Github on your Server -> Gitlab rocks!

<b>Note</b>: This is an old article I had on my old wordpress server.

I really love Github. It’s just awesome, the stuff you can do.

I always envied that and tried to fill a gap by using redmine, which is okay. Nevertheless it reminds me of a combination of sourceforge webpages and trac.

I always felt the approach of Github was to focus on the user and not on the project.

In redmine, sourceforge, as others, you create a project and link users to it. On Github it is the opposite way. The user can create as many projects as they please and manage them. They can join to groups and work on something or fork. Reminds of Facebook. Why was it called social coding again?

Anyways, now let’s try Gitlab. Gitlab provides a solution that is like Github but it’s a piece of software you can put on your server running a nginx webserver. The code is very well maintained and with Ubuntu pretty easy to install.

The advantage is that you have fully control over your stuff and don’t need to pay for any commercial support. Here you can create your private repositories and protect them. You shouldn’t do that though if it is meant to be opensource. Also remember Github provides you space, so really it depends on your demands.

Taking a look at these instructions:

<a href=“https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/“ title=“https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/“>Gitlab downloads</a>

it is easy and nicely explained, but this should be done only if you have a server with nothing else on it. Apache, if installed or something similar might give you trouble you. So if you install this one I’d rather follow these instructions instead:

<a href=“https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-gitlab-as-your-very-own-private-github-clone“ title=“https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-gitlab-as-your-very-own-private-github-clone“>How to set up gitlab as your very own private github clone</a>

Yeah, no apache instructions on that site. Look, don’t use apache or if you need it for something else, tell nginx to use another port. That works very good for me. With links indicated below you can teach those both webservers to coexist peacefully:

<a href=“http://kbeezie.com/apache-with-nginx/“ title=“http://kbeezie.com/apache-with-nginx/“>Apache with Nginx</a>

So far I can tell with those problems, I really got my server working on some minutes. With redmine and the git plugins I needed much more time and configure a lot of more stuff.

I think redmine has more features, but I have to say I’m more interested in the power of git rather than Gantt Diagrams (Redmine had that feature). At work I didn’t see anyone using those thingys, but well it’s a way to manage yourself.

I feel gitlab like github as well are distraction free. So try it out and give the developers credit for their hard work!

Btw. Commander Genius source code is hosted on Github:

<a href=“https://github.com/gerstrong/Commander-Genius“ title=“https://github.com/gerstrong/Commander-Genius“>Commander Genius at Github</a>

If you like Games, if you platformers and jump&run, if you love Commander Keen, then what are you waiting for? Give it a try!