From 8.5 to 8.6

Make sure you view this update guide from the tag (version) of GitLab you would like to install. In most cases this should be the highest numbered production tag (without rc in it). You can select the tag in the version dropdown at the top left corner of GitLab (below the menu bar).

If the highest number stable branch is unclear please check the GitLab Blog for installation guide links by version.

1. Stop server

sudo service gitlab stop

2. Backup

cd /home/git/gitlab
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:backup:create RAILS_ENV=production

3. Get latest code

sudo -u git -H git fetch --all
sudo -u git -H git checkout -- db/schema.rb # local changes will be restored automatically

For GitLab Community Edition:

sudo -u git -H git checkout 8-6-stable

For GitLab Enterprise Edition:

sudo -u git -H git checkout 8-6-stable-ee

4. Update gitlab-shell

cd /home/git/gitlab-shell
sudo -u git -H git fetch --all
sudo -u git -H git checkout v2.6.12

5. Update gitlab-workhorse

Install and compile gitlab-workhorse. This requires Go 1.5 which should already be on your system from GitLab 8.1.

cd /home/git/gitlab-workhorse
sudo -u git -H git fetch --all
sudo -u git -H git checkout v0.7.1
sudo -u git -H make

6. Updates for PostgreSQL Users

Starting with 8.6 users using GitLab in combination with PostgreSQL are required to have the pg_trgm extension enabled for all GitLab databases. If you're using GitLab's Omnibus packages there's nothing you'll need to do manually as this extension is enabled automatically. Users who install GitLab without using Omnibus (e.g. by building from source) have to enable this extension manually. To enable this extension run the following SQL command as a PostgreSQL super user for every GitLab database:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_trgm;

Certain operating systems might require the installation of extra packages for this extension to be available. For example, users using Ubuntu will have to install the postgresql-contrib package in order for this extension to be available.

7. Install libs, migrations, etc.

cd /home/git/gitlab

# MySQL installations (note: the line below states '--without postgres')
sudo -u git -H bundle install --without postgres development test --deployment

# PostgreSQL installations (note: the line below states '--without mysql')
sudo -u git -H bundle install --without mysql development test --deployment

# Optional: clean up old gems
sudo -u git -H bundle clean

# Run database migrations
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

# Clean up assets and cache
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake assets:clean assets:precompile cache:clear RAILS_ENV=production

8. Update configuration files

New configuration options for `gitlab.yml`

There are new configuration options available for gitlab.yml. View them with the command below and apply them manually to your current gitlab.yml:

git diff origin/8-5-stable:config/gitlab.yml.example origin/8-6-stable:config/gitlab.yml.example

Nginx configuration

Ensure you're still up-to-date with the latest NGINX configuration changes:

# For HTTPS configurations
git diff origin/8-5-stable:lib/support/nginx/gitlab-ssl origin/8-6-stable:lib/support/nginx/gitlab-ssl

# For HTTP configurations
git diff origin/8-5-stable:lib/support/nginx/gitlab origin/8-6-stable:lib/support/nginx/gitlab

If you are using Apache instead of NGINX please see the updated Apache templates. Also note that because Apache does not support upstreams behind Unix sockets you will need to let gitlab-workhorse listen on a TCP port. You can do this via /etc/default/gitlab.

Init script

Ensure you're still up-to-date with the latest init script changes:

sudo cp lib/support/init.d/gitlab /etc/init.d/gitlab

For Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

9. Start application

sudo service gitlab start
sudo service nginx restart

10. Check application status

Check if GitLab and its environment are configured correctly:

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production

To make sure you didn't miss anything run a more thorough check:

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production

If all items are green, then congratulations, the upgrade is complete!

Things went south? Revert to previous version (8.5)

1. Revert the code to the previous version

Follow the upgrade guide from 8.4 to 8.5, except for the database migration (the backup is already migrated to the previous version).

2. Restore from the backup

cd /home/git/gitlab
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:backup:restore RAILS_ENV=production

If you have more than one backup *.tar file(s) please add BACKUP=timestamp_of_backup to the command above.