first user. This account becomes the administrator.

Start Creating Repositories!

You’re now ready to use Gitea to manage your Git repositories, issues, and more.

Conclusion

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By following this guide, you've successfully installed and configured Gitea on a Rocky Linux 10 server using SQLite as the backend. Gitea provides a lightweight, fast, and easy-to-use Git hosting platform suitable for personal use or small teams.