Importing an external Git repository using the command line

If your Git repository is stored on a code hosting service that is not accessible from the public internet, you can import the repository using Git on the command line.

Before you start, make sure you know:

  • Your GitHub username
  • The clone URL for the external repository, such as https://external-host.com/user/repo.git or git://external-host.com/user/repo.git (perhaps with a user@ in front of the external-host.com domain name)

For purposes of demonstration, we'll use:

  • An external account named extuser
  • An external Git host named https://external-host.com
  • A GitHub personal account named ghuser
  • A repository on GitHub.com named repo.git

  1. Create a new repository on GitHub. You'll import your external Git repository to this new repository.

  2. On the command line, make a "bare" clone of the external repository using the external clone URL. This creates a full copy of the data, but without a working directory for editing files, and ensures a clean, fresh export of all the old data.

    $ git clone --bare https://external-host.com/EXTUSER/REPO.git
# Makes a bare clone of the external repository in a local directory

  3. Push the locally cloned repository to GitHub using the "mirror" option, which ensures that all references, such as branches and tags, are copied to the imported repository.

    $ cd REPO.git
$ git push --mirror https://github.com/USER/REPO.git
# Pushes the mirror to the new repository on GitHub.com

  4. Remove the temporary local repository.

    cd ..
rm -rf REPO.git

If the repository you are importing contains large files, you may run into a warning or error. For more information on large files and how to manage them, see "About large files on GitHub."

Further reading