• Documentation self-hosting options
  • Self-host the product documentation with Docker
  • Self-host the product documentation with GitLab Pages
  • Self-host the product documentation on your own web server
• Redirect the /help links to the new docs page
• Known issues

How to host the GitLab product documentation

If you are not able to access the GitLab product documentation at docs.gitlab.com, you can host the documentation yourself instead.

Documentation self-hosting options

To host the GitLab product documentation, you can use:

• A Docker container
• GitLab Pages
• Your own web server

After you create a website by using one of these methods, you redirect the UI links in the product to point to your website.

The following examples use GitLab 14.5.

Self-host the product documentation with Docker

You can run the GitLab product documentation website in a Docker container:

1. Expose port 4000. The Docker image uses this port for the web server.

2. On the server where you host GitLab, or on any other server that your GitLab instance can communicate with, pull the docs site:

   docker run -it --rm -p 4000:4000 registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:14.5
   

   If you host your GitLab instance using Docker compose, add the following to docker-compose.yaml:

   version: '3.6'
   services:
     docs:
       image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:14.5
       hostname: 'https://gitlab.example.com'
       ports:
         - '4000:4000'
   

Self-host the product documentation with GitLab Pages

You can use GitLab Pages to host the GitLab product documentation.

Prerequisite:

• Ensure the Pages site URL does not use a subfolder. Because of how the docs site is pre-compiled, the CSS and JavaScript files are relative to the main domain or subdomain. For example, URLs like https://example.com/docs/ are not supported.

To host the product documentation site with GitLab Pages:

1. Create a blank project.

2. Create a new or edit your existing .gitlab-ci.yml file, and add the following pages job, while ensuring the version is the same as your GitLab installation:

   image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:14.5
   pages:
     script:
     - mkdir public
     - cp -a /usr/share/nginx/html/* public/
     artifacts:
       paths:
       - public
   

3. Optional. Set the GitLab Pages domain name. Depending on the type of the GitLab Pages website, you have two options:

   Type of website	Default domain	Custom domain
   Project website	Not supported	Supported
   User or group website	Supported	Supported

Self-host the product documentation on your own web server

Because the product documentation site is static, from the container, you can take the contents of /usr/share/nginx/html and use your own web server to host the docs wherever you want.

Run the following commands, replacing <destination> with the directory where the documentation files will be copied to:

docker create -it --name gitlab-docs registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:14.5
docker cp gitlab-docs:/usr/share/nginx/html <destination>
docker rm -f gitlab-docs

Redirect the /help links to the new docs page

After your local product documentation site is running, redirect the help links in the GitLab application to your local site.

Be sure to use the fully qualified domain name as the docs URL. For example, if you used the Docker method, enter http://0.0.0.0:4000.

You don’t need to append the version. GitLab detects it and appends it to documentation URL requests as needed. For example, if your GitLab version is 14.5:

• The GitLab Docs URL becomes http://0.0.0.0:4000/14.5/.
• The link in GitLab displays as <instance_url>/help/user/admin_area/settings/help_page#destination-requirements.
• When you select the link, you are redirected to http://0.0.0.0:4000/14.5/ee/user/admin_area/settings/help_page/#destination-requirements.

To test the setting, select a Learn more link within the GitLab application.

Known issues

If you self-host the product documentation:

• The version dropdown displays additional versions that don’t exist. Selecting these versions displays a 404 Not Found page.
• The search displays results from docs.gitlab.com and not the local site.
• By default, the landing page redirects to the respective version (for example, /14.5/). This causes the landing page https://docs.gitlab.com to not be displayed.