Gitea Setup On Ubuntu With SSL

Note: Running your own server costs money. Not like, a ton. (Well, depending on what you’re doing, but in this case, not a ton.) But you will need to buy 1) a domain name and 2) a computer. Probably a virtual computer, but those are still usually not free. Once you have accepted this into your heart, let us proceed without further ado.

Steps

Get a linux machine with the latest version of Ubuntu installed. I used a DigitalOcean droplet (just the basic, cheapest one is fine).
Set up a non-root user
Get a domain name — I use Namecheap, but it’s your call
If you are using DigitalOcean: add your domain to your DigitalOcean account
- Otherwise, reference your domain provider’s documentation to find out how to manage DNS records for your domain
Create a DNS Record for your gitea page
- Above instructions are DigitalOcean specific, but should give you an idea of how to proceed regardless of how you have chosen to manage your domain
- You will want to create an “A” record pointed to your machine’s IP address. In this example I have used the subdomain “gitea” but you can use “git” or “myawesomeversioncontrol” or whatever you like.
  
  Note about IP addresses: this guide assumes you have a static IP address for the machine you’re installing gitea on. If you’re using a physical computer at home, this is likely not the case. Addressing that problem is outside the scope of this guide.
Log into your machine with your non-root user account and run the following commands:
- sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
  - Standard command to ensure your installation is up to date
- sudo snap install gitea
  - Install gitea snap package
- sudo apt install nginx
  - Install nginx reverse proxy
- sudo ufw allow "Nginx Full"
  - This allows connections to gitea through your firewall. You should have enabled UFW earlier in the “Set up a non-root user” step. If not, make sure you do that now.
- sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitea
  - This is the configuration that tells nginx how to serve your gitea page. Paste the following into this file (changing the server_name value as specified) and save it:
```
  server {
  	# Make sure this value matches the DNS record you created
  	server_name gitea.yourdomain.xyz;

  	root /var/www/html;

  	location / {
  		# Proxy all requests to Gitea running on port 3000
  		proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;

  		# Set headers
  		proxy_set_header HOST $host;
  		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
  		proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
  	}
  }
```
- sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitea /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/gitea
  - This enables the configuration you just saved in nginx
- sudo nginx -t
  - This command checks that your nginx configuration all looks good
- sudo systemctl restart nginx
  - Necessary any time you make nginx configuration changes to apply them
- sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
  - Install certbot, which will allow you to serve your site over https (you want this)
- sudo certbot --nginx -d gitea.yourdomain.xyz
  - Generate your SSL certificate using certbot. Make sure to enter your correct domain.
  - If this fails, make sure your DNS record is propagated before trying again
Now visit your gitea page in a browser on any device: https://gitea.yourdomain.xyz
- This will give you an initial setup page where you can specify some settings
Settings to change:
- Database Type: SQLite3
- Server Domain: should match the DNS record you created
- Gitea Base Url: should match the DNS record you created WITH https:// at the beginning
- Administrator Account Settings: this will be your admin account — use a good password
Hit install
- May get a 502 after this — just wait a minute and it should resolve with a refresh
Welcome to Gitea

Optional

To manually edit settings (for example, set DISABLE_REGISTRATION = true):
- sudo nano /var/snap/gitea/common/conf/app.ini
  - This will open the settings file, edit any settings you would like to change and then save
- sudo systemctl restart snap.gitea.web
  - Restart gitea to apply changes
Styling Gitea:
- Reference
- Example:
  - sudo gitea embedded list **.tmpl
    - Get a list of available template files you can edit
  - sudo gitea embedded extract templates/home.tmpl
    - I want to edit the home page so I’m going to extract this one
  - sudo nano /var/snap/gitea/common/templates/home.tmpl
    - I delete some of the boilerplate on the home page and save my changes
  - sudo systemctl restart snap.gitea.web
    - Restart gitea to apply changes

Posted