Use Libravatar service with GitLab

GitLab by default supports Gravatar avatar service. Libravatar is a service which delivers your avatar (profile picture) to other websites and their API is heavily based on gravatar.

This means that it is not complicated to switch to Libravatar avatar service or even self hosted Libravatar server.

Configuration

In gitlab.yml gravatar section set the configuration options as follows:

For HTTP

  gravatar:
    enabled: true
    # gravatar URLs: possible placeholders: %{hash} %{size} %{email}
    plain_url: "http://cdn.libravatar.org/avatar/%{hash}?s=%{size}&d=identicon"

For HTTPS

  gravatar:
    enabled: true
    # gravatar URLs: possible placeholders: %{hash} %{size} %{email}
    ssl_url: "https://seccdn.libravatar.org/avatar/%{hash}?s=%{size}&d=identicon"

Self-hosted

If you are running your own libravatar service the URL will be different in the configuration but the important part is to provide the same placeholders so GitLab can parse the URL correctly.

For example, you host a service on http://libravatar.example.com the plain_url you need to supply in gitlab.yml is

http://libravatar.example.com/avatar/%{hash}?s=%{size}&d=identicon

Omnibus-gitlab example

In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

For http

gitlab_rails['gravatar_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['gravatar_plain_url'] = "http://cdn.libravatar.org/avatar/%{hash}?s=%{size}&d=identicon"

For https

gitlab_rails['gravatar_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['gravatar_ssl_url'] = "https://seccdn.libravatar.org/avatar/%{hash}?s=%{size}&d=identicon"

Run sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure for changes to take effect.

Default URL for missing images

Libravatar supports different sets of missing images for emails not found on the Libravatar service.

In order to use a different set other than identicon, replace &d=identicon portion of the URL with another supported set. For example, you can use retro set in which case the URL would look like: plain_url: "http://cdn.libravatar.org/avatar/%{hash}?s=%{size}&d=retro"

Usage examples

For Microsoft Office 365

If your users are Office 365-users, the "GetPersonaPhoto" service can be used. Note that this service requires login, so this use case is most useful in a corporate installation, where all users have access to Office 365.

gitlab_rails['gravatar_plain_url'] = 'http://outlook.office365.com/owa/service.svc/s/GetPersonaPhoto?email=%{email}&size=HR120x120'
gitlab_rails['gravatar_ssl_url'] = 'https://outlook.office365.com/owa/service.svc/s/GetPersonaPhoto?email=%{email}&size=HR120x120'