Can someone give me a complete description of installing Bitbucket server from a .gz file?

[pas.argenio]

There is nowhere that a "albitbucket" user is created to own everything, there is no clear way to know where JAVA_HOME should be. (I am on Redhat. The java executable is in /bin/java.) and I will probably run into a few more problems/questions.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

First hit on search engines is the "install bitbucket" docs at https://confluence.atlassian.com/bitbucketserver/bitbucket-installation-guide-867338382.html

From a tar download on Linux, that doc links straight to https://confluence.atlassian.com/bitbucketserver/install-bitbucket-server-on-linux-from-an-archive-file-868977010.html

[pas.argenio]

Thanks so much for your answer, Nic!

Yes, that is the exact page I am looking at and following, however, it does not provide any detail on how to set JAVA_HOME which is required for starting the instance. I did however figure this out by looking at our production instance (which was installed with and installer).

So that just leaves creating the user -- "altbitbucket" in the Installer version -- if that is even needed. For now, I am running as root. But when I browse to it, it just hangs forever, no error, no nothing

I am wondering if maybe I need to use different ports to distinguish from the production instance, which is on a different server.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Java installation is up to the OS really, not Bitbucket.

You can run Bitbucket as any user you want, although I'd very strongly recommend not using a privileged account (such as root).  adduser <username> should get you started, and I'd maybe try adding atlbitbucket (note the spelling - I don't know if you made a type there).  The important bit is that the user has to be named in the config file and all the files and directories in the installation and data directories should be owned by that user.

If you're stuck, have a look at the logs - if file ownerships etc are incorrect, they should be telling you they can't open them

[pas.argenio]

Thanks Nic.

Yes I have resigned myself that all of this is manual. Kinda makes me shake my head when for the past 20 years I've been using ./configure and related scripts that figure out what platform you are on, what tools/versions you have installed and then setup your software accordingly. And that is for free software! Here I am paying for software and I get nothing?

Oh well, maybe I will write my own and post the results.