Git Auto Backup Tool

A basic CLI program and python module that allows for quickly making and comming changes to a git repository, along with a few other tools. Use it from the command line or import it as a module, it works both ways!

Setup

First off, this script uses the GitPython module, so ensure that you have a compatable version of git installed on you system so that GitPython can interface with it properly. For more info look here.

If not installed via pip, than the requirements for this script must be installed in the python environment. This script requires the git python module be available in you python environment in order to run. This can also use the argparse module optionally to help greatly increase the usability on the command line (and is highly suggested). These can be installed using:

pip install gitautobackup[cli]

or if you just want the module without the extra cli overhead (not suggested):

pip install gitautobackup

If you prefer to have this as a standalone file and are sure that you have all dependences satisfied in some way you can also simply clone this repo into your project and import the gitautobackup.py file locally.

Please note that if this is the method you use to ensure that the path is specified as if not it will default to the current terminal working directory which if set to the location of the clone of this repository will result in making a commit to this project's clone. I only say this as this is a mistake I have made myself quite a few times.

Command Line Interface

Depending on how you set up this file on your system, you can run this module using python -m gitautobackup if you set it up using pip, or python ./gitautobackup.py or py ./gitautobackup.py if you have the gitautobackup file locally.

While this module does not explicitly require the argparse module, it is highly suggested as it help greatly improve the usability and allows acess to more options. If in doubt just install argparse if you can.

With argparse

This module does not have any required arguments, as everything does have a default behaviour. The most importnant thing to note is that when not supplied with the path of the git repository, it attempts to deduce the location of a git repository (by testing if the directory is able to be loaded as a git repository) from (in this specific order):

1. The console's current working direcory
2. The directory given in the 0th arg of the command line (aka sys.argv[0]'s lowest directory)
3. The location of this file itself For those wanting to acess this logic when using this a a module the get_default_git_location() function will return this value.

Here are a few of the possible arguments to use:

• -p / --path specifies the repository path
• -m / --message specifies the commit's message.
• -t / --tag sets a tag for the commit
• -a / --archive / --archive_path sets a path for a archive file to be made. If this isn't used a archive file will not be made.
• -f / --force / --force_commit makes a commit be made even if nothing was changed
• --fc / --force_cleanup forces the repository's database to always be cleaned, even if its not really necessary. This cannot be combined with --fnc or --fca
• --fnc / --force_no_cleanup forces the repository's database to never be cleaned, even if it might be beneficial. This cannot be combined with --fc or --fca
• --fca / --force_cleanup_aggressive forces the repository's database cleaned aggressively (taking a much longer time), even if its not necessary. This cannot be combined with --fc or --fnc
• -v / --verbose makes the output of the program more noisy. This cannot be combined with -q
• -q / --quiet greatly reduces the output of the program. This cannot be combined with -v

There are also the traditional arguments that report various information about this software then exit:

• --ver / --version prints the program version and then exits. You don't need a input file if you run this command.
• -h / --help prints some details about the programs arguments and then exits. You don't need a input file if you run this command.
• --git / --github prints a like to the github repository and then exits. You don't need a input file if you run this command.

Without argparse

While using this on the command line without argparse is not suggested, you may still access a diminished selection of features: only the -m, --message, -p, --path, --help and -h flags work.

Command Line Interface Example

If argparse is available:

python -m gitautobackup -p "./repo" -m "automatic backup after big change" -f -fc -v

If argparse is not available:

python -m gitautobackup -p "./repo" -m "automatic backup after big change"

Module Interface

This module can also be interfaced with as a normal module. The points of intreast include the main function for interfacing with this just like it was the command line (this means parsing the arguments, meaning that the features outlined in the Command Line Interface section above), and the main_cli command for a more direct ussage of the command. While both can manage to acheave the same result its suggested to use main_cli unless there is a specific reason to use main.

More information about this module can be found in the main file as all functions have been documented in there.

Module Example

from gitautobackup import main_cli

myrepopath = "./project/repo/" #this assumes the folder "./project/repo/" has a already initialised non bare git repository already.

if main_cli(myrepopath, commit_message = "Automatic Backup No. 1", force_commit = True):
  print("Backup successful")
else:
  print("Backup failure")

Licence

This is licenced under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0) Licence. See the Licence file in this repository for more information.

Credits

This project uses the pathlib (or alternatively pathlib2 if pathlib2 is available to import and pathlib is not), GitPython and optionally argparse modules, all very usefull python modules. Check them out if you want to make a simple CLI script like this, or for whatever else you might be up to in python. Also thank you to the developers of these modules for making these as they helped keep my sanity in check.

While not required, feel free to credit "Markus Hammer" (or just "Markus") if you find this code or script usefull for whatever you may be doing with it.

Thanks!