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@EvanBalster
Created February 28, 2024 10:25
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Steps for installing forgejo without root access (eg, on Dreamhost VPS)

Setting up Forgejo without root access / running under a single user. I devised these steps to deploy Forgejo on a Dreamhost VPS which only provided an SSH user.

  • Create user folders and install forgejo to use these rather than system paths.
    • Download forgejo to ~/bin/forgejo. Make sure ~/bin is in your path (for example by editing your .bashrc file)
    • Download the forgejo.service script to ~/.config/systemd/user.
    • Create the following folders:
      • ~/var/lib/forgejo
      • ~/etc/forgejo
  • Edit the forgejo.service script to run under the current user.
    • Delete the lines assigning User and Group.
    • Edit the lines assigning WorkingDirectory, ExecStart and Environment to use your revised local paths. These must be absolute, and include your username:
      • /usr/bin/forgejo is replaced by /home/my_username/bin/forgejo
      • /var/lib/forgejo is replaced by /home/my_username/var/lib/forgejo
      • /etc/forgejo is replaced by /home/my_username/etc/forgejo
  • Include the --user switch in all invocations of systemctl.
    • systemctl --user enable forgejo.service
    • systemctl --user start forgejo.service
  • Run loginctl enable-linger $USER (this will keep forgejo running even if you log out or reboot)
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