GitLab

Gitlab is a free git repository management application based on Ruby on Rails. 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 here.

Required packages

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

# pacman -Syu --noconfirm --needed sudo base-devel zlib libyaml openssl gdbm readline ncurses libffi curl git openssh redis libxml2 libxslt icu python2

Note: In order to receive mail notifications, make sure to install a mail server. By default, Archlinux does not ship with one. The recommended mail server is postfix, but you can use others such as SSMTP, msmtp, sendmail, etc.

Ruby

GitLab supports ruby >= 1.9.3 and 2.0.0, but some dependencies gems work better with ruby 1.9.3. Install it from the official repositories and if you bump into any trouble use rvm with ruby 1.9.3-p392.

User accounts

Add git user:

# useradd -dmU /home/git git

Note: git user 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 repository (it will get stucked at the page where it tells you how to push to the new repository).

gitlab-shell

GitLab Shell is an ssh access and repository management software developed specially for GitLab.

Login as git:

# su - git

Clone gitlab shell:

$ git clone https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-shell.git
$ cd gitlab-shell

Switch to the right version:

$ git checkout v1.4.0

Edit config.yml and replace gitlab_url with something like http://domain.com/:

$ cp config.yml.example config.yml

Setup the environment:

$ ./bin/install

You should see this result:

Example output

mkdir -p /home/git/repositories: true
mkdir -p /home/git/.ssh: true
chmod 700 /home/git/.ssh: true
touch /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys: true
chmod 600 /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys: true
chmod -R ug+rwX,o-rwx /home/git/repositories: true
find /home/git/repositories -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod g+s: true

Database selection

Currently GitLab supports MySQL and PostgreSQL. MariaDB has not been officially tested.

MariaDB

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

# su - git
$ mysql -u root -p

mysql> CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `gitlabhq_production` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET `utf8` COLLATE `utf8_unicode_ci`;
mysql> CREATE USER 'gitlab'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password_here';
mysql> GRANT SELECT, LOCK TABLES, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER ON `gitlabhq_production`.* TO 'gitlab'@'localhost';
mysql> \q

Try connecting to the new database with the new user:

$ mysql -u gitlab -p -D gitlabhq_production

PostgreSQL

Install postgresql and libpqxx from the official repositories. Follow PostgreSQL#Installing_PostgreSQL to set it up and start the daemon.

Login to PostgreSQL and remember to change your_password_here to a real one:

# sudo -u postgres psql -d template1

template1=# CREATE USER git WITH PASSWORD 'your_password_here';
template1=# CREATE DATABASE gitlabhq_production OWNER git;
template1=# \q

Try connecting to the new database with the new user:

# sudo -u git -H psql -d gitlabhq_production

MySQL

If you are still in favor of mysql^AUR, follow the same commands as MariaDB.

Gitlab

Installation

Clone GitLab's repository:

# su - git
$ git clone https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq.git gitlab
$ cd gitlab
$ git checkout 5-2-stable

Note: You can change 5-2-stable to master if you want the bleeding edge version, but do so with caution! Check github to see what is the latest stable version and replace above accordingly.

Basic configuration

First we need to rename the example file.

$ cp config/gitlab.yml.example config/gitlab.yml

The options are pretty straightforward. Open config/gitlab.yml with your favorite editor and edit where needed. Make sure to change localhost to the fully-qualified domain name of your host serving GitLab where necessary.

Make sure GitLab can write to the log/ and tmp/ directories:

$ chown -R git log/
$ chown -R git tmp/
$ chmod -R u+rwX  log/
$ chmod -R u+rwX  tmp/

Create directory for satellites:

$ mkdir /home/git/gitlab-satellites

Create directories for sockets/pids and make sure GitLab can write to them:

$ mkdir tmp/{pids,sockets}
$ chmod -R u+rwX  tmp/{pids,sockets}

Create the public/uploads directory otherwise backup will fail:

$ mkdir public/uploads
$ chmod -R u+rwX  public/uploads

Copy the example Puma config and edit to your liking:

$ cp config/puma.rb.example config/puma.rb

Configure Git global settings for git user, useful when editing via web. Edit user.email according to what is set in gitlab.yml:

$ git config --global user.name "GitLab"
$ git config --global user.email "gitlab@localhost"

Configure GitLab database settings:

• MariaDB:

$ cp config/database.yml.mysql config/database.yml

• PostgreSQL:

$ cp config/database.yml.postgresql config/database.yml

Make sure to update username/password in config/database.yml.

Install gems

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

Install bundler and charlock_holmes system-wide:

# gem install charlock_holmes --version '0.6.9.4'
# gem install bundler

Install gems from Gemfile:

# su - git
$ cd gitlab/

If you used MariaDB:

$ bundle install --deployment --without development test postgres

If you used PostgreSQL:

$ bundle install --deployment --without development test mysql

Note: Using --without group_name in bundle command line will ignore required packages for the mentioned groups.

Initialize Database

Note: Make sure the redis daemon is enabled and started, otherwise the following command will fail.

Initialize database and activate advanced features:

$ bundle exec rake gitlab:setup RAILS_ENV=production

Check status

With the following commands we check if the steps we followed so far are configured properly.

$ bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production
$ bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production

Example output of gitlab:env:info

System information
System:		Arch Linux
Current User:	git
Using RVM:	yes
RVM Version:	1.20.3
Ruby Version:	2.0.0p0
Gem Version:	2.0.0
Bundler Version:1.3.5
Rake Version:	10.0.4

GitLab information
Version:	5.2.0.pre
Revision:	4353bab
Directory:	/home/git/gitlab
DB Adapter:	mysql2
URL:		http://gitlab.arch
HTTP Clone URL:	http://gitlab.arch/some-project.git
SSH Clone URL:	git@gitlab.arch:some-project.git
Using LDAP:	no
Using Omniauth:	no

GitLab Shell
Version:	1.4.0
Repositories:	/home/git/repositories/
Hooks:		/home/git/gitlab-shell/hooks/
Git:		/usr/bin/git

Note: gitlab:check will complain about missing initscripts. Don't worry, we will use ArchLinux' systemd to manage server start (which GitLab does not recognize).

Web server configuration

Unicorn only

Note: As of GitLab 5.1 Unicorn is no longer the default server as it got replaced by Puma. You can therefore ignore this section.

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