Package: github-backup
The package can be used to backup anentireGithuborganization, repository or user account, including starred repos, issues and wikis in the most appropriate format (clones for wikis, json files for issues).RequirementsGIT 1.9+PythonInstallationUsing PIP via PyPI:pip install github-backupUsing PIP via Github (more likely the latest version):pip install git+https://github.com/josegonzalez/python-github-backup.git#egg=github-backupInstall note for python newcomers:Python scripts are unlikely to be included in your$PATHby default, this means it cannot be run directly in terminal with$github-backup..., you can either add python’s install path to your environments$PATHor call the script directly e.g. using$~/.local/bin/github-backup.*Basic HelpShow the CLI help output:github-backup -hCLI Help output:github-backup [-h] [-u USERNAME] [-p PASSWORD] [-t TOKEN_CLASSIC]
              [-f TOKEN_FINE] [--as-app] [-o OUTPUT_DIRECTORY]
              [-l LOG_LEVEL] [-i] [--starred] [--all-starred]
              [--watched] [--followers] [--following] [--all] [--issues]
              [--issue-comments] [--issue-events] [--pulls]
              [--pull-comments] [--pull-commits] [--pull-details]
              [--labels] [--hooks] [--milestones] [--repositories]
              [--bare] [--lfs] [--wikis] [--gists] [--starred-gists]
              [--skip-archived] [--skip-existing] [-L [LANGUAGES ...]]
              [-N NAME_REGEX] [-H GITHUB_HOST] [-O] [-R REPOSITORY]
              [-P] [-F] [--prefer-ssh] [-v]
              [--keychain-name OSX_KEYCHAIN_ITEM_NAME]
              [--keychain-account OSX_KEYCHAIN_ITEM_ACCOUNT]
              [--releases] [--latest-releases NUMBER_OF_LATEST_RELEASES]
              [--skip-prerelease] [--assets]
              [--exclude [REPOSITORY [REPOSITORY ...]]
              [--throttle-limit THROTTLE_LIMIT] [--throttle-pause THROTTLE_PAUSE]
              USER

Backup a github account

positional arguments:
  USER                  github username

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -u USERNAME, --username USERNAME
                        username for basic auth
  -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
                        password for basic auth. If a username is given but
                        not a password, the password will be prompted for.
  -f TOKEN_FINE, --token-fine TOKEN_FINE
                        fine-grained personal access token or path to token
                        (file://...)
  -t TOKEN_CLASSIC, --token TOKEN_CLASSIC
                        personal access, OAuth, or JSON Web token, or path to
                        token (file://...)
  --as-app              authenticate as github app instead of as a user.
  -o OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, --output-directory OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
                        directory at which to backup the repositories
  -l LOG_LEVEL, --log-level LOG_LEVEL
                        log level to use (default: info, possible levels:
                        debug, info, warning, error, critical)
  -i, --incremental     incremental backup
  --starred             include JSON output of starred repositories in backup
  --all-starred         include starred repositories in backup [*]
  --watched             include JSON output of watched repositories in backup
  --followers           include JSON output of followers in backup
  --following           include JSON output of following users in backup
  --all                 include everything in backup (not including [*])
  --issues              include issues in backup
  --issue-comments      include issue comments in backup
  --issue-events        include issue events in backup
  --pulls               include pull requests in backup
  --pull-comments       include pull request review comments in backup
  --pull-commits        include pull request commits in backup
  --pull-details        include more pull request details in backup [*]
  --labels              include labels in backup
  --hooks               include hooks in backup (works only when
                        authenticated)
  --milestones          include milestones in backup
  --repositories        include repository clone in backup
  --bare                clone bare repositories
  --lfs                 clone LFS repositories (requires Git LFS to be
                        installed, https://git-lfs.github.com) [*]
  --wikis               include wiki clone in backup
  --gists               include gists in backup [*]
  --starred-gists       include starred gists in backup [*]
  --skip-existing       skip project if a backup directory exists
  -L [LANGUAGES [LANGUAGES ...]], --languages [LANGUAGES [LANGUAGES ...]]
                        only allow these languages
  -N NAME_REGEX, --name-regex NAME_REGEX
                        python regex to match names against
  -H GITHUB_HOST, --github-host GITHUB_HOST
                        GitHub Enterprise hostname
  -O, --organization    whether or not this is an organization user
  -R REPOSITORY, --repository REPOSITORY
                        name of repository to limit backup to
  -P, --private         include private repositories [*]
  -F, --fork            include forked repositories [*]
  --prefer-ssh          Clone repositories using SSH instead of HTTPS
  -v, --version         show program's version number and exit
  --keychain-name OSX_KEYCHAIN_ITEM_NAME
                        OSX ONLY: name field of password item in OSX keychain
                        that holds the personal access or OAuth token
  --keychain-account OSX_KEYCHAIN_ITEM_ACCOUNT
                        OSX ONLY: account field of password item in OSX
                        keychain that holds the personal access or OAuth token
  --releases            include release information, not including assets or
                        binaries
  --latest-releases NUMBER_OF_LATEST_RELEASES
                        include certain number of the latest releases;
                        only applies if including releases
  --skip-prerelease     skip prerelease and draft versions; only applies if including releases
  --assets              include assets alongside release information; only
                        applies if including releases
  --exclude [REPOSITORY [REPOSITORY ...]]
                        names of repositories to exclude from backup.
  --throttle-limit THROTTLE_LIMIT
                        start throttling of GitHub API requests after this
                        amount of API requests remain
  --throttle-pause THROTTLE_PAUSE
                        wait this amount of seconds when API request
                        throttling is active (default: 30.0, requires
                        --throttle-limit to be set)Usage DetailsAuthenticationPassword-based authenticationwill fail if you have two-factor authentication enabled, and willbe deprecatedby 2023 EOY.--usernameis used for basic password authentication and separate from the positional argumentUSER, which specifies the user account you wish to back up.Classic tokensareslightly less secureas they provide very coarse-grained permissions.If you need authentication for long-running backups (e.g. for a cron job) it is recommended to usefine-grained personal access token-fTOKEN_FINE.Fine TokensYou can “generate new token”, choosing the repository scope by selecting specific repos or all repos. On Github this is underSettings -> Developer Settings -> Personal access tokens -> Fine-grained TokensCustomise the permissions for your use case, but for a personal account full backup you’ll need to enable the following permissions:User permissions: Read access to followers, starring, and watching.Repository permissions: Read access to code, commit statuses, issues, metadata, pages, pull requests, and repository hooks.Prefer SSHIf cloning repos is enabled with--repositories,--all-starred,--wikis,--gists,--starred-gistsusing the--prefer-sshargument will use ssh for cloning the git repos, but all other connections will still use their own protocol, e.g. API requests for issues uses HTTPS.To clone with SSH, you’ll need SSH authentication setupas usual with Github, e.g. via SSH public and private keys.Using the Keychain on Mac OSXNote: On Mac OSX the token can be stored securely in the user’s keychain. To do this:Open Keychain from “Applications -> Utilities -> Keychain Access”Add a new password item using “File -> New Password Item”Enter a name in the “Keychain Item Name” box. You must provide this name to github-backup using the –keychain-name argument.Enter an account name in the “Account Name” box, enter your Github username as set above. You must provide this name to github-backup using the –keychain-account argument.Enter your Github personal access token in the “Password” boxNote:  When you run github-backup, you will be asked whether you want to allow “security” to use your confidential information stored in your keychain. You have two options:Allow:In this case you will need to click “Allow” each time you rungithub-backupAlways Allow:In this case, you will not be asked for permission when you rungithub-backupin future. This is less secure, but is required if you want to schedulegithub-backupto run automaticallyGithub Rate-limit and Throttling“github-backup” will automatically throttle itself based on feedback from the Github API.Their API is usually rate-limited to 5000 calls per hour. The API will ask github-backup to pause until a specific time when the limit is reset again (at the start of the next hour). This continues until the backup is complete.During a large backup, such as--all-starred, and on a fast connection this can result in (~20 min) pauses with bursts of API calls periodically maxing out the API limit. If this is not suitableit has been observedunder real-world conditions that overriding the throttle with--throttle-limit5000--throttle-pause0.6provides a smooth rate across the hour, although a--throttle-pause0.72(3600 seconds [1 hour] / 5000 limit) is theoretically safer to prevent large rate-limit pauses.About Git LFSWhen you use the--lfsoption, you will need to make sure you have Git LFS installed.Instructions on how to do this can be found onhttps://git-lfs.github.com.Gotchas / Known-issuesAll is not everythingThe--allargument does not include; cloning private repos (-P,--private), cloning forks (-F,--fork) cloning starred repositories (--all-starred),--pull-details, cloning LFS repositories (--lfs), cloning gists (--starred-gists) or cloning starred gist repos (--starred-gists). See examples for more.Cloning all starred sizeUsing the--all-starredargument to clone all starred repositories may use a large amount of storage space, especially if--allor more arguments are used. e.g. commonly starred repos can have tens of thousands of issues, many large assets and the repo itself etc. Consider just storing links to starred repos in JSON format with--starred.Incremental BackupUsing (-i,--incremental) will only request new data from the APIsince the last run (successful or not). e.g. only request issues from the API since the last run.This means any blocking errors on previous runs can cause a large amount of missing data in backups.Known blocking errorsSome errors will block the backup run by exiting the script. e.g. receiving a 403 Forbidden error from the Github API.If the incremental argument is used, this will result in the next backup only requesting API data since the last blocked/failed run. Potentially causing unexpected large amounts of missing data.It’s therefore recommended to only use the incremental argument if the output/result is being actively monitored, or complimented with periodic full non-incremental runs, to avoid unexpected missing data in a regular backup runs.Starred public repo hooks blockingSince the--allargument includes--hooks, if you use--alland--all-starredtogether to clone a users starred public repositories, the backup will likely error and block the backup continuing.This is due to needing the correct permission for--hookson public repos.Releases blockingA known--releases(required for--assets) error will sometimes block the backup.If you’re backing up a lot of repositories with releases e.g. an organisation or--all-starred. You may need to remove--releases(and therefore--assets) to complete a backup. Documented inissue 209.“bare” is actually “mirror”Using the bare clone argument (--bare) will actually call git’sclone--mirrorcommand. There’s a subtle difference betweenbareandmirrorclone.From git docs “Compared to –bare, –mirror not only maps local branches of the source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such that all these refs are overwritten by a git remote update in the target repository.”Starred gists vs starred repo behaviourThe starred normal repo cloning (--all-starred) argument stores starred repos separately to the users own repositories. However, using--starred-gistswill store starred gists within the same directory as the users own gists--gists. Also, all gist repo directory names are IDs not the gist’s name.Skip existing on incomplete backupsThe--skip-existingargument will skip a backup if the directory already exists, even if the backup in that directory failed (perhaps due to a blocking error). This may result in unexpected missing data in a regular backup.Github Backup ExamplesBackup all repositories, including private ones using a classic token:export ACCESS_TOKEN=SOME-GITHUB-TOKEN
github-backup WhiteHouse --token $ACCESS_TOKEN --organization --output-directory /tmp/white-house --repositories --privateUse a fine-grained access token to backup a single organization repository with everything else (wiki, pull requests, comments, issues etc):export FINE_ACCESS_TOKEN=SOME-GITHUB-TOKEN
ORGANIZATION=docker
REPO=cli
# e.g. git@github.com:docker/cli.git
github-backup $ORGANIZATION -P -f $FINE_ACCESS_TOKEN -o . --all -O -R $REPOQuietly and incrementally backup useful Github user data (public and private repos with SSH) including; all issues, pulls, all public starred repos and gists (omitting “hooks”, “releases” and therefore “assets” to prevent blocking).Great for a cron job.export FINE_ACCESS_TOKEN=SOME-GITHUB-TOKEN
GH_USER=YOUR-GITHUB-USER

github-backup -f $FINE_ACCESS_TOKEN --prefer-ssh -o ~/github-backup/ -l error -P -i --all-starred --starred --watched --followers --following --issues --issue-comments --issue-events --pulls --pull-comments --pull-commits --labels --milestones --repositories --wikis --releases --assets --pull-details --gists --starred-gists $GH_USERDebug an error/block or incomplete backup into a temporary directory. Omit “incremental” to fill a previous incomplete backup.export FINE_ACCESS_TOKEN=SOME-GITHUB-TOKEN
GH_USER=YOUR-GITHUB-USER

github-backup -f $FINE_ACCESS_TOKEN -o /tmp/github-backup/ -l debug -P --all-starred --starred --watched --followers --following --issues --issue-comments --issue-events --pulls --pull-comments --pull-commits --labels --milestones --repositories --wikis --releases --assets --pull-details --gists --starred-gists $GH_USERDevelopmentThis project is considered feature complete for the primary maintainer @josegonzalez. If you would like a bugfix or enhancement, pull requests are welcome. Feel free to contact the maintainer for consulting estimates if you’d like to sponsor the work instead.ContibutersA huge thanks to all the contibuters!TestingThis project currently contains no unit tests.  To run linting:pip install flake8
flake8 --ignore=E501