How to Install Gerrit on Arch Linux

Gerrit is a web-based code review system for Git based projects. This tutorial will guide you through the installation of Gerrit on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before we start the installation process, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

  • Arch Linux installed on your system
  • Java JDK 8 or later installed

Step 1: Install Git and Java

First, let's make sure Git and Java are installed on our system. Run the following command to install Git and Java:

sudo pacman -S git jdk-openjdk

Step 2: Download Gerrit

Next, we need to download Gerrit. Navigate to the Gerrit download page at https://www.gerritcodereview.com/download/.

Once there, click on the "Download Gerrit" button to download the latest version of Gerrit.

Alternatively, you can also download the latest version of Gerrit using the following command: 

wget https://gerrit-releases.storage.googleapis.com/gerrit-3.4.2.war

Step 3: Install Gerrit

Now that we have downloaded Gerrit, we need to install it. Follow these steps to install Gerrit:

  1. Create a new directory for Gerrit, for example: /opt/gerrit
  2. Move the downloaded Gerrit .war file to the directory you created, and rename it to gerrit.war
  3. Change the directory to the one where the gerrit.war file is located: cd /opt/gerrit
  4. Run the following command to install Gerrit:
java -jar gerrit.war init --batch -d /opt/gerrit

This command will install Gerrit and create a new configuration file that you can use to customize Gerrit.

Step 4: Configure Gerrit

Once Gerrit is installed, we need to configure it.

First, open the gerrit.config file located in the /opt/gerrit/etc/ directory using a text editor: 

sudo nano /opt/gerrit/etc/gerrit.config

In this file, you can customize Gerrit to your needs.

At a minimum, you will need to change the following settings:

  • gerrit.canonicalWebUrl - The URL to access Gerrit, for example: http://localhost:8080/
  • database.url - The URL to connect to the database, for example: jdbc:h2:/opt/gerrit/db/ReviewDB (this is the default H2 database that Gerrit uses)

Once you have made your changes, save the file and exit the text editor.

Step 5: Start Gerrit

Finally, we can start Gerrit. Run the following command to start Gerrit: 

java -jar gerrit.war daemon -d /opt/gerrit

This command will start the Gerrit server as a daemon process.

After starting Gerrit, you can access it using the URL you specified in the gerrit.canonicalWebUrl setting. In our example, the URL would be http://localhost:8080/

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Gerrit on Arch Linux. You can now use Gerrit to review and manage your Git-based projects using a web-based interface.

Happy coding!