Installing the command-line executable

Assuming you have Rust/Cargo installed, run this command in a terminal:

cargo install gh-export

It will make the gh-export command available in your PATH if you've allowed the PATH to be modified when installing Rust. cargo uninstall gh-export uninstalls.

Back to the crate overview.

Readme

gh-export

A fast and reliable GitHub repository exporter written in Rust. Export all repositories from a GitHub user account with a single command.

Features

Fast parallel downloads - Clone multiple repositories concurrently
Smart sync - Update existing clones instead of re-downloading
Progress tracking - Real-time progress bars for all operations
Secure token storage - Tokens stored with proper file permissions
Flexible filtering - Include/exclude archived repos, forks, and more
Resume capability - Handles interruptions gracefully
Rate limit handling - Respects GitHub's API limits

Installation

From source

git clone https://github.com/guitaripod/gh-export
cd gh-export
cargo install --path .

From crates.io

cargo install gh-export

Quick Start

First run - Interactive setup:

gh-export

The tool will guide you through:

Creating a GitHub personal access token
Configuring the output directory
Starting the export

Subsequent runs - Uses saved configuration:

gh-export

Usage

Basic Commands

# Export all repositories (interactive setup on first run)
gh-export

# Export with explicit token
gh-export --token YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN

# Export to specific directory
gh-export --output /path/to/backup

# Sync existing repositories
gh-export sync

# Show last export status
gh-export status

Configuration Management

# Show current configuration
gh-export config show

# Set configuration values
gh-export config set token YOUR_TOKEN
gh-export config set output /new/path
gh-export config set parallel 6

# Clear configuration
gh-export config clear

Advanced Options

# Include archived repositories
gh-export --include-archived

# Exclude forked repositories
gh-export --exclude-forks

# Shallow clone (faster, no history)
gh-export --shallow

# Adjust parallel downloads (default: 4)
gh-export --parallel 8

# Filter repositories by name
gh-export --filter "rust"

# Quiet mode
gh-export --quiet

# Verbose logging
gh-export --verbose

GitHub Token

You'll need a GitHub personal access token with appropriate permissions:

Go to GitHub Settings → Tokens
Click "Generate new token" → "Generate new token (classic)"
Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "gh-export")
Select scopes:
- repo - Full control of private repositories (includes public)
- public_repo - Access to public repositories only
Click "Generate token" and copy it

Directory Structure

Repositories are organized by username:

output_directory/
├── username/
│   ├── repo1/
│   ├── repo2/
│   └── .gh-export-metadata.json

Configuration

Configuration is stored in:

Linux/macOS: ~/.config/gh-export/config.toml
Windows: %APPDATA%\gh-export\config.toml

Example configuration:

github_token = "ghp_..."
output_directory = "/home/user/github-backup"
parallel_downloads = 4
include_archived = false
exclude_forks = false
shallow_clone = false

Environment Variables

GITHUB_TOKEN - GitHub personal access token (overrides config file)

Building from Source

Requirements:

Rust 1.70 or later
Git

git clone https://github.com/guitaripod/gh-export
cd gh-export
cargo build --release

The binary will be in target/release/gh-export.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.