These instructions will install Gogs on an Ubuntu 20.04 server using the MariaDB back-end. Gogs is a self-hosted front-end to Git. Gogs is extremely lightweight and comes in a single binary file. It also supports multiple back-end databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQLite3.

These commands assume you are running as root or sudo. All scripts also rely on the install directory being /home/git. Remember to set your own password wherever a password is needed.

Install MariaDB

apt install mariadb-server
mysql_secure_installation

Download and extract the latest/desired version of Gogs from dl.gogs.io/

wget https://dl.gogs.io/0.12.3/gogs_0.12.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar xzvf gogs_0.12.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz

Create a systemd service file in /lib/systemd/system/gogs.service

[Unit]
Description=Gogs
After=syslog.target
After=network.target
 
[Service]
LimitMEMLOCK=infinity
LimitNOFILE=4000
RestartSec=2s
Type=simple
User=git
Group=git
WorkingDirectory=/home/git
ExecStart=/home/git/gogs/gogs web
Restart=always
Environment=USER=git HOME=/home/git GOGS_WORK_DIR=/home/git
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable Gogs service

systemctl enable gogs

Start Gogs service

systemctl start gogs

Install nginx

apt install nginx

Log in to MariaDB to create a user and database

mysql -u root -p

Create database

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS gogs CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;

Create user and grant privileges

CREATE USER 'gogs'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON gogs.* TO 'gogs'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Create nginx proxy file. Note that I am using an SSL certificate here. If you do not have your own certificate, you can use certbot.

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name gogs.domain.edu;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}
 
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name gogs.domain.edu;
 
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/key.key;
 
    location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000/;
    }
}

Test your nginx configuration file

nginx -t

Restart nginx

systemctl restart nginx

Set the external URL by editing /home/git/custom/conf/app.ini.

Continue the installation using the web interface https://gogs.domain.edu.