forgejo-docs/docs/admin/installation.md

title	license	origin_url
Installation	CC-BY-SA-4.0	58362695f7/content/post/setup-vps-with-wireguard-and-forgejo.md

Installation with Docker

Forgejo provides container images for use with Docker or other containerization tools.

docker pull codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo:1.20.5-0

The 1.20 tag is set to be the latest patch release, starting with 1.20.5-0. 1.20 will then be equal to 1.20.2-0 when it is released and so on.

Upgrading from 1.X to 1.X+1 (for instance from 1.19 to 1.20) requires a manual operation and human verification. However it is possible to use the X.Y tag (for instance 1.20) to get the latest point release automatically.

Here is a sample docker-compose file:

version: '3'

networks:
  forgejo:
    external: false

services:
  server:
    image: codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo:1.20
    container_name: forgejo
    environment:
      - USER_UID=1000
      - USER_GID=1000
    restart: always
    networks:
      - forgejo
    volumes:
      - ./forgejo:/var/lib/gitea
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
      - '222:22'

Note that the volume should be owned by the user/group with the UID/GID specified in the config file. If you don't give the volume correct permissions, the container may not start.

Databases

In the following each database is shown as part of a docker-compose example file, with a diff like presentation that highlights additions to the example above.

MySQL database

version: "3"

networks:
  forgejo:
    external: false

services:
  server:
    image: codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo:1.20
    container_name: forgejo
    environment:
      - USER_UID=1000
      - USER_GID=1000
+      - FORGEJO__database__DB_TYPE=mysql
+      - FORGEJO__database__HOST=db:3306
+      - FORGEJO__database__NAME=forgejo
+      - FORGEJO__database__USER=forgejo
+      - FORGEJO__database__PASSWD=forgejo
    restart: always
    networks:
      - forgejo
    volumes:
      - ./forgejo:/var/lib/gitea
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
      - "222:22"
+    depends_on:
+      - db
+
+  db:
+    image: mysql:8
+    restart: always
+    environment:
+      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=forgejo
+      - MYSQL_USER=forgejo
+      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=forgejo
+      - MYSQL_DATABASE=forgejo
+    networks:
+      - forgejo
+    volumes:
+      - ./mysql:/var/lib/mysql

PostgreSQL database

version: "3"

networks:
  forgejo:
    external: false

services:
  server:
    image: codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo:1.20
    container_name: forgejo
    environment:
      - USER_UID=1000
      - USER_GID=1000
+      - FORGEJO__database__DB_TYPE=postgres
+      - FORGEJO__database__HOST=db:5432
+      - FORGEJO__database__NAME=forgejo
+      - FORGEJO__database__USER=forgejo
+      - FORGEJO__database__PASSWD=forgejo
    restart: always
    networks:
      - forgejo
    volumes:
      - ./forgejo:/var/lib/gitea
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
      - "222:22"
+    depends_on:
+      - db
+
+  db:
+    image: postgres:14
+    restart: always
+    environment:
+      - POSTGRES_USER=forgejo
+      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=forgejo
+      - POSTGRES_DB=forgejo
+    networks:
+      - forgejo
+    volumes:
+      - ./postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data

Hosting repository data on remote storage systems

You might also mount the data and repository folders on a remote drive such as a network-attached storage system. While there are a multitude of possible solutions, we will focus on a somewhat minimal setup with NFS here and explain what measures have to be taken in general so that the administrators can adapt this to their individual setup.

We begin to describe a possible setup and will try to highlight all important aspects which the administrator will have to consider if a different hosting environment is present. An important assumption for the Forgejo image to make is to own the folders it writes into and reads from. This is naturally an issue since file-system permissions are a machine-local concept and don't translate over the network easily.

We assume that a server with the hostname server is accessible which has a folder /respositories shared via NFS. Append an entry to your /etc/exports like

[...]
/repositories	*(rw,sync,all_squash,ec=sys,anonuid=1024,anongid=100)

Four aspects to consider:

• The folder is mounted as rw, meaning clients can both read and write in the folder.
• The folder is mounted as sync. This is NFS-specific but means that transactions block until they are finished. This is not essential but increases the robustness against file corruption
• The all_squash setting maps all file accesses to an anonymous user, meaning that both the files of a user with the UID of 1050 and 1051 are mapped to a single UID on the server.
• We set these anonymous (G/U)ID to explicit values on the server with anonuid=1024,anongid=100. Hence all files will be owned by a user with the UID 1024, belonging to a group 100. Make sure the UID is available and a group with that ID is present.

Effectively we are now able to write and create files and folders on the remote share. With the all_squash setting, we map all users to one user, hence all data writable by one user is writable by all users, implying all files have a drwxrwxrwx setting (abreviated "0777 permissions"). We can also "fake-own" data, since all chown calls are now mapped to the anonymous user. This is an important behaviour. We now mount this folder on the client which will host Forgejo to a folder /mnt/repositories...

# mount -o hard,timeo=10,retry=10,vers=4.1 server:/repositories /mnt/repositories/

... and create two folders

$ mkdir conf
$ mkdir data

To consider in the client setup is the hard setting, blocking all file operations if the share is not available. This prevents state changes in the repository which could potentially corrupt the repository data and is an NFS-specific setting.

To circumvent this, you can use the We will use the rootless image, which hosts the ssh server for Forgejo embedded. A possible entry for a docker-compose file would look like this (shown as a diff like view to the example shown in our initial example):

version: "3"

networks:
  forgejo:
    external: false

services:
  server:
-    image: codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo:1.20
+    image: codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo:1.20-rootless
    container_name: forgejo
    environment:
+      - USER_UID=1024
+      - USER_GID=100
-      - USER_UID=1000
-      - USER_GID=1000

    restart: always
    networks:
      - forgejo
    volumes:
-      - ./forgejo:/var/lib/gitea
+      - /mnt/repositories/data:/var/lib/gitea
+      - /mnt/repositories/conf:/etc/gitea
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
      - "222:22"

This will write the configuration into our created conf folder and all other data into the data folder. Make sure that USER_UID and USER_GID match the anonuid and anongid setting in the NFS server setting here such that the Forgejo user sees files and folders with the same UID and GID in the respective folders and thus identifies itself as the sole owner of the folder structure.

Using the rootless image here solves another problem resulting from the file-system ownership issue. If we create ssh keys on the client image and save them on the server, they too will have 0777 permissions, which is prohibited by openssh. It is important for all involved tools that these files not be writable by just anybody with a login, so you would get you an error if you try to use them. Changing permissions will also not succeed through the chosen all_squash setup, which was necessary to allow a correct ownership mechanic on the server. To resolve this, we consider the rootless image, which embeds the ssh server, circumventing the problem entirely.

Note that this is a comparatively simple setup which does not necessarily reflect the reality of your network. User mapping and ownership could theoretically be streamlined better with Kerberos, which is however out of scope for this guide.

Installation from binary

Install Forgejo and git, create git user

NOTE: this guide assumes that you'll host on the server with the domain git.example.com.

First, download the Forgejo binary for your CPU architecture and maybe verify the GPG signature, as described on the Forgejo download page.

Next, copy the downloaded Forgejo binary to /usr/local/bin/ (renaming it to just "forgejo") and make it executable:

NOTE: when a line starts with #, it means the command 'foo --bar' must be run as root (or with sudo).

# cp forgejo-1.20.5-0-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/forgejo # chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/forgejo

Make sure git and git-lfs are installed: # apt install git git-lfs

Create a user git on the system. Forgejo will run as that user, and when accessing git through ssh (which is the default), this user is part of the URL (for example in git clone git@git.example.com:YourOrg/YourRepo.git the git before the @ is the user you'll create now). On Debian, Ubuntu and their derivates that's done with:

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

On Linux distributions not based on Debian/Ubuntu (this should at least work with Red Hat derivates like Fedora, CentOS etc.), run this instead:

# groupadd --system git

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

Create directories Forgejo will use

Now create the directories Forgejo will use and set access rights appropriately:

# mkdir /var/lib/forgejo # chown git:git /var/lib/forgejo && chmod 750 /var/lib/forgejo This is the directory Forgejo will store its data in, including your git repos.

# mkdir /etc/forgejo # chown root:git /etc/forgejo && chmod 770 /etc/forgejo This is the directory Forgejo's config, called app.ini, is stored in. Initially it needs to be writable by Forgejo, but after the installation you can make it read-only for Forgejo because then it shouldn't modify it anymore.

Optional: Set up database

When using sqlite as Forgejos database, nothing needs to be done here.

If you need a more powerful database, you can use MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL (apparently sqlite is good enough for at least 10 users, but might even suffice for more).

See Forgejos Database Preparation guide for setup instructions.

Install systemd service for Forgejo

Forgejo provides a systemd service script. Download it to the correct location: # wget -O /etc/systemd/system/forgejo.service https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/raw/branch/forgejo/contrib/systemd/forgejo.service

If you're not using sqlite, but MySQL or MariaDB or PostgreSQL, you'll have to edit that file (/etc/systemd/system/forgejo.service) and uncomment the corresponding Wants= and After= lines. Otherwise it should work as it is.

Now enable and start the Forgejo service, so you can go on with the installation: # systemctl enable forgejo.service # systemctl start forgejo.service

Forgejos web-based configuration

You should now be able to access Forgejo in your local web browser, so open http://git.example.com:3000/.

If it doesn't work:

• Make sure the forgejo service started successfully by checking the output of # systemctl status forgejo.service If that indicates an error but the log lines underneath are too incomplete to tell what caused it, # journalctl -n 100 --unit forgejo.service will print the last 100 lines logged by Forgejo.

You should be greeted by Forgejo's "Initial Configuration" screen. The settings should be mostly self-explanatory, some hints:

• Select the correct database (SQLite3, or if you configured something else in the "Set up database" step above, select that and set the corresponding options)
• Server Domain should be git.example.com (or whatever you're actually using), Forgejo Base URL should be http://git.example.com:3000 (assuming you won't change HTTP_PORT a different value than 3000)
• Check the Server and Third-Party Service Settings settings for settings that look relevant for you.
• It may make sense to create the administrator account right now (Administrator Account Settings), even more so if you disabled self-registration.
• Most settings can be changed in /etc/forgejo/app.ini later, so don't worry about them too much.

Once you're done configuring, click Install Forgejo and a few seconds later you should be on the dashboard (if you created an administrator account) or at the login/register screen, where you can create an account to then get to the dashboard.

So far, so good, but we're not quite done yet - some manual configuration in the app.ini is needed.

Further configuration in Forgejo's app.ini

Stop the forgejo service: # systemctl stop forgejo.service

While at it, make /etc/forgejo/ and the app.ini read-only for the git user (Forgejo doesn't write to it after the initial configuration): # chmod 750 /etc/forgejo && chmod 640 /etc/forgejo/app.ini

Now (as root) edit /etc/forgejo/app.ini

NOTE: You'll probably find the Configuration Cheat Sheet and the Example app.ini that contains all options incl. descriptions helpful.

The following changes are recommended if dealing with many large files:

• Forgejo allows uploading files to git repos through the web interface. By default the file size for uploads is limited to 3MB per file, and 5 files at once. To increase it, under the [repository] section, add a [repository.upload] section with a line like FILE_MAX_SIZE = 4095 (that would be 4095MB, about 4GB) and MAX FILES = 20 It'll look somehow like this:

  ...
  [repository]
  ROOT = /var/lib/forgejo/data/forgejo-repositories
  
  [repository.upload]
  ;; max size for files to the repo via web interface, in MB,
  ;; defaults to 3 (this sets a limit of about 4GB)
  FILE_MAX_SIZE = 4095
  ;; by default 5 files can be uploaded at once, increase to 20
  MAX_FILES = 20
  
  [server]
  ...
  

  Similar restrictions restrictions exist for attachments to issues/pull requests, configured in the [attachment] sections MAX_SIZE (default 4MB) and MAX_FILES (default 5) settings.

• By default LFS data uploads expire after 20 minutes - this can be too short for big files, slow connections or slow LFS storage (git-lfs seems to automatically restart the upload then - which means that it can take forever and use lots of traffic).. If you're going to use LFS with big uploads, increase thus limit, by adding a line LFS_HTTP_AUTH_EXPIRY = 180m (for 180 minutes) to the [server] section.

• Similarly there are timeouts for all kinds of git operations, that can be too short. Increasing all those git timeouts by adding a [git.timeout] section below the [server] section:

  ;; Git Operation timeout in seconds
  ;; increase the timeouts, so importing big repos (and presumably
  ;; pushing large files?) hopefully won't fail anymore
  [git.timeout]
  DEFAULT = 3600 ; Git operations default timeout seconds
  MIGRATE = 6000 ; Migrate external repositories timeout seconds
  MIRROR  = 3000 ; Mirror external repositories timeout seconds
  CLONE   = 3000 ; Git clone from internal repositories timeout seconds
  PULL    = 3000 ; Git pull from internal repositories timeout seconds
  GC      = 600  ; Git repository GC timeout seconds
  

  They are increased by a factor 10 (by adding a 0 at the end); probably not all these timeouts need to be increased (and if, then maybe not this much)... use your own judgement.

• By default LFS files are stored in the filesystem, in /var/lib/forgejo/data/lfs. In the [lfs] section you can change the PATH = ... line to store elsewhere, but you can also configure Forgejo to store the files in an S3-like Object-Storage.

• If you want to use the systemwide sendmail, enable sending E-Mails by changing the [mailer] section like this:

  [mailer]
  ;; send mail with systemwide "sendmail"
  ENABLED = true
  PROTOCOL = sendmail
  FROM = "Forgejo Git" <noreply@yourdomain.com>
  

• By default Forgejo will listen to the port 3000 but that can be changed to 80 with HTTP_PORT like this:

  [server]
  HTTP_PORT = 80
  

When you're done editing the app.ini, save it and start the forgejo service again: # systemctl start forgejo.service

You can test sending a mail by clicking the user button on the upper right of the Forgejo page ("Profile and Settings"), then Site Administration, then Configuration and under Mailer Configuration type in your mail address and click Send Testing Email.

General hints for using Forgejo

Sometimes you may want/need to use the Forgejo command line interface. Keep in mind that:

• You need to run it as git user, for example with $ sudo -u git forgejo command --argument
• You need to specify the Forgejo work path, either with the --work-path /var/lib/forgejo (or -w /var/lib/forgejo) commandline option or by setting the FORGEJO_WORK_DIR environment variable ($ export FORGEJO_WORK_DIR=/var/lib/forgejo) before calling forgejo
• You need to specify the path to the config (app.ini) with --config /etc/forgejo/app.ini (or -c /etc/forgejo/app.ini).

So all in all your command might look like: $ sudo -u git forgejo -w /var/lib/forgejo -c /etc/forgejo/app.ini admin user list

For convenience, you could create a /usr/local/bin/forgejo.sh with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh
sudo -u git forgejo -w /var/lib/forgejo -c /etc/forgejo/app.ini "$@"

and make it executable: # chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/forgejo.sh

Now if you want to call forgejo on the commandline (for the default system-wide installation in /var/lib/forgejo), just use e.g. $ forgejo.sh admin user list instead of the long line shown above.

You can always call forgejo and its subcommands with -h or --help to make it output usage information like available options and (sub)commands, for example $ forgejo admin user -h to show available subcommands to administrate users on the commandline.

Installation from package

Forgejo is also available for installation using package managers on many platforms. At this time, Forgejo has been successfully adapted for use on various platforms, including Alpine Linux, Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Manjaro, and the Nix ecosystem. It's important to acknowledge that these platform-specific packages are under the care of distribution packagers, and specific packages are currently undergoing testing. For a carefully curated inventory, please refer to the "Delightful Forgejo" list.