+++
date = "2019-07-31T22:37:06+00:00"
publishdate = "2023-12-29T07:08:55+00:00"
title = "Gitea in a Subdirectory with Nginx"
slug = "gitea-in-a-sub-directory-with-nginx"
author = "Thedro"
tags = ["nginx","git"]
type = "posts"
summary =  "Sometimes we want to expose a web application quickly without provisioning a new subdomain or SSL certificate."
draft =  ""
syntax =  "1"
toc =  ""
updated =  "2022-03-02"
+++

{{< image source="/images/gitea-in-a-sub-directory-with-nginx.png" title="Gitea's Home Page" >}}
Gitea's Home Page {{< /image >}}

Running web applications from the subdirectory of a `URL` has its benefits.
There doesn't seem to be much talk about this
{{< sidenote mark="technique." set="right" >}}A series of posts about running my
favorite open source applications from a `URL` subdirectory sounds like a good
idea.{{< /sidenote >}}
It's useful when you need to expose a web application quickly without
provisioning a new subdomain and `SSL` certificate.

For example let's run [Gitea](https://gitea.io/en-us/) from the subdirectory of
a domain using [`nginx`](http://nginx.org/en/docs/) We will make Gitea
accessible from a `URL` of the form `https://www.example.com/gitea` or
`https://www.example.com/git`.

To accomplish this, reverse proxy using a separate location block in the `nginx`
{{< sidenote mark="configuration." set="right" >}}We are connecting over a
`unix` socket to access the Gitea instance. The forward slashes at the end of
the `proxy_pass` are important and match the location block.{{< /sidenote >}}

```nginx {options="hl_lines=2"}
location /gitea/ {
    proxy_pass http://unix:/opt/gitea/var/lib/gitea/gitea.socket:/;
}
```

Then in Gitea's `app.ini` configuration, adjust the server block to match the
location block specified {{< sidenote mark="above." set="left" >}}Be sure that
[ broad caching and deny directives](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tools/nginx)
are not applied to the reverse proxy location block or you might end up with
strange `404s` and exotic behavior.{{< /sidenote >}}

```ini
[server]
PROTOCOL         = unix
SSH_DOMAIN       = example.com
DOMAIN           = http://www.example.com/gitea/
ROOT_URL         = http://www.example.com/gitea/
HTTP_ADDR        = /opt/gitea/var/lib/gitea/gitea.socket
```

In
[future versions of Gitea](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/commit/f49d160447899270fbca6370cb7ab2742dce85dc),
the `unix` protocol value is deprecated in favour of `http+unix`.

```ini {options="hl_lines=2"}
[server]
PROTOCOL         = http+unix
SSH_DOMAIN       = example.com
DOMAIN           = http://www.example.com/gitea/
ROOT_URL         = http://www.example.com/gitea/
HTTP_ADDR        = /opt/gitea/var/lib/gitea/gitea.socket
```

A user can access the full Gitea instance from the `gitea/` subdirectory of the
`URL`.

All applications are not created equal and some blow up badly in a subdirectory.
Gitea supports this natively from the configuration.

Some applications require elaborate tricks, workarounds, or source code changes
that are probably not worth the effort.