git-repo-move 1.0.1

Move files from one git repo to another, preserving history

git-repo-move

Move files from one git repo to another, preserving history! Under the hood, this utility uses git filter-branch, but the API is much more user friendly.

How-To

Install

pip install git-repo-move

Build Locally

poetry build

Run It

If you've already installed in via pip, it's really easy to use. The program is called git-repo-move. You can also checkout the source and build locally by running:

poetry install --no-dev

Select Files and Directories

Select what files you want to keep by specifying:

--file path/to/file.txt --file path/to/another_file.txt

and what directories you want to keep by specifying:

--directory path/to/subfolder --directory path/to_another subfolder

Select the Final Directory for the Files

Optionally, specify the final directory for the files

--final_directory newpath/to/thefiles

Select Directory Structure

You can either flatten all files or keep the original directory structure

--directory-structure <FLAT|ORIGINAL>

For example:

--file path/to/file.txt --final-directory newpath/to/thefiles --directory-structure FLAT

file.txt will end up at newpath/to/thefiles/flat.txt

--file path/to/file.txt --final-directory newpath/to/thefiles --directory-structure ORIGINAL

file.txt will end up at newpath/to/thefiles/path/to/file.txt

Specify the Git Remote URL of the Destination Repo

You can run git remote -v to get a list of remote URLs.

--git-remote-url [e-mail]:AlanRosenthal/git-repo-move.git

Specify the Git Branch Name

Remember this branch will used on both repos.

--git-branch move_files

Save Shell Script

This utility generates a shell script. By default, the script will be saved in the root of the repo with the name git-repo-move.sh.

You can change the default name by specifying

--shell-script-name best-script-ever.sh

It is recommended to include the generated shell script on your PR.

Optionally, don't save a shell script by specifying the --dont-save-shell-script flag.

Try It Out

This utility uses git-filter-branch which is relatively slow, especially for large repos. It usually takes a few attempts to specify the correct files and directories.

By specifying the --try-keep flag, git-repo-move will move the specified files into a folder. Inspect that folder to ensure everything is correct.

Execute

By specifying the --execute flag, the generated script will be executed.

Example

We're using click for the example.

We want to save src/click/formatting.py and src/click/parser.py and have them end up in the folder alan/click.

Running the command:

git-repo-move --file click/formatting.py --file src/click/formatting.py --file click/parser.py --file src/click/parser.py --final_directory alan/click --directory-structure flat --git-remote-url [e-mail]:AlanRosenthal/git-repo-move.git --git-branch move_files_example --execute

Note: We're including click/formatting.py & src/click/formatting.py and click/parser.py & src/click/parser.py. Files were moved from click to src/click. git-blame knows how to capture files history across moves, but git-filter-branch does not.

As you can see, the move_files_example branch has contains two files, formatting.py and parser.py. Both files contain the history from their original repo.