Reverse proxy

Forgejo can live standalone, or behind a reverse proxy.
You may want this for scenarios like:

  • Subpath mapping.
    If you want Forgejo at something like https://example.com/code/ or https://example.com/repositories/ instead of the default https://example.com.
  • Port mapping.
    If you want to run Forgejo on the standard port, and that port is already taken by another web server.
    I.e. as https://example.com instead of as https://example.com:3000.
  • Proxy authentication.
    Using an external login service.
    Forgejo usually does not need a proxy for this, as it can be configured to talk to many login services directly.
  • rate limiting.
    Fail2ban allows to rate-limit TCP connections, but with a load-balancer you can inspect the headers, perform User-Agent detection, match the information provided by an ACL
  • advanced security settings.
    Using a load balancer you can apply Content Security policies, tweak your SSL ciphers, and configure a Web Application Firewall.
  • caching and resilience.
    load-balancers offer both caching and robustness. For instance, Haproxy can handle millions of simultaneous connections, and caching alleviates the load on the application.

Forgejo does not need the help of a proxy to do HTTPS, it can do it directly.
Set in SERVER section of the configuration PROTOCOL=https and either set CERT_FILE and KEY_FILE or let Forgejo manage the certificates with ENABLE_ACME=true

NGINX

Basic HTTP

To set up a basic HTTP reverse proxy in nginx, create a file forgejo.conf in /etc/nginx/conf.d and add the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80; # Listen on IPv4 port 80
    listen [::]:80; # Listen on IPv6 port 80

    server_name git.example.com; # Change this to the server domain name.

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000; # Port 3000 is the default Forgejo port

        proxy_set_header Connection $http_connection;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

        client_max_body_size 512M;
    }
}

Make sure to reload/restart nginx after changing the configuration.

HTTP with a subpath

If you want to serve Forgejo on a subpath, e.g. on http://example.com/code, use the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80; # Listen on IPv4 port 80
    listen [::]:80; # Listen on IPv6 port 80

    server_name example.com; # Change this to the server domain name.

    location /code/ { # Replace /code here with your subpath
        rewrite ^ $request_uri;
        rewrite ^/code(/.*) $1 break;
        return 400;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000$uri;

        proxy_set_header Connection $http_connection;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

        client_max_body_size 512M;
    }
}

Make sure to set the Forgejo ROOT_URL configuration key to the URL with the subpath, otherwise links generated by Forgejo will be broken.

HTTPS

When using a reverse proxy, it’s usually easier to let the proxy handle HTTPS. It’s easy to set up HTTPS on nginx.

HTTPS with Certbot

To set up HTTPS with Certbot, first set up an HTTP reverse proxy with the configuration above and ensure that it works as expected. To use HTTPS you need to have a domain name.

Then, install certbot. When running certbot, select the domain name that your Forgejo instance is hosted under, and choose automatic installation. This should automatically set up HTTPS on port 443 and a redirect on the old port 80.

You may wish to change the ROOT_URL configuration key to the HTTPS protocol so links generated by Forgejo automatically use HTTPS.

HTTPS with manually installed certificates

If you have obtained certificates from elsewhere or have chosen not to let certbot automatically install them, make the following changes to the configuration file:

Change the listening ports

Change the lines

listen 80;
listen [::]:80;

to

listen 443 ssl http2;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

Add the SSL certificate information

Generate an SSL configuration at mozilla, and add the SSL parameters to your configuration file. Make sure to replace the paths in the example with paths to your certificate files.

Add a redirect from HTTP

Outside the server block, add this redirection block:

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;

    location / {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }
}

This will redirect anyone visiting the HTTP site to the HTTPS site.

Apache

Basic HTTP

To set up a basic HTTP proxy in Apache, create a file 100-forgejo.conf in /etc/apache2/sites-available and add the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName git.example.com

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyRequests off
    AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/ nocanon
</VirtualHost>

Next, enable the site with a2ensite 100-forgejo.conf and enable the proxy modules with a2enmod proxy proxy_http. Finally, restart the apache server.

HTTP with a subpath

If you want to serve Forgejo on a subpath, e.g. on http://example.com/code, use the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyRequests off
    AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode
    ProxyPass /code http://127.0.0.1:3000/ nocanon # Change /code here to your desired subpath.
</VirtualHost>

Make sure to set the Forgejo ROOT_URL configuration key to the URL with the subpath, otherwise links generated by Forgejo will be broken.

HTTPS

When using a reverse proxy, it’s usually easier to let the proxy handle HTTPS. It’s easy to set up HTTPS on apache.

HTTPS with Certbot

To set up HTTPS with Certbot, first set up an HTTP reverse proxy with the configuration above and ensure that it works as expected. To use HTTPS you need to have a domain name.

Then, install certbot. When running certbot, select the domain name that your Forgejo instance is hosted under, and choose automatic installation. This should automatically set up HTTPS on port 443 and a redirect on the old port 80.

You may wish to change the ROOT_URL configuration key to the HTTPS protocol so links generated by Forgejo automatically use HTTPS.

HTTPS with manually installed certificates

If you have obtained certificates from elsewhere or have chosen not to let certbot automatically install them, make the following changes to the configuration file:

Change the listening ports

Change <VirtualHost *:80> to <VirtualHost *:443>.

Add the SSL certificate information

Generate an SSL configuration at mozilla, and add the SSL parameters to your configuration file. Make sure to replace the paths in the example with paths to your certificate files.

Add a redirect from HTTP

Outside the VirtualHost *:443, add this configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName git.example.com

    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =git.example.com
    RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

This will redirect anyone visiting the HTTP site to the HTTPS site.

HAProxy

Basic HTTP

To setup HAProxy on port 80, without a virtualhost, you can add the following stanza to your haproxy.cfg:

listen forgejo_80
  bind :::80 v4v6
  mode http
  timeout connect 10s
  timeout client 30s
  timeout server 30s
  server frogejo 127.0.0.1:3000

HTTPS

To setup basic HTTPS proxying with HAProxy, you can add these blocks to your haproxy configuration:

Redirection to SSL

listen forgejo_80
  bind :::80 v4v6
  mode http
  timeout connect 10s
  timeout client 30s
  timeout server 30s
  redirect scheme https code 301

SSL frontend

frontend forgejo_443
  bind :::443 v4v6 ssl crt /etc/haproxy_certs/forgejo.example.org.pem
  mode http
  option httplog
  option forwardfor
  timeout client 1m
  use_backend forgejo_443 if { ssl_fc_sni forgejo.example.org }

SSL backend

backend forgejo_443
  mode http
  timeout connect 10s
  timeout server 30s
  retry-on all-retryable-errors
  server frogejo 127.0.0.1:3000

HTTPS with UNIX Socket

A Unix socket has lower latency compared to TCP. When combined with HAProxy, it provides a highly responsive and excellent user interface experience.

We assume that:

  • Redirection to SSL and the SSL frontend configuration remain unchanged from the TCP setup
  • you are running Forgejo as git user and HAProxy as haproxy user
  • the chroot environment is set to the directory /var/lib/haproxy
  • you have included the following settings in the server stanza of Forgejo:
[server]
PROTOCOL = http+unix
HTTP_ADDR = /var/lib/haproxy/forgejo/forgejo.sock
UNIX_SOCKET_PERMISSION = 660
...

Now you need to create a directory which can be acceessed either by the chroot environment used by HAProxy, and by Forgejo.

install -o git -g haproxy -m 0770 -d /var/lib/haproxy/forgejo

Finally you can add these blocks into your haproxy.cfg

chroot

you include these lines in the global section of your haproxy configuration

global
  chroot  /var/lib/haproxy
  user    haproxy
  group   haprox
  ...

SSL Backend

The backend configuration will be as follows:

backend forgejo_443
  mode http
  timeout connect 10s
  timeout server 30s
  retry-on all-retryable-errors
  server forgejo /forgejo/forgejo.sock tfo

note: The Unix socket path is relative to the path of the chroot environment

HAProxy with UNIX socket using Puppet

This configuration relies on Puppetlabs HAProxy module. This code sample is a compromise for the sake of the conciseness.
The Forgejo backend will be available only at the second execution of Puppet, unless you add a statement to create a user in advance, and you don’t need to set the dependency for the 2 directories against the HAProxy class. You also need to push the SSL certificate, but all this goes far beyond the scope of this documentation.

  file {
    default:
      notify  => Service['haproxy'],
      require => [Class['haproxy'], User['git']];
    '/etc/haproxy_certs':
      ensure  => directory,
      purge   => true,
      mode    => '0700',
      owner   => haproxy,
      group   => haproxy,
      recurse => true;
    '/var/lib/haproxy/forgejo':
      ensure => directory,
      mode   => '0770',
      owner  => git,
      group  => haproxy;
  }

  class { 'haproxy':
    package_ensure   => $haproxy_version,
    global_options   => {
      'log'                       => "/dev/log local0\n  log  /dev/log local1 notice",
      'chroot'                    => '/var/lib/haproxy',
      'maxconn'                   => '150000',
      'user'                      => 'haproxy',
      'group'                     => 'haproxy',
      'stats'                     => 'socket /var/run/haproxy.sock user root group sensu mode 660 level admin',
      'tune.ssl.default-dh-param' => '2048',
    },
    defaults_options => {
      'default-server' => 'init-addr libc,none',
      'log'            => 'global',
      'retries'        => '5',
      'option'         => ['redispatch', 'http-server-close', 'logasap'],
      'timeout'        => ['http-request 7s', 'connect 5s', 'check 9s'],
      'maxconn'        => '5000',
    };
  }

  haproxy::listen { 'forgejo_80':
    bind    => { ':::80' => ['v4v6'] },
    mode    => 'http',
    options => [
      { 'timeout' => 'connect 10s' },
      { 'timeout' => 'client 1m' },
      { 'timeout' => 'server 1m' },
      { 'redirect' => 'scheme https code 301' },
    ];
  }

  haproxy::frontend { 'forgejo_socket':
    bind    => { ':::443' => ['v4v6', 'ssl', 'crt', '/etc/haproxy_certs/forgejo.example.com.pem'] },
    options => [
      {
        mode   => 'http',
        option => ['httplog', 'forwardfor'],
      },
      { 'timeout' => 'client 1m' },
      { 'use_backend' => "forgejo if { ssl_fc_sni forgejo.example.com }" },
    ];
  }

  haproxy::backend { 'forgejo_socket':
    options => [
      { 'mode' => 'http' },
      { 'timeout' => 'connect 10s' },
      { 'timeout' => 'server 1m' },
      { 'retry-on' => 'all-retryable-errors' },
      { 'server' => 'forgejo /forgejo/forgejo.sock tfo' },
    ];
  }

Caddy

HTTPS

To set up basic HTTPS proxy in Caddy with Caddyfile create a file forgejo in /etc/caddy/conf.d and add the following configuration:

git.example.com {
  reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:3000
}

Caddy will automatically get certificates for the domain.

HTTPS with a subpath

If you want to serve Forgejo on a subpath, e.g. on https://example.com/code, use the following configuration:

example.com {
  reverse_proxy /code* 127.0.0.1:3000
}

Make sure to set the Forgejo ROOT_URL configuration key to the URL with the subpath, otherwise links generated by Forgejo will be broken.

Proxy Authentication

Forgejo supports Reverse Proxy Header authentication, it will read headers as a trusted login user name or user email address. This hasn’t been enabled by default, you can enable it with

[service]
ENABLE_REVERSE_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION = true

The default login user name is in the X-WEBAUTH-USER header, you can change it via changing [security].REVERSE_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_USER in app.ini. If the user doesn’t exist, you can enable automatic registration with ENABLE_REVERSE_PROXY_AUTO_REGISTRATION=true.

The default login user email is X-WEBAUTH-EMAIL, you can change it via changing [security].REVERSE_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_EMAIL in app.ini, this could also be disabled with ENABLE_REVERSE_PROXY_EMAIL

If set ENABLE_REVERSE_PROXY_FULL_NAME=true, a user full name expected in X-WEBAUTH-FULLNAME will be assigned to the user when auto creating the user. You can also change the header name with [security].REVERSE_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_FULL_NAME.

You can also limit the reverse proxy’s IP address range with [security].REVERSE_PROXY_TRUSTED_PROXIES which default value is 127.0.0.0/8,::1/128. By [security].REVERSE_PROXY_LIMIT, you can limit trusted proxies level.

Notice: Reverse Proxy Auth doesn’t support the API. You still need an access token or basic auth to make API requests.

Docker / Container Registry

The container registry uses a fixed sub-path /v2 which can’t be changed. Even if you deploy Forgejo with a different sub-path, /v2 will be used by the docker client. Therefore you may need to add an additional route to your reverse proxy configuration.

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