glone

Command-line utility for cloning all accessible GitLab repositories.

Description

glone connects to a GitLab instance via API, retrieves all accessible projects, and clones them to a local directory.

The tool preserves the original directory structure from GitLab (e.g., backend/tests/auth is cloned to target-dir/backend/tests/auth).

Installation

go

go install github.com/adzpm/glone@latest

Usage

glone [global options] clone [options] [directory]

Global Options

• --gitlab-host <host> - GitLab host (e.g., gitlab.com). Can be set via GITLAB_HOST environment variable.
• --gitlab-user <user> - GitLab username. Can be set via GITLAB_USER environment variable.
• --gitlab-token <token> - GitLab access token. Can be set via GITLAB_TOKEN environment variable.

Clone Command Options

• --group <group> - Clone repositories only from the specified group. Group path can include subgroups (e.g., backend/tests/).

Arguments

• [directory] - Target directory for cloning. If not specified, uses the current working directory.

Authentication

Authentication is performed in the following order:

1. Command-line flags - If --gitlab-host, --gitlab-user, and --gitlab-token are provided, they are used.
2. Environment variables - GITLAB_HOST, GITLAB_USER, GITLAB_TOKEN are checked.
3. .netrc file - If credentials are not provided via flags or environment variables, the tool attempts to load them from ~/.netrc.

.netrc Format

The tool searches for machine entries containing "gitlab" in the name (case-insensitive). The first matching entry is used. If multiple entries are found, a warning is displayed and the first one is used.

Example .netrc entry:

machine gitlab.com
login username
password access_token

The machine name is used as the GitLab host. If empty, defaults to gitlab.com.

Exit Codes

• 0 - Success
• Non-zero - Error occurred

Limitations

• Only supports HTTP/HTTPS cloning (not SSH).
• Requires GitLab API access token with appropriate permissions.
• Does not handle repository updates (only clones if directory doesn't exist or is not a git repository).
• No filtering by project visibility, archived status, or other attributes beyond group membership.