Install GitBucket on Ubuntu / Debian Linux [Guide]

GitBucket is a web-based Git platform powered by Scala. In our previous guides, we covered how to install GitLab, Gitea, and SVN. In this post, we will discuss how you can install GitBucket on Ubuntu / Debian Linux system. Here are few interesting features of GitBucket.

Original content from computingforgeeks.com - post 10098

Provides an intuitive UI
It is easy to install
Features can be extended by plugins
Has API compatibility with GitHub
Support for GitLFS
Support for both Public and Private Git repositories.
Repository viewer including an online file editor
LDAP integration for accounts and groups management

Install GitBucket on Ubuntu / Debian

The main requirement of GitBucket is Java8. Ensure this is installed on your Ubuntu / Debian Linux.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y default-jdk wget curl vim

Once you have Java installed, download the latest gitbucket.war from the releases page.

curl -s  https://api.github.com/repos/gitbucket/gitbucket/releases/latest |grep browser_download_url  |  cut -d '"' -f 4  | grep '\.war$' | wget -i -

Create gitbucket user and group.

sudo groupadd -g 555 gitbucket
sudo useradd \
  -g gitbucket --no-user-group \
  --home-dir /opt/gitbucket --no-create-home \
  --shell /usr/sbin/nologin \
  --system --uid 555 gitbucket

Create /opt/gitbucket directory

sudo mkdir /opt/gitbucket

Move gitbucket.war file to /opt/gitbucket

sudo mv gitbucket.war /opt/gitbucket

Make the owner of the GitBucket to be the gitbucket:gitbucket user:

sudo chown -R gitbucket:gitbucket /opt/gitbucket

Configure Systemd service for GitBucket

You can run Java Applications with Systemd. Read more on How to run Java Jar Application with Systemd on Linux

Create systemd service file.

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/gitbucket.service

Add

# GitBucket Service
[Unit]
Description=Manage Java service

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/gitbucket
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xms128m -Xmx256m -jar gitbucket.war
User=gitbucket
Group=gitbucket
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

You can specify following options:

--port=[NUMBER]
--prefix=[CONTEXTPATH]
--host=[HOSTNAME]
--gitbucket.home=[DATA_DIR]
--temp_dir=[TEMP_DIR]
--max_file_size=[MAX_FILE_SIZE]

If your Java is in a different path, locate it with which java and set path in systemd unit file.

Reload Systemd after adding the file

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start service and set it to start at boot.

sudo systemctl enable --now gitbucket

Confirm service Status

$ systemctl status gitbucket
● gitbucket.service - Manage Java service
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/gitbucket.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2023-08-08 07:45:41 UTC; 10s ago
   Main PID: 44254 (java)
      Tasks: 34 (limit: 4531)
     Memory: 351.5M
        CPU: 11.787s
     CGroup: /system.slice/gitbucket.service
             └─44254 /usr/bin/java -Xms128m -Xmx256m -jar gitbucket.war

Aug 08 07:45:47 deb12 java[44254]: 07:45:47.162 [main] INFO  g.core.plugin.PluginRegistry - Initialize gitbucket-gist-plugin-4.22.0.jar
Aug 08 07:45:47 deb12 java[44254]: 07:45:47.485 [main] INFO  g.core.plugin.PluginRegistry - Initialize gitbucket-emoji-plugin-4.6.0.jar
Aug 08 07:45:47 deb12 java[44254]: 07:45:47.498 [main] INFO  g.core.plugin.PluginRegistry - Initialize gitbucket-notifications-plugin-1.11.0.jar
Aug 08 07:45:47 deb12 java[44254]: 07:45:47.582 [main] INFO  g.core.plugin.PluginRegistry - Initialize gitbucket-pages-plugin-1.10.0.jar
Aug 08 07:45:47 deb12 java[44254]: 07:45:47.644 [main] INFO  o.scalatra.servlet.ScalatraListener - The cycle class name from the config: ScalatraBootstrap
Aug 08 07:45:47 deb12 java[44254]: 07:45:47.647 [main] INFO  o.scalatra.servlet.ScalatraListener - Initializing life cycle class: ScalatraBootstrap
Aug 08 07:45:47 deb12 java[44254]: 07:45:47.649 [Thread-9] INFO  g.core.plugin.PluginWatchThread - Start PluginWatchThread: /opt/gitbucket/.gitbucket/plugins
Aug 08 07:45:48 deb12 java[44254]: 2023-08-08 07:45:48.266:INFO:oejsh.ContextHandler:main: Started o.e.j.w.WebAppContext@40bd0f8{/,file:///opt/gitbucket/.gitbucket/tmp/webapp/,AVAILABLE}{file:/op>
Aug 08 07:45:48 deb12 java[44254]: 2023-08-08 07:45:48.287:INFO:oejs.AbstractConnector:main: Started ServerConnector@36aa7bc2{HTTP/1.1, (http/1.1)}{0.0.0.0:8080}
Aug 08 07:45:48 deb12 java[44254]: 2023-08-08 07:45:48.288:INFO:oejs.Server:main: Started @6829ms

Access Gitbucket Web UI

Go to http://[hostname]:8080/to access the Gitbucket web interface.

Go to Login section.

The default logins are:

Username: root
Password: root

Change root password under Account Settings

What next?

By default, GitBucket run on embedded H2 database. For Production use, it is recommended to configure to use external database

Also consider to:

1.Configure SMTP for email alerting

2.Configure Additional Plugins

You can find more plugins made by the community at GitBucket community plugins.

3. Enabling SSH access to repository

Performing GitBucket Backup

The backup of a GitBucket installation should be consistent between the database state and the state of the git repositories. There is a backup script available for automating this task. Check GitBucket backup guide for more details.

Install GitBucket on Ubuntu / Debian

Configure Systemd service for GitBucket

Access Gitbucket Web UI

What next?

Performing GitBucket Backup

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