Upgrading

Stop the runner, replace the binary or image, and start it again. The registration file stays valid, so you do not need to register the runner again.

sudo systemctl stop gitea-runner
sudo install -m 0755 gitea-runner-<version>-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/gitea-runner
sudo systemctl start gitea-runner

Stopping the runner cancels running jobs unless runner.shutdown_timeout gives them time to finish. The runner logs a warning for unknown configuration keys and ignores them. Run gitea-runner config generate to list all configuration options.

Breaking changes in 5.0

Git 2.34.1 or later is required on the runner and in job images that use builtin:checkout.
builtin:checkout works like actions/checkout. It removes untracked and ignored files unless clean: false is set. It fails if the triggering tag moved after the workflow started.
Configuration values expand ${NAME} from the runner’s environment. The configuration fails to load if NAME is unset. Write $${NAME} for a literal ${NAME}, for example in a shell command in a Kubernetes pod_template.
Jobs require runs-on. A job without runs-on fails, as it does on GitHub. Jobs that call a reusable workflow are exempt.
OpenTelemetry metrics follow the semantic conventions, which changed their names, units and attributes. See telemetry.md. On /metrics, gitea_runner_client_errors_total gained a code label, and gitea_runner_job_total counts jobs stopped by runner.timeout as timeout.
Unprivileged runners drop more workflow options. Unless container.privileged is set, --log-driver, --log-opt, --oom-score-adj and --oom-kill-disable are removed from a job’s container.options with a warning.

Release notes for every version are on the release page.