Welcome to the world of server software. I think everything web app I've ever installed required database configuration. I take it you've never installed Wordpress? Or Roundcube? Textmate? Gallery? OpenPhoto?
I agree that other parts of the installation are annoying (python2 link, which isn't standard [1]), but the configuring a DB is very par for the course.
The special system users part annoyed me at first, but I realized I'm creating ssh access for git and so in that light it makes a lot of sense to create a new user. On the plus side, gitolite lets you have a ton of users that can use ssh to get the code without having a user account for each one, so it's a win over the long haul.
[1] On my Debian system (should also work with Ubuntu) I solved this with:
The thing is, I actually did install most of the software you mentioned, and most of them just ask you for some credentials and run the db initialisation and population themselves.
WordPress goes so far as to do that via a post-upload web interface, which is a superb UX IMHO, and something I remember writing into my own open-source PHP projects 10 years ago [1].
I really don't mean to disrespect but I think in the age of Rails and ORMs, these sort of tasks can be implemented even easier for the user and cleaner for the integrating apps.
That being said, I realise that GitLab relies heavily on some system-heavy dependencies (cough gitolite), and whoever wrote the installation guide is probably a system guy that didn't want to hide any of the details behind some automatic script.
I just suggest that this should be the "Installation for Advanced Users" doc that's the alternative to some automated process.
Welcome to the world of server software. I think everything web app I've ever installed required database configuration. I take it you've never installed Wordpress? Or Roundcube? Textmate? Gallery? OpenPhoto?
I agree that other parts of the installation are annoying (python2 link, which isn't standard [1]), but the configuring a DB is very par for the course.
The special system users part annoyed me at first, but I realized I'm creating ssh access for git and so in that light it makes a lot of sense to create a new user. On the plus side, gitolite lets you have a ton of users that can use ssh to get the code without having a user account for each one, so it's a win over the long haul.
[1] On my Debian system (should also work with Ubuntu) I solved this with:
This lets the package system know about the symlink instead of just putting some random symlink in a package-manager controlled directory.