install-the-act-runner-for-gitea.md

Gitea Act Runner

Requirements

Docker engine: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

Unprivileged user:

# the username corresponds to the User command in service configuration file
sudo useradd -r -s /usr/sbin/nologin -m -c "Gitea Actions Runner" act_runner

Add act_runner to docker group:

sudo usermod -aG docker act_runner

Installation with binary

Preview/Prepare the/your Systemd service configuration file

ref: Start the runner with Systemd

Download the binary

VERSION=0.2.11

# the path corresponds to the ExecStart command
sudo curl -sSLo /usr/local/bin/act_runner \
    https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/${VERSION}/act_runner-${VERSION}-linux-amd64

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/act_runner

Configuration

1. Obtain a registration token:

   token level:

   • Instance level: for global
   • Organization level: for single user/org, or individual
   • Repository level: for single repo

2. Generate config:

   sudo mkdir -p /etc/act_runner/
   
   # the path corresponds to the --config flag in the ExecStart command
   act_runner generate-config | sudo tee /etc/act_runner/config.yaml
   
   sudo chown -R act_runner:act_runner /etc/act_runner/

3. Register runner:

   # the path corresponds to the WorkingDirectory command
   sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/act_runner
   
   cd /var/lib/act_runner
   
   act_runner --config /etc/act_runner/config.yaml register
   
   sudo chown -R act_runner:act_runner /var/lib/act_runner

4. Start the runner with Systemd

   cat << 'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/act_runner.service
   [Unit]
   Description=Gitea Actions runner
   Documentation=https://gitea.com/gitea/act_runner
   After=docker.service
   
   [Service]
   ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/act_runner daemon --config /etc/act_runner/config.yaml
   ExecReload=/bin/kill -s HUP $MAINPID
   WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/act_runner
   TimeoutSec=0
   RestartSec=10
   Restart=always
   User=act_runner
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target
   EOF
   
   sudo systemctl start act_runner
   # After confirming that it works properly
   sudo systemctl enable --now act_runner