repository-sync is a tool designed to keep two repositories—one private, one public—entirely in sync. Private commits are squashed into a single commit to avoid leaking information. Similarly, every public commit is brought over to the private repository, so that none of the history is lost.
First, deploy this code to a hosting environment such as Heroku.
Alternatively, you can use docker-compose (the app will listen on port 4567):
docker-compose build
docker-compose updocker-compose expects a .env with environment variables properly configured. See the environment variables available defined below. For example:
GITHUB.COM_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
GITHUB.ACME.COM_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN=bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
MACHINE_USER_EMAIL=my.email@acme.com
MACHINE_USER_NAME="GitHub Sync"
RACK_ENV=production
REDISTOGO_URL=redis://redis:6379/
SECRET_TOKEN=cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc
Next, you'll need to set a few environment variables:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
SECRET_TOKEN |
Required. This establishes a private token to secure your payloads. This token is used to verify that the payload came from GitHub. |
DOTCOM_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN |
Required. This is the access token the server will act as when syncing between the repositories. |
MACHINE_USER_EMAIL |
Required. The Git email address of your machine user. |
MACHINE_USER_NAME |
Required. The Git author name of your machine user. |
On your private repository, set a webhook to point to the /sync?sync_method=squash endpoint.
Pass in one more parameter, dest_repo, the name of the public repository to update. It might look like:
http://repository-sync.someserver.com/sync?sync_method=squash&dest_repo=ourorg/public
Don't forget to fill out the Secret field with your secret token!
On your public repository, set a webhook to point to the /sync?sync_method=merge endpoint.
Pass in just one parameter, dest_repo, the name of the private repository to update. It might look like:
http://repository-sync.someserver.com/sync?dest_repo=ourorg/private
Don't forget to fill out the Secret field with your secret token!
You'll notice these two endpoints are practically the same. They are! The only difference is the value of the sync_method parameter. When hitting an endpoint with the sync_method=squash path parameter, this tool will perform a --squash merge to hide the commit history.
There is a third, highly experimental, sync method. sync_method=replace_contents will completely remove the public repository contents and replace them with the contents of the private repository. Its use is not recommended.
First, deploy this code to Heroku (or some other server you own).
Next, you'll need to set a few environment variables:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
SECRET_TOKEN |
Required. This establishes a private token to secure your payloads. This token is used to verify that the payload came from GitHub. |
DOTCOM_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN |
Required. This is the access token the server will act as when syncing between the repositories. |
GHE_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN |
Required. This is the access token the server will act as when syncing between the repositories, generated on your GitHub Enterprise instance. |
MACHINE_USER_EMAIL |
Required. The Git email address of your machine user. |
MACHINE_USER_NAME |
Required. The Git author name of your machine user. |
On your private repository, set a webhook to point to the /sync endpoint.
Pass in just one parameter, dest_repo, the name of the public repository to update. It might look like http://repository-sync.someserver.com/sync?sync_method=squash&dest_repo=ourorg/public. Don't forget to fill out the Secret field with your secret token!
On your public repository, set a webhook to point to the /sync endpoint.
Pass in two parameters:
dest_repo, the name of the private repository to updatedestination_hostname, the hostname of your GitHub Enterprise installation
It might look like:
http://repository-sync.someserver.com/sync?dest_repo=ourorg/private&destination_hostname=our.ghe.io
Don't forget to fill out the Secret field with your secret token!
You'll notice these two endpoints are practically the same. They are! The only difference is
that, when hitting an endpoint with the squash path parameter, this tool will perform a --squash merge to hide the commit history.
First, deploy this code to Heroku (or some other server you own).
Next, you'll need to set a few environment variables:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
SECRET_TOKEN |
Required. This establishes a private token to secure your payloads. This token is used to verify that the payload came from GitHub. |
GHE_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN |
Required. This is the access token the server will act as when syncing between the repositories, generated on your GitHub Enterprise instance. |
MACHINE_USER_EMAIL |
Required. The Git email address of your machine user. |
MACHINE_USER_NAME |
Required. The Git author name of your machine user. |
On your private repository, set a webhook to point to the /sync endpoint.
Pass in two parameters:
dest_repo, the name of the public repository to updatedestination_hostname, the hostname of your GitHub Enterprise installation
It might look like:
http://repository-sync.someserver.com/sync?sync_method=squash&dest_repo=ourorg/public&destination_hostname=our.ghe.io
Don't forget to fill out the Secret field with your secret token!
On your public repository, set a webhook to point to the /sync endpoint.
Pass in two parameters:
dest_repo, the name of the private repository to updatedestination_hostname, the hostname of your GitHub Enterprise installation
It might look like:
http://repository-sync.someserver.com/sync?dest_repo=ourorg/private&destination_hostname=our.ghe.io
Don't forget to fill out the Secret field with your secret token!
To synchronize GitHub Enterprise repositories across different GitHub Enterprise instances, follow the previous guide but configure the machine token like this:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
GHE1HOSTNAME_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN |
Required. This is the access token the server will act as when syncing between the repositories, generated on the first GitHub Enterprise instance. In the variable name, replace GHE1HOSTNAME by the hostname of the first Github Enterprise instance (eg GITHUB1.MYCOMPANY.COM). |
GHE2HOSTNAME_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN |
Required. A second access token, generated on the second GitHub Enterprise instance. In the variable name, replace GHE2HOSTNAME by the hostname of the second Github Enterprise instance (eg GITHUB2.MYCOMPANY.COM). |
In that case, GHE_MACHINE_USER_TOKEN variable is not used.
Believe it or not, there are a few more environment variables you can set! These determine the text used by repository-sync when creating commit messages and pull requests. They are also dependent on the name of the destination repository. All of these values are optional.
For the examples below, we'll assuming repository-sync is committing into a repository called gjtorikian/this-test. Because environment variables cannot use the / or - characters, you must substitute those characters in the repository name as _. The repository name should also be capitalized. Using our example repository, that would mean a prefix of GJTORIKIAN_THIS_TEST.
-
#{safe_destination_repo}_COMMIT_MESSAGE: This determines the commit message to use when committing into your public repository. Example:GJTORIKIAN_THIS_TEST_COMMIT_MESSAGE. -
#{safe_destination_repo}_PR_TITLE: This determines the title of the PR that's opened into either repository. Example:GJTORIKIAN_THIS_TEST_PR_TITLE. The default string is'Sync changes from upstream repository'. -
#{safe_destination_repo}_PR_BODY: This determines the body text of the PR that's opened into either repository. Example:GJTORIKIAN_THIS_TEST_PR_BODY. The default string is a listing of the added, modified, and removed files in the PR.
If, instead of a new pull request, you'd like repository-sync to just merge straight into a branch, pass in the default_branch option to the webhook URL. For example, it might look like:
http://repository-sync.someserver.com/sync?dest_repo=ourorg/public&default_branch=master