GitHub Repositories Backup Tools

• Full Backup — clones ALL repositories (public and private) from your account and organizations
• Smart Update — compares local commits with GitHub, updates only when needed
• Automatic Retries — up to 5 attempts with exponential backoff on failures
• Health Check — automatic integrity verification of each repository
• No SSH Required — uses only HTTPS with token authentication
• Token Persistence — token is saved after first use and reused on subsequent runs
• Progress with Error Counter — visual progress bar showing current/total/errors
• Detailed Report — statistics on cloned/updated/synced/skipped/failed repositories
• User Profile Export — saves GitHub user information to user_info.json
• Branch Pruning — automatically removes local branches deleted on remote (Full Mode)
• Organized Backups — all archives and reports stored in backups/ folder
• Power Management — shutdown/reboot after completion (optional)
• Fast Mode (Default) — clones only default branch for maximum speed
• Full Mode — --all-branches flag to enable synchronization of ALL branches

Fast Mode (Default) — python app.py -r

• CLONE — new repository, full clone (all branches on first clone)
• PULL — has changes, updates only code in current branch
• SKIP — no changes, skips the repository

Full Mode — python app.py -r --all-branches

• CLONE — new repository, full clone (all branches)
• PULL — has changes, updates code + all branches
• SYNC — no changes, only syncs branches (fetch + create local branches)
• CLONE (recover) — fetch failed, re-clones the repository

~/github_repos_backup_tools/              # Main application folder
└── username/                              # Your GitHub username
    ├── repositories/                       # All cloned repositories
    │   ├── repo1/                          # Repository copy
    │   ├── repo2/
    │   └── ...
    ├── backups/                            # All backup artifacts
    │   ├── backup_report_2026-02-28_15-30-45.json
    │   └── username_github_backup_2026-02-28_15-30-45.zip
    ├── config.json                          # Token file (automatically created)
    └── user_info.json                       # Your GitHub profile information

• Python: 3.8+ (standard library only, no external dependencies)
• Git: 2.20+
• Storage: depends on repository sizes
• Network: stable internet connection

1. Installation:

git clone https://github.com/smartlegionlab/github-repos-backup-tools.git
cd github-repos-backup-tools

2. First Run:

python app.py -r

On first run, the program will ask for your GitHub token and save it.

3. Get GitHub Token:

1. Go to GitHub Tokens
2. Select permissions: repo (full repository access), read:org (access to organization repositories)
3. Generate and copy the token

Usage Examples:

# Fast mode - only default branch (DEFAULT)
python app.py -r

# Full mode - ALL branches (slower but complete)
python app.py -r --all-branches

# Backup without archive
python app.py -r --no-archive

# With increased timeout
python app.py -r --timeout 60

# Update token
python app.py -t

# Backup with shutdown
python app.py -r --shutdown

Operation Modes:

Status Meanings in Logs:

Update Logic:

• Quick check: compare local commit date with GitHub pushed_at
• If difference > 5 minutes: compare actual commit hashes via ls-remote
• If hashes differ: perform git pull
• After pull: verify repository health with git rev-parse HEAD
• If corrupted: automatic re-clone with retries

• Token stored in ~/github_repos_backup_tools/[username]/config.json
• Uses HTTPS with token in URL (not transmitted in plain text)
• Path traversal attack protection
• No telemetry or third-party data transmission
• Token can be updated with -t command
• Archives contain ONLY repositories, no tokens or configs

• Gists not supported — utility works with repositories only
• Git required — must be installed on the system
• Token permissions — requires repo and read:org

Q: Authentication fails?

Verify token has repo and read:org permissions. Use -t to update.

Q: Clone timeout?

Increase timeout: --timeout 60

Q: Where is token stored?

In ~/github_repos_backup_tools/[username]/config.json

Q: Where are backups stored?

All archives and reports are in ~/github_repos_backup_tools/[username]/backups/

Q: What's in user_info.json?

Your GitHub profile information - login, name, email, repo counts, followers, etc.

Q: How to cancel scheduled shutdown?

shutdown -c (Linux/macOS) or shutdown /a (Windows)

• User profile export — saves GitHub user info to user_info.json
• Organized backups — all archives and reports in backups/ folder
• Cleaner archives — ZIP contains only repositories, no configs or tokens
• Improved structure — ~/github_repos_backup_tools/[username]/backups/
• Branch pruning — automatically removes local branches deleted on remote
• No SSH required — uses only HTTPS with token authentication
• Smart update — two-stage verification (date + hash) before pull
• Health checks — verifies repository integrity after each operation
• Automatic recovery — re-clones corrupted repositories
• Exponential backoff — up to 5 retries with increasing delays
• Two operation modes — Fast (default) and Full (--all-branches)

********************************************************************************
----------------------- GitHub Repositories Backup Tools -----------------------

🔧 Arguments Parsing:
   Backup: Repositories, Archive
   Timeout: 30s
   Branches: ⚡ Fast mode (default branch only)
   Power: ❌ No action

🔐 GitHub Authentication
   Found existing user: smartlegionlab
✅ Authenticated as: smartlegionlab

🔍 Scanning repositories...
   ✅ Found 52 repositories

📁 Backup location: /home/user/github_repos_backup_tools/smartlegionlab

[██████████████████████████████] 100.0% | 52/52/0 | SKIP | smartlegionlab/repo
✅ Repository processing complete!

============================================================
📋 BACKUP REPORT
============================================================
👤 User: smartlegionlab
⏱️  Duration: 0:05:18

📊 REPOSITORY STATISTICS:
   Total:           52 repositories
   ⏭️ Skipped:        52 repositories (no changes)
   ❌ Failed:          0 repositories

✅ Success rate: 100.0%
============================================================📦 Archive created: smartlegionlab_github_backup_2026-02-27_17-24-20.zip
   📊 Size: 15.19 MB
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----------------------- Copyright © 2026, Alexander Suvorov ------------------------
************************************************************************************

By using this software, you agree to the full disclaimer terms.

Software provided "AS IS" without warranty. You assume all risks.

Full legal disclaimer: See DISCLAIMER.md

License: BSD 3-Clause License