I have done it (sort of...)!

It's perhaps a dirty way of doing it, and I'm certainly not saying it's the best way - but it works! It basically reinstalls GitHub from scratch (with a fresh DB as well). I have included some lines that backup the old GitHub install folder and DB as as I have intention to try to update my GitLab server (that includes data) but haven't got there yet. I also thought then at least if someone doesn't read all this and does it on their existing server (with data) then all wouldn't be lost...

Ideally it'd be nice to create a TKLPatch of this, or at least a nice script that you can download and run, but until then...

Note: I am yet to try this on a server that already includes data. I hope to refine this so it will work with existing data, but for now (unless you want to build on my work) I suggest that if you have existing data, run this on a clean install and then migrate your data across (I haven't tried it but I have read about it on the GitLab wiki).

What it does:

• updates package lists and upgrades all GitLab dependancies
• backs up the DB
• deletes (drops) the DB and recreates an emplty one
• backs up the github folder (actually renames it)
• Then does a more-or-less clean install (from the stable GitLab GitHub repo)

You will need your MySQL root password handy (and put it in the 3 times you will be asked).

apt-get update
apt-get install -y wget curl gcc checkinstall libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libreadline6-dev libc6-dev libssl-dev libmysql++-dev make build-essential zlib1g-dev libicu-dev redis-server openssh-server git-core python-dev python-pip libyaml-dev postfix libpq-dev
mysqldump -uroot -p -c --add-drop-table --add-locks --all --quick --lock-tables gitlab_production > gitlab_sql_dump.sql
mysqladmin -uroot -p drop gitlab_production
mysqladmin -uroot -p create gitlab_production
cd /home/gitlab
sudo -u gitlab mv gitlab gitlab-old
sudo gem install charlock_holmes --version '0.6.8'
sudo gem install bundler
sudo -u gitlab git clone -b stable https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq.git gitlab
cd /home/gitlab/gitlab
sudo -u gitlab cp config/gitlab.yml.example config/gitlab.yml
sudo -u gitlab cp /home/gitlab/gitlab-old/config/database.yml config/database.yml
sudo -u gitlab bundle install --without development test sqlite postgres  --deployment
sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rake gitlab:app:setup RAILS_ENV=production
sudo -u gitlab bundle exec rake gitlab:app:status RAILS_ENV=production
sudo -u gitlab cp config/unicorn.rb.example config/unicorn.rb

And that should do it...!

Now start GitLab:

service gitlab start

And log in... Note that when logging into the WebUI you will need to use the default GitLab login credentials:

admin@local.host
5iveL!fe

Warning: DO NOT RERUN THE FIRSTBOOT SCRIPTS! It will break GitLab!

The next thing I plan to try is just migrating the DB (rather than dumping it and recreating it). It would also be nice to preserve the intial log in details (that you already set up). It'd be super nice to get it working with existing data... (which will rely on not destroying the DB). I'd also like to adjust the firstboot script so it's not destructive.