Gitea is an open-source, self-hosted code hosting platform written in Go. It is very similar to other version control software solutions like GitHub and GitLab with features including issue tracking, pull requests, user management, notifications, and more. It can be installed on all major operating systems including Linux, macOS, Windows, and ARM. With Gitea, you can create a central repository where developers merge and track their code changes in the repository.

If you are looking for an open-source, lightweight, and self-hosted code hosting platform, then Gitea is the best choice for you.

In this post, we will show you how to install Gitea on Oracle Linux 10.

Step 1 – Install and Configure MariaDB Database

Gitea uses a MariaDB, MySQL, or PostgreSQL database to store its data. In this tutorial, we will use a MariaDB server as a database backend.

Note: You don’t need to install and configure the MariaDB database if you are using database hosting from Atlantic.Net.

First, install all the required dependencies using the following command:

dnf install git unzip gnupg2 nano wget -y

Once all the dependencies are installed, run the following command to install the MariaDB server:

dnf install mariadb-server -y

Next, start and enable the MariaDB service using the following command:

systemctl start mariadb
systemctl enable mariadb

You can check the MariaDB version using the following command:

mysql --version

Sample output:

mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.3.32-MariaDB, for Linux (x86_64) using readline 5.1

Next, log in to the MariaDB shell with the following command:

mysql

Once you are logged in, create a database and user for Gitea using the following command:

CREATE DATABASE gitea CHARACTER SET 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci';
GRANT ALL ON gitea.* TO 'gitea'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Next, flush the privileges and exit from the MariaDB shell with the following command:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Next, edit the MariaDB configuration file and tweak some settings:

nano /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

Add the following lines below the line [mysqld]:

innodb_file_format = Barracuda
innodb_large_prefix = 1
innodb_default_row_format = dynamic

Save and close, the file then restart the MariaDB service to apply the changes:

systemctl restart mariadb

Step 2 – Install and Configure Gitea

It is a good idea to create a dedicated user to run Gitea. You can create it using the following command:

useradd --system --shell /bin/bash --comment 'Git Version Control' --create-home --home /home/git  git

Next, download the latest version of the Gitea binary using the wget command:

wget -O gitea https://dl.gitea.io/gitea/1.18.5/gitea-1.18.5-linux-amd64

Next, move the downloaded binary to the system path and set proper permissions on it:

mv gitea /usr/bin/gitea
chmod 755 /usr/bin/gitea

Next, run the following command to verify the Gitea version:

gitea --version

You should get the following output:

Gitea version 1.18.5 built with GNU Make 4.1, go1.19.6 : bindata, sqlite, sqlite_unlock_notify

Next, you will need to create a directory structure to store Gitea configuration, data, and log files.

You can create it with the following commands:

mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/{custom,data,indexers,public,log} 
chown git: /var/lib/gitea/{data,indexers,log}
chmod 750 /var/lib/gitea/{data,indexers,log}
mkdir /etc/gitea
chown root:git /etc/gitea
chmod 770 /etc/gitea

Step 3 – Create a Systemd Service File for Gitea

Next, you will need to create a service file to manage the Gitea service via systemd. You can create it with the following command:

nano /etc/systemd/system/gitea.service

Add the following lines:

[Unit]
 Description=Gitea
 After=syslog.target
 After=network.target
 After=mysql.service

 [Service]
 RestartSec=2s
 Type=simple
 User=git
 Group=git
 WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/gitea/
 ExecStart=/usr/bin/gitea web -c /etc/gitea/app.ini
 Restart=always
 Environment=USER=git HOME=/home/git GITEA_WORK_DIR=/var/lib/gitea

 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and close the file, then reload the systemd daemon with the following command:

systemctl daemon-reload

Next, start the Gitea service and enable it to start at system reboot:

systemctl start gitea
systemctl enable gitea

You can now check the status of Gitea using the following command:

systemctl status gitea

You should see the following output:

● gitea.service - Gitea
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/gitea.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2026-01-01 23:54:08 EST; 3s ago
 Invocation: 1efa98afe57648b8ad64c0ac378b181b
   Main PID: 85737 (gitea)
      Tasks: 8 (limit: 24812)
     Memory: 108.2M (peak: 108.5M)
        CPU: 763ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/gitea.service
             └─85737 /usr/bin/gitea web -c /etc/gitea/app.ini

Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/install/setting.go:21:PreloadSettings() [I] AppPath: /usr/bin/gitea
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/install/setting.go:22:PreloadSettings() [I] AppWorkPath: /var/lib/gitea
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/install/setting.go:23:PreloadSettings() [I] Custom path: /var/lib/gitea/custom
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/install/setting.go:24:PreloadSettings() [I] Log path: /var/lib/gitea/log
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/install/setting.go:25:PreloadSettings() [I] Configuration file: /etc/gitea/app.ini
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/install/setting.go:26:PreloadSettings() [I] Prepare to run install page
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/install/setting.go:29:PreloadSettings() [I] SQLite3 is supported
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 cmd/web.go:220:listen() [I] [69574f70-6] Listen: http://0.0.0.0:3000
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 cmd/web.go:224:listen() [I] [69574f70-6] AppURL(ROOT_URL): http://localhost:3000/
Jan 01 23:54:08 oracle gitea[85737]: 2026/01/01 23:54:08 ...s/graceful/server.go:62:NewServer() [I] [69574f70-6] Starting new Web server: tcp:0.0.0.0:3000 on PID: 85737

By default, Gitea listens on port 3000. You can verify it using the following command:

ss -antpl | grep 3000

You should get the following output:

LISTEN 0      128                *:3000             *:*    users:(("gitea",pid=12643,fd=6))

Step 4 – Access Gitea Web Interface

You can now open your web browser and type the URL http://your-server-ip:3000 to access the Gitea web interface. You should get the following screen:
Gitea database settings
Gitea General Seetins
Gitea URL settings
Gitea admin user settings
Provide your Gitea repository name, run as username, listen port, base URL, admin username, and password and click on the Install Gitea button. Once the installation has been completed, you will be redirected to the Gitea dashboard:
Gitea dashboard

Conclusion

In this guide, we explained how to install the Gitea code hosting platform on Oracle Linux 10. You can now start implementing Gitea in your development environment to manage and track your code from a central location. Give it a try on your dedicated server from Atlantic.Net!