git-activity-exporter

🟩 Export commit activity (and nothing else) from a source repo to a new repo

Installation

git clone git@github.com:thesofakillers/git-activity-exporter.git # clone
cd git-activity-exporter                                          # change directory
cmake .                                                           # prepare build
make install                                                      # install

Usage

Usage: git-activity-exporter [options]

Options:
--source=<source>            Required. The path to the source repository
--target=<target>            Required. The path to the target repository
--author=<author>            Optional. The author of the commits. Defaults to ""
--commit_message=<message>   Optional. The commit message. Defaults to ""
--branches=<branches>        Optional. The branches to copy commits from.
                                        Space separated list of branches.
                                        Defaults to the current branch and its parents

WARNING: this isn't very well tested 😅. I would suggest making a backup of your source repo before using this tool.

Why

Scenario 1

You work at company, which uses GitLab to host their git repositories. You are about to leave the company. Before you leave, you'd like your commits to show on your GitHub contributions graph. You'd rather not simply copy the company repository to your personal GitHub account, because you don't own it.

Instead, with git-activity-exporter, you copy your commit dates from the company repository to a new repository. These commits are blank and contain no information. You can push this new repository to your personal GitHub account, without worrying about any sensitive information being leaked.

Scenario 2

You share a repo with a team. At one point as a team you (for some reaosn) decide that instead of making new repositories that import the repo, you will simply make branches, one for every user. Your work in your branch does not show up on your contributions graph.

If you simply make a clone repo of your branch and set your branch as default in that repo, your commits in the main branch get double-counted. If instead you export only the commits from your branch with git-activity-exporter, you can cleanly show your activity in your branch without double-counting your previous contributions before branching.