gitea

A self-hosted Docker image for Gitea — a lightweight, fast Git hosting service — bundled with the Gitea Actions runner (act_runner) and Docker-in-Docker support so CI pipelines run out of the box.

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🐳 Docker

Quick start

docker run -d \
  --name casjaysdevdocker-gitea-latest \
  --privileged \
  --restart always \
  --tty \
  --cgroupns private \
  --hostname git.example.com \
  --domainname example.com \
  --network bridge \
  --cap-add CHOWN \
  --cap-add SYS_TIME \
  --cap-add SYS_ADMIN \
  -e TZ=America/New_York \
  -e HOSTNAME=git.example.com \
  -e GITEA_PROTO=http \
  -e DATABASE_DIR_SQLITE=/data/db/sqlite \
  -v /srv/docker/gitea/data:/data:z \
  -v /srv/docker/gitea/config:/config:z \
  -v /srv/docker/databases/sqlite/gitea:/data/db/sqlite:z \
  -p 80:80 \
  -p 22:22 \
  casjaysdevdocker/gitea:latest

via docker compose

# nginx proxy address - http://172.17.0.1:80

x-logging: &default-logging
  driver: json-file
  options:
    max-size: "5m"
    max-file: "1"

services:
  gitea:
    image: casjaysdevdocker/gitea:latest
    pull_policy: always
    container_name: casjaysdevdocker-gitea-latest
    hostname: git.example.com
    domainname: example.com
    privileged: true
    tty: true
    restart: always
    logging: *default-logging
    cgroupns_mode: private
    cap_add:
      - CHOWN
      - SYS_TIME
      - SYS_ADMIN
    environment:
      TZ: ${TZ:-America/New_York}
      CONTAINER_NAME: casjaysdevdocker-gitea-latest
      HOSTNAME: ${BASE_HOST_NAME:-git.example.com}
      GITEA_PROTO: http
      DATABASE_DIR_SQLITE: /data/db/sqlite
    volumes:
      - ./volumes/data:/data:z
      - ./volumes/config:/config:z
      - ./volumes/db/sqlite:/data/db/sqlite:z
    ports:
      - "172.17.0.1:80:80"
      - "172.17.0.1:22:22"
    networks:
      - gitea

networks:
  gitea:
    name: gitea
    external: false

Environment variables

General

Variable	Default	Description
TZ	America/New_York	Timezone
DEBUGGER	(empty)	Set to on to enable shell-level debug tracing

Server / domain

Variable	Default	Description
GITEA_SERVER	hostname -f	Public FQDN — sets ROOT_URL, DOMAIN, SSH_DOMAIN, and all email addresses. Always set this in production.
GITEA_HOSTNAME	(empty)	Alias for GITEA_SERVER
FULL_DOMAIN_NAME	(empty)	Fallback FQDN used when neither GITEA_SERVER nor GITEA_HOSTNAME is set
DOMAIN	(empty)	Overrides the domain used in email addresses (takes precedence over GITEA_SERVER)
GITEA_PROTO	http	Protocol used in ROOT_URL (http or https)
GITEA_PORT	80	Internal port Gitea listens on
GITEA_NAME	SelfHosted GIT Server	Site title shown in the UI
GITEA_TZ	$TZ	Override timezone for Gitea specifically
GITEA_WORK_DIR	/data/gitea	Override Gitea's work path

Users

Variable	Default	Description
GITEA_ROOT_USER_NAME	(empty)	Initial admin account username (created on first run)
GITEA_ROOT_PASS_WORD	(empty)	Initial admin account password
GITEA_USER_NAME	(empty)	Initial normal user username
GITEA_USER_PASS_WORD	(empty)	Initial normal user password

Mail

Variable	Default	Description
GITEA_ADMIN	administrator@<GITEA_SERVER>	Admin contact / mailer FROM address
GITEA_EMAIL_RELAY	172.17.0.1	SMTP relay host
GITEA_EMAIL_CONFIRM	false	Set to yes to require email confirmation and enable the mailer

Database

Variable	Default	Description
GITEA_SQL_TYPE	sqlite3	Database type (sqlite3, mysql, postgres)
GITEA_SQL_HOST	localhost	Database host (external DB only)
GITEA_SQL_DB_HOST	$GITEA_SQL_HOST	Alternate database host variable
GITEA_SQL_USER	(empty)	Database user (external DB only)
GITEA_SQL_PASS	(empty)	Database password (external DB only)
GITEA_SQL_NAME	(empty)	Database name (external DB only)
DATABASE_DIR_SQLITE	$DATA_DIR/db/sqlite	Override the SQLite database directory (mount a separate volume here to keep the DB outside /data)

act_runner

Variable	Default	Description
RUNNERS_START	5	Number of act_runner instances to register
RUNNER_CACHE_PORT	44015	Port for the act_runner cache server
RUNNER_IP_ADDRESS	container IP	IP address act_runner registers with Gitea
RUNNER_DEFAULT_HOME	/config/act_runner/gitea	Directory where runner registration state is stored
RUNNER_CONFIG_NAME	act_runner.yaml	Runner config filename inside RUNNER_DEFAULT_HOME
ACT_RUNNER_FALLBACK_VERSION	v1.0.8	Pinned act_runner version used if gitea.com is unreachable during build

Volumes

Path	Purpose
/data	Repositories, SQLite database, LFS objects, attachments, indexes
/config	app.ini, SSH host keys, act_runner config — persisted across container restarts

Ports

Port	Protocol	Purpose
80	TCP	Gitea web UI and API
22	TCP	Git over SSH

Notes

• --privileged is required for Docker-in-Docker (act_runner runs CI jobs inside containers).
• The container ships its own /etc/resolv.conf (Cloudflare + Google DNS, no search domain) so DNS resolution inside the container is not affected by the host's search domain configuration.
• GITEA_SERVER must be set for a production deployment — without it, ROOT_URL, SSH clone URLs, and all system email addresses fall back to the container's short hostname.
• The mailer is disabled by default. Set GITEA_EMAIL_CONFIRM=yes to enable it along with the SMTP relay.
• SQLite is the default database. For external MySQL/Postgres set GITEA_SQL_TYPE, GITEA_SQL_HOST, GITEA_SQL_USER, GITEA_SQL_PASS, and GITEA_SQL_NAME.

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🛠️ Development

Prerequisites

• Docker with buildx
• bash, git

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/casjaysdevdocker/gitea "$HOME/Projects/github/casjaysdevdocker/gitea"
cd "$HOME/Projects/github/casjaysdevdocker/gitea"
buildx

Install via dockermgr

sudo bash -c "$(curl -q -LSsf https://github.com/systemmgr/installer/raw/main/install.sh)"
sudo systemmgr --config && sudo systemmgr install scripts
dockermgr update gitea

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📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.md