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Show HN: Backup your public GitHub repositories with GitHub-backup

25 points by ericlathrop 12y ago

blainesch 12y ago
Aren't your repos already backed up locally? I mean that is where I created them...
- ericlathrop 12y ago
  Not when you use several different computers, or when you're done with an old project and delete your local copy.
  - ericlathrop 12y ago
    Plus, you can use this to backup someone else's repos in case they delete them.
teach 12y ago
Are there really people whose ONLY copy of a project is on GitHub? If so, I think they're not doing distributed version control correctly.
- lucaspiller 12y ago
  I have old projects on GitHub that I haven't touched for a few years. They are things that I don't really care about if I lost them though.
- ericlathrop 12y ago
  This tool helps you stay distributed by keeping a server somewhere that constantly backs up all your repos. With this you can't accidentally forget to make a copy if you make a quick repo in a coffee shop somewhere, and delete the local copy days later when you're cleaning up.
  - deanclatworthy 12y ago
    Or you could mirror to multiple repositories with one push. I write about how to use Github & Bitbucket simultaneously here: http://deanclatworthy.com/2013/01/how-to-avoid-relying-on-github-mirror-your-repository/ http://deanclatworthy.com/2013/01/how-to-avoid-relying-on-gi...
    - ericlathrop 12y ago
      Wow, that's a pretty neat approach! How well does that work with multiple people?
      - tomswartz07 12y ago
        I can't imagine it would be that difficult with multiple people. Even if they pulled from one or the other, so long as someone merges the changes from the missing repo, everyone will be good to go. This is a pretty unique approach to multiple git servers.
- zeckalpha 12y ago
  I mirror most stuff between Bitbucket and GitHub, plus local copies of course.
cookrn 12y ago
I released this as a product a few years ago and subsequently open sourced it. With a bit of work, it could be a good little web app to run on your own server to manage repo backups. https://github.com/antiqua-io/Antiqua https://github.com/antiqua-io/Antiqua
w0rd-driven 12y ago
Where a tool like this seems to really make sense is not in the git repository. Most of us know or should know how to back this up properly. The real power comes in dumping the issues, wiki, PRs, and any other information that is not completely contained in git. Having something that would dump the git+ so that even if a site like GitHub were to shutdown you at least had data, in hopefully human readable format like JSON, that can be parsed at a later time if you so choose. This would also open the door for interop between things like GitLab, GitHub, and Bitbucket which all seem to have their own version of what the term "git+" should be. If this could be a pathway to lead to standardizing that API on top of git so that all these different players can talk with one another would be kinda huge as well. It's hard to see Github and Bitbucket wanting to work together for something like this when they have mouths to feed but something tells me "if we build it, they will come."
- josegonzalez 12y ago
  I wrote a tool like that for Github almost a year ago, finally got around to packaging it. It copies issues, issue events, watched/starred/private/public repos, wikis, etc. All configured via arguments. It's written in python with no external dependencies, so should work fine in most versions: - https://pypi.python.org/pypi/github-backup https://pypi.python.org/pypi/github-backup I built it as our company github org is getting quite big, and I wanted to backup my own repositories (at the time I had something like ~300 repos, which I've since slimmed down). Worked well enough for me.
  - ericlathrop 12y ago
    That looks very nice. Much more comprehensive than my tool. If all my tool accomplished was to prompt you to release your better tool, then I'm a happy camper. Yay open source!
- aaronbasssett 12y ago
  I'm not sure about issues or PRs but you can clone the Wiki like any other repo. Just add ".wiki" before the .git at the end of the clone url. git clone git@github.com:jquery/jquery.wiki.git
atmosx 12y ago
If I have to backup my github repositories what good is github for?! Showing my code to the world?!
- hayksaakian 12y ago
  Its a back up, not a replacement. Maybe github is down or they close your account because they don't like you.
tlongren 12y ago
Can't even get it to work. Runs, but does nada. What am I missing?
- ericlathrop 12y ago
  Do you have node.js installed and in your $PATH?

25 points by ericlathrop 12y ago

blainesch 12y ago

Aren't your repos already backed up locally? I mean that is where I created them...

ericlathrop 12y ago
Not when you use several different computers, or when you're done with an old project and delete your local copy.
- ericlathrop 12y ago
  Plus, you can use this to backup someone else's repos in case they delete them.

teach 12y ago

Are there really people whose ONLY copy of a project is on GitHub? If so, I think they're not doing distributed version control correctly.

lucaspiller 12y ago
I have old projects on GitHub that I haven't touched for a few years. They are things that I don't really care about if I lost them though.
ericlathrop 12y ago
This tool helps you stay distributed by keeping a server somewhere that constantly backs up all your repos. With this you can't accidentally forget to make a copy if you make a quick repo in a coffee shop somewhere, and delete the local copy days later when you're cleaning up.
- deanclatworthy 12y ago
  Or you could mirror to multiple repositories with one push. I write about how to use Github & Bitbucket simultaneously here: http://deanclatworthy.com/2013/01/how-to-avoid-relying-on-github-mirror-your-repository/ http://deanclatworthy.com/2013/01/how-to-avoid-relying-on-gi...
  - ericlathrop 12y ago
    Wow, that's a pretty neat approach! How well does that work with multiple people?
    - tomswartz07 12y ago
      I can't imagine it would be that difficult with multiple people. Even if they pulled from one or the other, so long as someone merges the changes from the missing repo, everyone will be good to go. This is a pretty unique approach to multiple git servers.
zeckalpha 12y ago
I mirror most stuff between Bitbucket and GitHub, plus local copies of course.

cookrn 12y ago

I released this as a product a few years ago and subsequently open sourced it. With a bit of work, it could be a good little web app to run on your own server to manage repo backups. https://github.com/antiqua-io/Antiqua https://github.com/antiqua-io/Antiqua

w0rd-driven 12y ago

Where a tool like this seems to really make sense is not in the git repository. Most of us know or should know how to back this up properly. The real power comes in dumping the issues, wiki, PRs, and any other information that is not completely contained in git. Having something that would dump the git+ so that even if a site like GitHub were to shutdown you at least had data, in hopefully human readable format like JSON, that can be parsed at a later time if you so choose. This would also open the door for interop between things like GitLab, GitHub, and Bitbucket which all seem to have their own version of what the term "git+" should be. If this could be a pathway to lead to standardizing that API on top of git so that all these different players can talk with one another would be kinda huge as well. It's hard to see Github and Bitbucket wanting to work together for something like this when they have mouths to feed but something tells me "if we build it, they will come."

josegonzalez 12y ago
I wrote a tool like that for Github almost a year ago, finally got around to packaging it. It copies issues, issue events, watched/starred/private/public repos, wikis, etc. All configured via arguments. It's written in python with no external dependencies, so should work fine in most versions: - https://pypi.python.org/pypi/github-backup https://pypi.python.org/pypi/github-backup I built it as our company github org is getting quite big, and I wanted to backup my own repositories (at the time I had something like ~300 repos, which I've since slimmed down). Worked well enough for me.
- ericlathrop 12y ago
  That looks very nice. Much more comprehensive than my tool. If all my tool accomplished was to prompt you to release your better tool, then I'm a happy camper. Yay open source!
aaronbasssett 12y ago
I'm not sure about issues or PRs but you can clone the Wiki like any other repo. Just add ".wiki" before the .git at the end of the clone url. git clone git@github.com:jquery/jquery.wiki.git

atmosx 12y ago

If I have to backup my github repositories what good is github for?! Showing my code to the world?!

hayksaakian 12y ago
Its a back up, not a replacement. Maybe github is down or they close your account because they don't like you.

tlongren 12y ago

Can't even get it to work. Runs, but does nada. What am I missing?

ericlathrop 12y ago
Do you have node.js installed and in your $PATH?