Backup git repository

Git can “bundle” its data into a single file using the bundle command. This command packages everything that would typically be pushed over the network with a git push into a binary file. The file can then be emailed to someone, transferred to a flash drive, and later “unbundled” into another repository.

Following bash function will clone repository and create one single bundle file with nice name:

#!/bin/bash

function git_backup() {
  target=$(echo ${1#*:} | tr / _)
  git clone --mirror $1 ${target} && cd ${target}
  git bundle create ${2-../}/${target%%.git}.bundle --all
  cd - && rm -rf ${target}
}

Usage:

git_backup git@github.com:OzzyCzech/dotfiles.git ~/Downloads/

PS: Note that git bundle only copies commits that lead to some reference (branch or tag) in the repository. So tangling commits are not stored to the bundle.

You can also create nice alias in .gitconfig file:

[alias]
backup = "!gb() { target=$(echo ${1#*:} | tr / _); git clone --mirror $1 ${target} && cd ${target}; git bundle create ${2-../}/${target%%.git}.bundle --all; cd - && rm -rf ${target}; }; gb"

Backup alias can be also found in my dotfiles repository.

Restore

You can directly clone repository from bundle file:

git clone my-super-file.bundle directory

Or you can create empty repository and pull from bundle file:

git init directory
cd directory
git pull my-super-file.bundle

Backup whole GitHub account

You can use GitHub API to get list of all user repos. Then you have to apply all your bash magic power to getting right names from that.

curl -s https://api.github.com/users/OzzyCzech/repos | json_pp | grep full_name | cut -d\" -f4

Or there are a number of tools specifically designed for the purpose of manipulating JSON from the command line. One of the best seems to me jq

for repo in $(curl -s https://api.github.com/users/OzzyCzech/repos | jq -r ".[].ssh_url")
do
  git backup $repo /Volumes/Backup/git
done;