Gitlab

Gitlab is a free git repository management application based on Ruby on Rails and Gitolite. It is distributed under the MIT License and its source code can be found on Github. It is a very active project with a monthly release cycle and ideal for businesses that want to keep their code private. Consider it as a self hosted Github but open source. You can try a demo page here.

Note: Throughout the article, sudo is heavily used, assuming that the user that is running the commands is root or someone with equal privileges. There is no need to edit the sudoers file whatsoever. It is only used to change to the appropriate user. For more info read man sudo.

Required packages

Install the packages below as they are needed to proceed further.

# pacman -Syu --needed sudo git wget curl checkinstall libxml2 libxslt mysql++ base-devel zlib icu redis openssh python2 python2-pygments python2-pip libyaml ruby libpqxx

Create user accounts

Add git and gitlab user. git is a system user that will be used for gitolite. gitlab user will be used for Gitlab and is part of group git.

# usermod -d /home/git git
# mkdir -pv /home/git
# chown -R git:git /home/git
# useradd --user-group --shell /bin/bash --comment 'gitlab system' --create-home --groups git gitlab

Note that the user git must have its initial group set to git (not users). If the initial group is not git, then all files created by the git user will be owned by git:users which will prevent gitlab from showing you a newly created repo (it will get stucked at the page where it tells you how to push to the new repo). Running sudo usermod -g git git will set the git user's initial group.

Gitolite

Clone the gitolite repository from Gitlab's fork. Note that it's version 3.

# cd /home/git
# sudo -H -u git git clone -b gl-v304 https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitolite.git /home/git/gitolite

Generate Gitlab's ssh key to be used with gitolite:

# sudo -H -u gitlab ssh-keygen -q -N '' -t rsa -f /home/gitlab/.ssh/id_rsa

Add the following path to git's .bash_profile:

# sudo -u git sh -c 'echo "export PATH=/home/git/bin:$PATH" >> /home/git/.bash_profile'
# sudo -u git sh -c 'mkdir /home/git/bin'
# sudo -u git -H sh -c "export PATH=/home/git/bin:$PATH; /home/git/gitolite/install -ln"

Copy Gitlab's public key to gitolite's home and change permissions:

# cp /home/gitlab/.ssh/id_rsa.pub /home/git/gitlab.pub
# chmod 0444 /home/git/gitlab.pub

Install gitolite:

# sudo -u git -H sh -c "export PATH=/home/git/bin:$PATH; /home/git/gitolite/src/gitolite setup -pk /home/git/gitlab.pub"

Example output

creating gitolite-admin...
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/gitolite-admin.git/
creating testing...
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/testing.git/
[master (root-commit) 012fdf5] start
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 conf/gitolite.conf
 create mode 100644 keydir/gitlab.pub

Change permissions:

# chmod -R g+rwX /home/git/repositories/
# chmod g+x /home/git
# chown -R git:git /home/git/repositories/

Note: The next step is important to succeed. If not, do not try to proceed any further.

Note: If you obtain an error like "Permission denied (publickey)" for the next command, one reason can be that "UsePAM" is not activated in ssh. Set "UsePAM yes" in /etc/ssh/sshd_config" and restart the ssh server.

Add Gitlab's ssh key to known hosts:

# sudo -u gitlab -H git clone git@localhost:gitolite-admin.git /tmp/gitolite-admin

Answer yes. At this point you should be able to clone the gitolite-admin repository.

Example output

Cloning into '/tmp/gitolite-admin'...
The authenticity of host 'localhost (::1)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is 5a:50:69:47:1f:1c:61:79:08:a8:2c:fa:a1:fb:48:bf.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'localhost' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
remote: Counting objects: 6, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Receiving objects: 100% (6/6), 712 bytes, done.
remote: Total 6 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)

If the repository is cloned successfully, it is safe to remove it:

# rm -rf /tmp/gitolite-admin

Gitlab

Installation

Tip: If you do not want to download any documentation, add gem: --no-rdoc --no-ri to /home/gitlab/.gemrc. Be sure to add it as the gitlab user in order to acquire the appropriate permissions.

Add ruby to Gitlab's PATH:

# sudo -u gitlab -H sh -c 'echo "export PATH=$(ruby -rubygems -e "puts Gem.user_dir")/bin:$PATH" >> /home/gitlab/.bashrc'

Install bundler and charlock_holmes:

# sudo -u gitlab -H gem install charlock_holmes --version '0.6.9'
# sudo -u gitlab -H gem install bundler

Note: When installing charlock_holmes don't mind any errors that might occur, that's normal.

Because systemd requires full path to binaries to launch (the path is not enough), create a symbolic link in /home/gitlab/bin/ that points to the **bundle** executable. We'll also add the folder to gitlab's PATH:

# sudo -u gitlab -H mkdir /home/gitlab/bin
# sudo -u gitlab -H sh -c "ln -s \$(ruby -rubygems -e 'puts Gem.user_dir')/bin/bundle /home/gitlab/bin/"
# sudo -u gitlab -H sh -c 'echo "export PATH=/home/gitlab/bin:$PATH" >> /home/gitlab/.bashrc'

Clone Gitlab's stable repository:

# cd /home/gitlab
# sudo -H -u gitlab git clone -b stable git://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq.git gitlab
# cd gitlab
# sudo -H -u gitlab git checkout v3.1.0
# sudo -u gitlab mkdir -pv tmp

Basic configuration

First we need to rename the example file.

# sudo -u gitlab cp config/gitlab.yml.example config/gitlab.yml

The options are pretty straightforward. You can skip this part as it is quite detailed. Open /home/gitlab/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml with your favorite editor and check the settings below.

Web application specific settings

/home/gitlab/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml

host: myhost.example.com
port: 80
https: false

• host: Enter your Fully Qualified Domain Name.

Email used for notification

/home/gitlab/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml

from: notify@example.com

This is how the mail address will be shown for mail notifications. Gitlab needs the sendmail command in order to send emails (for things like lost password recovery, new user addition etc). This command is provided by packages such as msmtp, postfix, sendmail etc, but you can only have one of them installed. First, check whether you already have the sendmail command:

# ls /usr/sbin/sendmail

If you get a ‘cannot access /usr/bin/sendmail’ then install one of the above packages.

Application specific settings

/home/gitlab/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml

default_projects_limit: 10
# backup_path: "/vol/backups"   # default: Rails.root + backups/
# backup_keep_time: 604800      # default: 0 (forever) (in seconds)

• default_projects_limit: As the name suggests, this integer defines the default number of projects new users have. The number can change from within Gitlab by an administrator.
• backup_path: The path where backups are stored. Default location is /home/gitlab/gitlab/backups. The backups folder is created automatically after first backup.
• backup_keep_time: Time to preserve backups. The default option is to never be deleted.

Also check Backup and restore.

Git Hosting configuration

/home/gitlab/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml

admin_uri: git@localhost:gitolite-admin
base_path: /home/git/repositories/
hooks_path: /home/git/share/gitolite/hooks/
# host: localhost
git_user: git
upload_pack: true
receive_pack: true
# port: 22

• admin_uri: Do not change it. Leave as is.
• base_path: The path where gitolite's repositories reside. If the repositories directory is different than the default one, change it here.
• hooks_path: change default setting to /home/git/share/gitolite/hooks/
• host: Should point to your FQDN.
• git_user: Name of the git user we created.
• upload_pack:
• receive_pack:

• port: ssh port which git should use. Default one is 22. If you want to change it for safety reasons, do not forget to also add the port number to .ssh/config.

/home/gitlab/gitlab/.ssh/config

Host localhost
Port 5000

Git settings

/home/gitlab/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml

path: /usr/bin/git
git_max_size: 5242880 # 5.megabytes
git_timeout: 10

• git_max_size: Max size of git objects like commits, in bytes,.This value can be increased if you have very large commits.
• git_timeout: git timeout to read commit, in seconds.

Database selection

SQLite support in Gitlab is now deprecated. See this bug report.

MySQL

Install mysql from the official repositories and start the daemon. Create the database and do not forget to replace your_password_here with a real one.

# mysql -u root -p

mysql> create database gitlabhq_production;
mysql> create user 'gitlab'@'localhost' identified by 'your_password_here';
mysql> grant all privileges on gitlabhq_production.* to 'gitlab'@'localhost' with grant option;
mysql> exit;

Copy the example configuration file and make sure to update username/password in config/database.yml at production section:

# sudo -u gitlab cp config/database.yml.mysql config/database.yml

Install gems

This could take a while as it installs all required libraries.

# cd /home/gitlab/gitlab
# export PATH=/home/gitlab/bin:$PATH
# sudo -u gitlab -H bundle install --deployment

Note: Using "--without development test" in bundle command line will ignore required packages for database backup and restore

Start redis server

Start the daemon. If you are using initscripts you might want to add redis to your DAEMONS array in rc.conf.

Note: redis might already be running, causing a FAIL message to appear. Check if it is already running with rc.d list redis.

If you have switched to systemd, there is a service file included in the official package. See daemon how to enable it.

Populate the database

# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rake gitlab:app:setup RAILS_ENV=production

Setup gitlab hooks

# cp ./lib/hooks/post-receive /home/git/.gitolite/hooks/common/post-receive
# chown git:git /home/git/.gitolite/hooks/common/post-receive

Check status

With the following commands we check if the steps we followed so far are configured properly. Before running the first command you must edit /home/gitlab/gitlab/lib/tasks/gitlab/info.rake. The script cannot determine OS version; simply replace os_name.squish! with os_name = "Arch Linux".

# sudo -u gitlab -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production
# sudo -u gitlab -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production

Example output

System information
System:         Arch Linux
Current User:   gitlab
Using RVM:      no
Ruby Version:   1.9.3p362
Gem Version:    1.8.23
Bundler Version:1.2.3
Rake Version:   10.0.1

GitLab information
Version:        4.0.0
Revision:       8ef7b9b
Directory:      /home/gitlab/gitlab
DB Adapter:     mysql2
URL:            http://example.com
HTTP Clone URL: http://example.com/some-project.git
SSH Clone URL:  git@example.com:some-project.git
Using LDAP:     no
Using Omniauth: no

Gitolite information
Version:        v3.04-4-g4524f01
Admin URI:      git@example.com:gitolite-admin
Admin Key:      gitlab
Repositories:   /home/git/repositories/
Hooks:          /home/git/.gitolite/hooks/
Git:            /usr/bin/git

Server testing and resque process

Resque is a Redis-backed library for creating background jobs, placing those jobs on multiple queues, and processing them later. For the backstory, philosophy, and history of Resque's beginnings, please see this blog post.

Run resque process for processing queue:

# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rake environment resque:work QUEUE=* RAILS_ENV=production BACKGROUND=yes

or use Gitlab's start script:

# sudo -u gitlab ./resque.sh

Note: If you run this as root, /home/gitlab/gitlab/tmp/pids/resque_worker.pid will be owned by root causing the resque worker not to start via init script on next boot/service restart

Gitlab application can be started with the next command:

# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rails s -e production

Open localhost:3000 with your favorite browser and you should see Gitlab's sign in page. In case you missed it, the default login/password are:

login.........admin@local.host
password......5iveL!fe

Since this is a thin web server, it is only for test purposes. You may close it with Template:Keypress. Follow instructions below to make Gitlab run with a real web server.

Web server configuration

Unicorn only

Edit /home/gitlab/gitlab/config/unicorn.rb uncomment:

listen 8080 # listen to port 8080 on all TCP interfaces

Create /etc/rc.d/unicorn-gitlab.

#!/bin/bash

. /etc/rc.conf
. /etc/rc.d/functions


PID=`pidof -o %PPID /usr/bin/ruby`
case "$1" in
  start)
    stat_busy "Starting unicorn"
    [ -z "$PID" ] && sudo -u gitlab bash  -c  "source /home/gitlab/.bash_profile && cd /home/gitlab/gitlab/ && bundle exec unicorn_rails -c config/unicorn.rb -E production -D"
    if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
      stat_fail
    else
      add_daemon unicorn
      stat_done
    fi
    ;;
  stop)
    stat_busy "Stopping unicorn"
    [ ! -z "$PID" ]  && kill $PID &> /dev/null
    if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
      stat_fail
    else
      rm_daemon unicorn
      stat_done
    fi
    ;;
  restart)
    $0 stop
    sleep 1
    $0 start
    ;;
  *)
    echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
esac
exit 0

Start unicorn:

# /etc/rc.d/unicorn-gitlab start

Test it http://localhost:8080

Add it to DAEMONS array in /etc/rc.conf

Redirect http port to unicorn server

# iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080

And test again, now http://localhost

Nginx and unicorn

Install nginx from the official repositories.

Run these commands to setup nginx:

# wget https://raw.github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-recipes/master/nginx/gitlab -P /etc/nginx/sites-available/
# ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/gitlab 

Edit /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/gitlab and change YOUR_SERVER_IP and YOUR_SERVER_FQDN to the IP address and fully-qualified domain name of the host serving Gitlab. As you can see nginx needs to access /home/gitlab/gitlab/tmp/sockets/gitlab.socket socket file. You have to be able to run sudo -u http ls /home/gitlab/gitlab/tmp/sockets/gitlab.socket successfully. Otherwise setup access to the directory:

# chgrp http /home/gitlab
# chmod u=rwx,g=rx,o= /home/gitlab

Restart gitlab.service, resque.service and nginx.

Unicorn is an HTTP server for Rack applications designed to only serve fast clients on low-latency, high-bandwidth connections and take advantage of features in Unix/Unix-like kernels. First we rename the example file and then we start unicorn:

# cd /home/gitlab/gitlab
# sudo -u gitlab cp config/unicorn.rb.orig config/unicorn.rb
# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec unicorn_rails -c config/unicorn.rb -E production -D

Apache and unicorn

Install apache from the official repositories.

Configure Unicorn

As the official installation guide instructs, copy the unicorn configuration file:

# sudo -u gitlab -H cp /home/gitlab/gitlab/config/unicorn.rb.example /home/gitlab/gitlab/config/unicorn.rb

Now edit config/unicorn.rb and add a listening port by uncommenting the following line:

listen "127.0.0.1:8080"

Tip: You can set a custom port if you want. Just remember to also include it in Apache's virtual host. See below.

Create a virtual host for Gitlab

Create a configuration file for Gitlab’s virtual host and insert the lines below adjusted accordingly. For the ssl section see LAMP#SSL. If you do not need it, remove it. Notice that the SSL virtual host needs a specific IP instead of generic. Also if you set a custom port for Unicorn, do not forget to set it at the BalanceMember line.

# mkdir -pv /etc/httpd/conf/vhosts/

/etc/httpd/conf/vhosts/gitlab

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName gitlab.myserver.com
  ServerAlias www.gitlab.myserver.com
  DocumentRoot /home/gitlab/gitlab/public
  ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/gitlab_error_log
  CustomLog /var/log/httpd/gitlab_access_log combined

  <Proxy balancer://unicornservers>
      BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:8080
  </Proxy>

  <Directory /home/gitlab/gitlab/public>
    AllowOverride All
    Options -MultiViews
  </Directory>

  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ balancer://unicornservers%{REQUEST_URI} [P,QSA,L]

  ProxyPass /uploads !
  ProxyPass / balancer://unicornservers/
  ProxyPassReverse / balancer://unicornservers/
  ProxyPreserveHost on

   <Proxy *>
      Order deny,allow
      Allow from all
   </Proxy>
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost MY_IP:443>
  ServerName gitlab.myserver.com
  ServerAlias www.gitlab.myserver.com
  DocumentRoot /home/gitlab/gitlab/public
  ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/gitlab_error_log
  CustomLog /var/log/httpd/gitlab_access_log combined

  <Proxy balancer://unicornservers>
      BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:8080
  </Proxy>

  <Directory /home/gitlab/gitlab/public>
    AllowOverride All
    Options -MultiViews
  </Directory>

  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ balancer://unicornservers%{REQUEST_URI} [P,QSA,L]

  ProxyPass /uploads !
  ProxyPass / balancer://unicornservers/
  ProxyPassReverse / balancer://unicornservers/
  ProxyPreserveHost on

   <Proxy *>
      Order deny,allow
      Allow from all
   </Proxy>

  SSLEngine on
  SSLCertificateFile /home/gitlab/gitlab/ssl.cert
  SSLCertificateKeyFile /home/gitlab/gitlab/ssl.key
</VirtualHost>

Enable host and start unicorn

Enable your Gitlab virtual host and reload Apache:

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Include conf/vhosts/gitlab

Finally start unicorn:

# cd /home/gitlab/gitlab
# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec unicorn_rails -c config/unicorn.rb -E production -D

SystemD support

Note that you don't need the systemd units to launch shell scripts as suggested by the gitlab authors. Just make sure the ExecStart line points to the full path of the **bundle** executable.

Create:

/etc/systemd/system/gitlab.service

[Unit]
Description=Gitlab Unicorn Rails server

[Service]
Type=simple
SyslogIdentifier=gl-unicorn
User=gitlab
PIDFile=/home/gitlab/gitlab/tmp/pids/unicorn.pid
WorkingDirectory=/home/gitlab/gitlab
TimeoutStartSec=600

ExecStart=/home/gitlab/bin/bundle exec unicorn_rails -c /home/gitlab/gitlab/config/unicorn.rb -E production -D
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
ExecStop=/bin/kill -QUIT $MAINPID

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

/etc/systemd/system/resque.service

[Unit]
Description=Gitlab Resque

[Service]
Type=simple
SyslogIdentifier=gl-resque
User=gitlab
PIDFile=/home/gitlab/gitlab/tmp/pids/resque_worker.pid
WorkingDirectory=/home/gitlab/gitlab
TimeoutStartSec=600

ExecStart=/home/gitlab/bin/bundle exec rake environment resque:work QUEUE=post_receive,mailer,system_hook RAILS_ENV=production PIDFILE=tmp/pids/resque_worker.pid
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
ExecStop=/bin/kill -QUIT $MAINPID

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Also see: https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-recipes/issues/14

Useful Tips

Hook into /var

 sudo mkdir -m700 /var/log/gitlab /var/tmp/gitlab
 sudo chown gitlab:gitlab /var/log/gitlab /var/tmp/gitlab
 sudo -u gitlab -i
 cd ~/gitlab
 d=log; mv $d/* /var/$d/gitlab; rm -f $d/.gitkeep; rm -r $d && ln -s /var/$d/gitlab $d
 d=tmp; mv $d/* /var/$d/gitlab; rm -f $d/.gitkeep; rm -r $d && ln -s /var/$d/gitlab $d

Hidden options

Go to Gitlab's home directory

# cd /home/gitlab/gitlab

and run

# rake -T | grep gitlab

These are the options so far:

rake gitlab:app:backup_create      # GITLAB | Create a backup of the gitlab system
rake gitlab:app:backup_restore     # GITLAB | Restore a previously created backup
rake gitlab:app:enable_automerge   # GITLAB | Enable auto merge
rake gitlab:app:setup              # GITLAB | Setup production application
rake gitlab:app:status             # GITLAB | Check gitlab installation status
rake gitlab:gitolite:update_hooks  # GITLAB | Rewrite hooks for repos
rake gitlab:gitolite:update_keys   # GITLAB | Rebuild each key at gitolite config
rake gitlab:gitolite:update_repos  # GITLAB | Rebuild each project at gitolite config
rake gitlab:test                   # GITLAB | Run both cucumber & rspec

Backup and restore

Create a backup of the gitlab system:

# sudo -u gitlab -H rake RAILS_ENV=production gitlab:backup:create

Restore the previously created backup file /home/gitlab/gitlab/tmp/backups/20130125_11h35_1359131740_gitlab_backup.tar:

# sudo -u gitlab -H rake RAILS_ENV=production gitlab:backup:restore BACKUP=/home/gitlab/gitlab/tmp/backups/20130125_11h35_1359131740

Note: Backup folder is set in conig.yml. Check #Application_specific_settings.

Update Gitlab

When a new version is out follow the instructions at Github wiki. A new release is out every 22nd of a month.

Migrate from sqlite to mysql

Get latest code as described in #Update_Gitlab. Save data.

# cd /home/gitlab/gitlab
# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rake db:data:dump RAILS_ENV=production

Follow #Mysql instructions and then setup the database.

# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rake db:setup RAILS_ENV=production

Finally restore old data.

# sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rake db:data:load RAILS_ENV=production

Troubleshooting

Sometimes things may not work as expected. Be sure to visit the Trouble Shooting Guide.

See also

• Official Documentation
• Gitlab recipes for setup on different platforms, update etc.
• GitLab on an Ubuntu 10.04 server with Apache
• Setting up gitlab on Debian 6
• Installing Gitlab on CentOS 6
• Gist: Install Gitlab on Debian Squeeze
• Gist: Install Gitlab on Archlinux