ghdump

Purpose

Clone all of a GitHub user's repositories, or download them as zip files (and optionally unzip them). Intended for archiving purposes or setting up on a new computer.

Using {ghdump}

Note that the package does what I need it to do, but is not fully tested for all systems and set-ups. Please file an issue or raise a pull request if you have a problem or contribution. You can also learn more about this package from an associated blog post.

The {gitcellar} package later appeared on rOpenSci by Maëlle Salmon and Jeroen Ooms. They're very smart, so you might want to check it out. It has a keep function that allows you to select only certain repos ({ghdump} doesn't have this feature).

Install

You can install {ghdump} from GitHub with:

install.packages("remotes")  # if not yet installed
remotes::install_github("matt-dray/ghdump")

GitHub PAT

You'll need a GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) to use {ghdump}.

Assuming you have a GitHub account, generate a token for accessing the GitHub API and store this in your .Renviron file. The {usethis} package helps make this a breeze. Read more in the Happy Git and GitHub for the useR book by Jenny Bryan, the STAT 545 TAs and Jim Hester.

usethis::browse_github_pat()  # opens browser to generate token
usethis::edit_r_environ()     # add your token to the .Renviron

Make sure to restart R after these steps.

Use ghd_copy()

{ghdump} has one exported function: ghd_copy(). Pass to the function a GitHub user name, a local directory to download into, and whether you want to download or clone the repos. If you want to clone, you must specify the protocol (make sure your keys are set up if specifying SSH).

To clone:

ghdump::ghd_copy(
  gh_user = "matt-dray",  # user whose repos to download
  dest_dir = "~/Documents/repos",  # where to copy to
  copy_type = "clone",  # 'clone' or 'download' the repos
  protocol = "https"  # 'https' or 'ssh'
)

To download:

ghdump::ghd_copy(
  gh_user = "matt-dray",
  dest_dir = "~/Documents/repos",
  copy_type = "download"
)

The function is designed to be used interactively and infrequently. To this end, the user is prompted throughout as to whether to:

• create a new local directory with the provided 'dest_dir' argument
• commit to cloning all the repos (if copy_type = "clone")
• commit to downloading all zip files (if copy_type = "download") and then whether to:
  • unzip all the files
  • retain the zip files
  • rename the unzipped directories to remove the default branch suffix (e.g. '-master')

Credits

The function interacts with the GitHub API thanks to the {gh} package by Gábor Csárdi, Jenny Bryan and Hadley Wickham. Iteration is thanks to the {purrr} package by Lionel Henry and Hadley Wickham. The {cli} package by Gábor Csárdi allowed for a prettier user interface.

The {ghdump} package sticker was made thanks to Dmytro Perepolkin's {bunny} package and the {magick} package from Jeroen Ooms.

Code of Conduct

Please note that the {ghdump} project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.