Choosing free on-prem git server - Gitea is the winner!

When considering a self-hosted internal Git server as an alternative to open cloud providers, Gitea emerges as a compelling choice. Several options are available for building such a server, including Bonobo Gogs, Gitea, and Gitlab. However, Gogs is limited to Windows and lacks a container registry, while Gitlab, although feature-rich, is resource-intensive and offers a paid version alongside its free counterpart.

Gitea stands out as a lightweight solution that works well, though it currently lacks a container registry. To set up Gitea, one can follow a Dockerized installation process. First, create a directory for the Gitea application, then navigate to it. Next, compose a docker-compose.yml file that specifies the Gitea server image and environment variables for database configuration. The database itself is also containerized using PostgreSQL.

After running docker-compose up -d to start the services, access Gitea via http://localhost:3000/. To shut down the services, use docker-compose down, keeping the persistent volumes intact. Resource usage of the Gitea container is approximately 260MB of RAM and a small amount of CPU. The total Docker image size is around 583MB, with the PostgreSQL image contributing the majority.

To mirror repositories, navigate to the Create... menu and select the remote repository service. Enter the repository URL, and if authentication is required, provide the necessary credentials. Check the box to designate the repository as a mirror, then save the configuration. Gitea can automatically synchronize the mirror at set intervals or manually trigger a sync. However, pull mirroring is only possible for repositories that do not already exist on the instance.

Configuring HTTPS for Gitea involves obtaining valid SSL/TLS certificates, either through self-generated certificates for testing or purchased certificates for production use. The built-in HTTPS support in Gitea requires modifying the app.ini file with the appropriate certificate and key file paths. For enhanced security, it's recommended to redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS using a reverse proxy, such as Apache or Nginx.

This configuration can be set up by enabling the HTTP redirection service in Gitea's app.ini file and configuring the reverse proxy to forward traffic accordingly.