Backup_GitHub (macOS)

A guide and script to back up and update all your GitHub repositories, including those from your organizations, into a local directory on your Mac.

Plus: Exclude one or more of your organizations and include repositories from all over GitHub!

Note: The script uses the active Git user configured in your environment and relies on the GitHub CLI (gh) for efficient updates. Authentication is managed separately via gh auth login. The backup retrieves the full Git history with git clone.

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Setup Instructions

Follow these steps to set up your macOS environment and run the backup script.

1. Install Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS that simplifies software installation.

Install Homebrew:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Follow any on-screen instructions to add Homebrew to your PATH.

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2. Install the required dependencies

Use Homebrew to install the necessary tools:

Install Git, Git LFS, GitHub CLI, and jq:

brew install git git-lfs gh jq

Note: jq is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor. The script uses it to process GitHub metadata and the config.json file.

Initialize Git LFS:

git lfs install

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3. Configure Git

Set up your Git user information with your GitHub credentials:

Configure your Git username:

git config --global user.name "Your GitHub username"

Configure your Git email:

git config --global user.email "your.github.email@example.com"

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4. Set Up SSH Keys

Generate an SSH key with a custom name and add it to your GitHub account. The keys will be stored in the .ssh directory in your home folder.

Generate a new SSH key with a custom name:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/github_ed25519 -C "your.github.email@example.com"

Start the SSH agent:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Add your SSH key to the agent:

ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/github_ed25519

Copy the SSH public key to your clipboard:

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/github_ed25519.pub

Add the key on GitHub:

1. Go to https://github.com/settings/keys
2. Click New SSH key, give it a title, and paste the key.

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5. Authenticate GitHub CLI

Log in to your GitHub account:

gh auth login

• Choose GitHub.com.
• Select SSH.
• Use the key you created.
• Log in with your browser when prompted.

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6. Get the Backup_GitHub Repository

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/sebfried/Backup_GitHub.git && cd Backup_GitHub

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7. Additional Configuration

The backup script allows you to exclude specific organizations and include additional repositories from GitHub in the backup process, using a config.json file.

Edit config.json

Rename example.config.json to config.json and update it with your preferences:

{
  "exclude_orgs": ["your_organization_1", "your_org_name_2"],
  "include_repos": ["other_user2/repository1", "other_org3/repository2"]
}

You can exclude any organizations you don't want to back up and include any additional repositories from other users or organizations.

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8. Run the Backup Script

Make the script executable and run it:

Make the script executable:

chmod +x backup.sh

Run the backup script:

./backup.sh

The script will:

• Create a backup directory in the same location as the script.
• Set up directories for your account and each organization.
• Clone repositories if they don’t already exist locally.
• Fetch and pull updates for existing repositories.

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9. Set Up an Alias

To simplify running the backup script, you can set up an alias for it.

Add the alias using your current directory path:

echo 'alias backup-github="'"$(pwd)/backup.sh"'"' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

Now you can run the backup script from anywhere by simply typing backup-github in your terminal.