Setting Up Gitea as a Self-Hosted Git Server

If you don't already have a git server (GitLab, GitHub Enterprise, etc.), we recommend Gitea — a lightweight, self-hosted git service that runs in a single Docker container with minimal resources.

Requirements

• Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)

• 1 GB RAM minimum

• Storage: plan for at least 2x your total IDA database sizes

• Docker

Step 1: Install Docker

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y docker.io docker-compose-v2
sudo systemctl enable --now docker

Step 2: Configure and Start Gitea

mkdir -p /opt/gitea
cd /opt/gitea

Create a .env file with your server's IP address:

echo 'SERVER_IP=192.168.1.100' > .env

Create docker-compose.yml:

services:
  gitea:
    image: gitea/gitea:latest
    container_name: gitea
    environment:
      - USER_UID=1000
      - USER_GID=1000
      - GITEA__database__DB_TYPE=sqlite3
      - GITEA__server__ROOT_URL=http://${SERVER_IP}:3000/
      - GITEA__server__SSH_DOMAIN=${SERVER_IP}
      - GITEA__server__SSH_PORT=2222
      - GITEA__server__DOMAIN=${SERVER_IP}
      - GITEA__server__LFS_START_SERVER=true
      - GITEA__service__DISABLE_REGISTRATION=true
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
      - '2222:22'

Docker Compose reads .env automatically. Start it:

docker compose up -d

Step 3: Initial Setup

Open http://<SERVER_IP>:3000 in a browser. Fill in the Administrator Account at the bottom of the setup page and click Install Gitea.

Step 4: Create a Repository

Log in and click + → New Repository. Give it a name and do not initialize it (no README, no .gitignore).

Optionally, create an Organization first (+ → New Organization) to group repositories under a shared namespace instead of a personal account. For example, with an organization named ida, repos are accessible as git@idbs-repo:ida/my-project.git.

Step 5: Configure SSH Access (for clients)

On each client machine that needs to push to Gitea, add an SSH host alias so that regular SSH to the server is not affected.

Edit your SSH config file:

• Linux / macOS: ~/.ssh/config

• Windows: C:\Users\<username>\.ssh\config

Add the following:

Host idbs-repo
  HostName 192.168.1.100
  Port 2222

This maps the alias gitea to the server's SSH on port 2222. Regular ssh user@<SERVER_IP> connections remain on port 22.

Add the client's public SSH key in Gitea: User Settings → SSH / GPG Keys → Add Key.

Verify access:

git ls-remote git@idbs-repo:USERNAME/REPO.git

Using a Dedicated Disk

To store repositories on a separate disk (recommended for large repos), mount it before starting Gitea and point the data volume to it:

# Example: mount /dev/sdb to /mnt/gitea-data
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/gitea-data
sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt/gitea-data

# Add to /etc/fstab for persistence
echo '/dev/sdb /mnt/gitea-data ext4 defaults 0 2' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Then update docker-compose.yml to use the mounted path:

    volumes:
      - /mnt/gitea-data:/data

Maintenance

cd /opt/gitea

# Update Gitea
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

# Stop Gitea
docker compose down

# Backup (creates a zip archive)
docker exec -u 1000 gitea gitea dump -c /data/gitea/conf/app.ini

All data lives in the data volume and survives container restarts and upgrades.

Troubleshooting

SSH connection refused

Verify the container is running and port 2222 is open:

docker ps | grep gitea
ss -tlnp | grep 2222

Push rejected (protected branch)

Go to the repository Settings → Branches and remove branch protection.