Introduction
Gitea is a software package that provides a self-hosted all-in-one DevOps platform. It includes Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD. It is similar to GitHub, Bitbucket and GitLab, but it focuses on being lightweight, fast, easy to deploy and secure. Gitea was forked from Gogs in 2016 and has since evolved into a mature and feature-rich project with a vibrant open source community.
Features and Benefits
Gitea offers a range of features and benefits for developers and teams who want to host their own Git service and DevOps platform. Some of the main features and benefits are:
Code Hosting: Gitea supports creating and managing repositories, browsing commit history and code files, reviewing and merging code submissions, managing collaborators, handling branches, and more. It also supports many common Git features, such as tags, Cherry-pick, hooks, and integrated collaboration tools.
Lightweight and Fast: One of Gitea’s design goals is to be lightweight and fast. Unlike some large code hosting platforms, it remains lean and performs well in terms of speed. It is suitable for resource-limited server environments. Gitea has relatively low resource consumption and performs well in resource-constrained environments.
Easy Deployment and Maintenance: Gitea can be easily deployed on various servers without complex configurations or dependencies. This makes it convenient for individual developers or small teams to set up and manage their own Git services. Gitea supports multiple operating systems, architectures and databases. It offers flexible deployment options, such as single server setups, replication configurations, Docker containers, Kubernetes clusters, and more.
Security: Gitea places a strong emphasis on security. It offers features such as user permission management, access control lists, two-factor authentication, HTTPS support, and more to ensure the security of code and data. Gitea also supports encryption and signing of commits and tags using GPG keys. It also supports webhooks and API tokens for secure integration with external services.
Code Review: Gitea supports both the Pull Request workflow and a Git workflow for code review. Reviewers can browse code online and provide review comments or feedback. Submitters can receive review comments and respond or modify code online. Code reviews can help individuals and organizations enhance code quality and enforce coding standards and best practices.
CI/CD: Gitea Actions supports CI/CD functionality, compatible with GitHub Actions. Users can write workflows in familiar YAML format and reuse a variety of existing Actions plugins. Actions plugins support downloading from any Git website. Gitea Actions can automate tasks such as testing, building, deploying, and releasing software. It can also support custom workflows for specific needs.
Project Management: Gitea tracks project requirements, features, and bugs through boards and issues. Issues support features like branches, tags, milestones, assignments, time tracking, due dates, dependencies, and more. These tools help plan and track the progress of development. Gitea also supports Kanban boards for agile project management. It also supports wikis and markdown files for documentation and collaboration.
Artifact Repository: Gitea supports over 20 different types of public or private software package management. These include Cargo, Chef, Composer, Conan, Conda, Container, Helm, Maven, npm, NuGet, Pub, PyPI, RubyGems, Vagrant, and more. Users can publish, store, and manage their software packages using Gitea. They can also integrate them with their code repositories and CI/CD workflows.
Open Source Community Support: Gitea is an open-source project based on the MIT license. It has an active open-source community that continuously develops and improves the platform. Gitea welcomes contributions from anyone who is interested in the project. It provides various channels for communication, feedback, and support, such as GitHub, Discord, Matrix, Reddit, Twitter, and more.
Technical Details
Gitea is written in Go, a programming language that is designed for concurrency, simplicity, and performance. Go also enables cross-platform and cross-architecture compilation, which makes Gitea portable and versatile. Gitea uses the following technologies and libraries:
Git: Gitea uses Git as the underlying version control system for code hosting and management. Git is a distributed version control system that is widely used and supported by developers and teams. Git offers features such as branching, merging, tagging, Cherry-pick, hooks, and more, which Gitea integrates and exposes through its web interface and API.
SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, TiDB, MS SQL: Gitea supports various relational databases for storing its data, such as users, repositories, issues, and more. Users can choose the database that suits their needs and preferences, and configure Gitea to connect to it. Gitea also supports TiDB, a distributed SQL database that is compatible with MySQL. It offers high availability, scalability, and consistency.
Bleve: Gitea uses Bleve, a full-text search and indexing library for Go, to provide fast and accurate search functionality for its data, such as repositories, code files, issues, and more. Bleve supports various query types, such as term, phrase, match, prefix, regexp, fuzzy, and more. It also supports facets, highlighting, and sorting.
Gin: Gitea uses Gin, a web framework for Go, to handle its web requests and responses. Gin is a lightweight and high-performance web framework that offers features such as routing, middleware, rendering, binding, validation, and more. Gin also supports HTTP/2 and WebSockets for fast and bidirectional communication.
Macaron: Gitea uses Macaron, a modular web framework for Go, to handle its web sessions, caching, CSRF protection, i18n, and more. Macaron is a flexible and extensible web framework that supports dependency injection and middleware chaining. Macaron also supports various session providers, cache adapters, and template engines.
Vue.js: Gitea uses Vue.js, a progressive framework for building user interfaces, to render its web pages and components. Vue.js is a reactive and declarative framework that offers features such as data binding, directives, components, transitions, and more. Vue.js also supports server-side rendering and single-page applications for fast and dynamic web experiences.
Semantic UI: Gitea uses Semantic UI, a development framework that helps create beautiful, responsive layouts using human-friendly HTML. Semantic UI is a UI component library that offers features such as grids, menus, buttons, forms, cards, modals, and more. Semantic UI also supports themes, icons, and animations for enhancing the look and feel of the web pages.
Conclusion
Gitea is a powerful and easy-to-use DevOps platform that offers a self-hosted alternative to popular code hosting and collaboration platforms. Gitea provides a range of features and benefits for developers and teams who want to host their own Git service and DevOps platform, such as code hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD. Gitea is also lightweight, fast, easy to deploy and secure, and supports various operating systems, architectures, databases, and integrations. Gitea is an open-source project that welcomes contributions and feedback from the community, and aims to provide a painless self-hosted DevOps platform for everyone.