Access

Open your browser and visit: https://<SERVER_IP>
A browser SSL warning is expected (self-signed certificate)
Register a new account
The first registered account becomes Administrator

Disable Self-Registration (Optional)

By default, user self-registration is enabled.

1. Edit the configuration file: /etc/gogs/conf/app.ini

2. Under the [auth] section, change: DISABLE_REGISTRATION = false to DISABLE_REGISTRATION = true

3. Restart Gogs:

systemctl restart gogs

Important Files & Directories

Install directory: /opt/gogs
Configuration file: /etc/gogs/conf/app.ini
Application data: /var/lib/gogs
Repositories: /var/lib/gogs/repositories
Logs: /var/log/gogs
Systemd service: /etc/systemd/system/gogs.service
Nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites-available/gogs.conf
TLS certificates: /etc/nginx/ssl/

Git Usage

HTTPS (self-signed cert):

GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=true git clone https://<SERVER_IP>/<USERNAME>/<REPOSITORY>.git

SSH (Built-in server):

git clone ssh://git@<SERVER_IP>:2222/<USERNAME>/<REPOSITORY>.git

Service Management

Gogs:

systemctl status gogs
systemctl restart gogs

Nginx:

systemctl status nginx
systemctl restart nginx

PostgreSQL:

systemctl status postgresql
systemctl restart postgresql

Notes

The main configuration file is located at /etc/gogs/conf/app.ini. After modifying the configuration file, restart the service using systemctl restart gogs.
The Nginx upload limit is defined in /etc/nginx/sites-available/gogs.conf using client_max_body_size. Increase it for large repositories and restart Nginx.
For large deployments, you may uncomment LimitMEMLOCK=infinity and LimitNOFILE=65535 in /etc/systemd/system/gogs.service, then run systemctl daemon-reload and restart Gogs.
Database credentials are defined in /etc/gogs/conf/app.ini.
For production use, it is recommended to replace the self-signed certificate with a valid Let’s Encrypt certificate.
If using a self-signed certificate, HTTPS cloning requires GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=true.

Enabling SSL with a Domain

1. Point your domain to the server IP.

2. Update Gogs configuration (/etc/gogs/conf/app.ini):

EXTERNAL_URL = https://yourdomain.com/
DOMAIN = yourdomain.com
SSH_DOMAIN = yourdomain.com

3. Restart Gogs service to apply changes:

systemctl restart gogs

3. Edit Nginx config and replace both server_name <IP>; with your domain (<your-domain>) for both HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) blocks:

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/gogs.conf

4. Install Certbot:

apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

5. Run the following command to generate a valid Let’s Encrypt certificate:

certbot certonly --nginx --non-interactive --agree-tos --email [email protected] -d yourdomain.com

6. Replace SSL paths in Nginx config:

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/gogs.conf
# Before:
    # ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/gogs.crt;
    # ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/gogs.key;
# After:
    # ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    # ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

7. Restart Nginx to apply the changes:

systemctl restart nginx

8. Open your browser and visit: https://yourdomain.com

Gogs

Application Details