Installing GitLab on RedHat Enterprise 5 RHEL 5

GitLab is a free (they also have a paid enterprise version) and open source software package to make managing a Git server easier. It provides a nice web admin, detailed user and group permissions, and much more. I looked at gitolite however I was unable to get it working correctly after several frustrating days, and GitLab looked like a more refined option with better documentation and support.

The only problem is that all the installation documentation is geared for Ubuntu, and doesn’t work well with RHEL 5. I’ve fought through some of the issues and have it working. I wanted to share some of the steps I had to take to get it playing nicely with RHEL 5. Many of these steps may also apply to other Linux systems with older packages.

Python – The default Python install is too old

yum install python26
yum install python-docutils.noarch
unlink /usr/bin/python2
cd /usr/bin/
ln -s python26 python2

Ruby – The default Ruby install is too old

yum remove ruby
mkdir /tmp/ruby && cd /tmp/ruby
curl --progress ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/2.0/ruby-2.0.0-p247.tar.gz | tar xz
cd ruby-2.0.0-p247
./configure
make
make install

rm /usr/bin/ruby
ln -s /usr/local/bin/ruby /usr/bin/ruby

gem install bundler --no-ri --no-rdoc
gem install rails

Install Gitlab-Shell

sudo su - git

git clone https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-shell.git
cd gitlab-shell
git checkout v1.7.1
cp config.yml.example config.yml

# Edit config and replace gitlab_url with something like ‘http://domain.com/‘ and change paths from /home/git to /opt/git

emacs config.yml
./bin/install

Install MySQL and Setup

yum install mysql-server mysql mysql-devel mysql-libs
/etc/init.d/mysqld start
/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
mysql -u root
CREATE USER 'gitlab'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY ‘password';     
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `gitlabhq_production` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET `utf8` COLLATE `utf8_unicode_ci`;
GRANT SELECT, LOCK TABLES, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER ON `gitlabhq_production`.* TO 'gitlab'@'localhost';
commit;
\q

Upgrade ICULIB (RHEL5 is too old)

as root:

cd
yum install  gcc-c++
svn export http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/icu/tags/release-52-1/
cd release-52-1/source
chmod +x runConfigureICU configure install-sh
./runConfigureICU Linux/gcc
make
make check
make install

Install GitLab

Follow the install docs and good luck!!!

Posted

October 30, 2013

General

Devon

Tags:

Comments

7 responses to “Installing GitLab on RedHat Enterprise 5 RHEL 5”

Mike Gaboury

November 8, 2013

After building libicu from source and running ‘bundle exec rake gitlab:setup RAILS_ENV=production’ I get this error:
“/opt/gitlab/gitlab/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/charlock_holmes-0.6.9.4/lib/charlock_holmes/charlock_holmes.so: undefined symbol: _ZN6icu_528ByteSink15GetAppendBufferEiiPciPi – /opt/gitlab/gitlab/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/charlock_holmes-0.6.9.4/lib/charlock_holmes/charlock_holmes.so”

I have tried everything I can think of (and Googled like crazy) to get past this. Any recommendations?

Reply
1. Devon
  
  November 10, 2013
  
  I’m not sure why you have a Ruby 1.9 install there? Might try ensuring you have only Ruby 2.0 in your path?
  
  Reply
  1. Mike Gaboury
    
    November 14, 2013
    
    Um, because I followed another guide and didn’t read yours carefully.
    
    Fixing that I am still effectively at the same point. I have to install everything, including libicu, in ~gitlab. Unfortunately it’s not my server and I have to be noninvasive to the system. I’m very much a Ruby noob and don’t have a grasp on what it takes to point bundle to a nonstandard path.
    
    Reply
    1. Devon
      
      November 14, 2013
      
      Ah no worries:) I’m also a Ruby noob and am not sure how to do this without full server/root access:(
      
      Reply
      1. Mike Gaboury
        
        November 14, 2013
        
        Oh, I have root, I just need to not disturb existing system libraries. There is another application that has legacy dependencies, sadly.
        
        I have read about using –with-icu-dir to bundle but read conflicting posts. One says to point to the installed location (/usr/local, for instance) and another says to point to unpacked source tree. The latter doesn’t make sense to me…
        
        Reply
Mike Gaboury

November 14, 2013

Oh, I have root, I just need to not disturb existing system libraries. There is another application that has legacy dependencies, sadly.

I have read about using –with-icu-dir to bundle but read conflicting posts. One says to point to the installed location (/usr/local, for instance) and another says to point to unpacked source tree. The latter doesn’t make sense to me…

Reply
1. Mike Gaboury
  
  November 14, 2013
  
  Sorry about the double-post. The first didn’t show up after a refresh..
  
  Reply