Duplicating a repository

To maintain a mirror of a repository without forking it, you can run a special clone command, then mirror-push to the new repository.

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If you have a project hosted on another Git-based hosting service, you can automatically import your project to GitHub using the GitHub Importer tool. For more information, see "About GitHub Importer."

Before you can push the original repository to your new copy, or mirror, of the repository, you must create the new repository on GitHub.com. In these examples, exampleuser/new-repository or exampleuser/mirrored are the mirrors.

Mirroring a repository

  1. Open TerminalTerminalGit Bash.

  2. Create a bare clone of the repository.

    git clone --bare https://github.com/EXAMPLE-USER/OLD-REPOSITORY.git

  3. Mirror-push to the new repository.

    cd OLD-REPOSITORY
git push --mirror https://github.com/EXAMPLE-USER/NEW-REPOSITORY.git

  4. Remove the temporary local repository you created earlier.

    cd ..
rm -rf OLD-REPOSITORY

Mirroring a repository that contains Git Large File Storage objects

  1. Open TerminalTerminalGit Bash.

  2. Create a bare clone of the repository. Replace the example username with the name of the person or organization who owns the repository, and replace the example repository name with the name of the repository you'd like to duplicate.

    git clone --bare https://github.com/EXAMPLE-USER/OLD-REPOSITORY.git

  3. Navigate to the repository you just cloned.

    cd OLD-REPOSITORY

  4. Pull in the repository's Git Large File Storage objects.

    git lfs fetch --all

  5. Mirror-push to the new repository.

    git push --mirror https://github.com/EXAMPLE-USER/NEW-REPOSITORY.git

  6. Push the repository's Git Large File Storage objects to your mirror.

    git lfs push --all https://github.com/EXAMPLE-USER/NEW-REPOSITORY.git

  7. Remove the temporary local repository you created earlier.

    cd ..
rm -rf OLD-REPOSITORY

Mirroring a repository in another location

If you want to mirror a repository in another location, including getting updates from the original, you can clone a mirror and periodically push the changes.

  1. Open TerminalTerminalGit Bash.

  2. Create a bare mirrored clone of the repository.

    git clone --mirror https://github.com/EXAMPLE-USER/REPOSITORY-TO-MIRROR.git

  3. Set the push location to your mirror.

    cd REPOSITORY-TO-MIRROR
git remote set-url --push origin https://github.com/EXAMPLE-USER/MIRRORED

    As with a bare clone, a mirrored clone includes all remote branches and tags, but all local references will be overwritten each time you fetch, so it will always be the same as the original repository. Setting the URL for pushes simplifies pushing to your mirror.

  4. To update your mirror, fetch updates and push.

    git fetch -p origin
git push --mirror

Further reading