iagitup

Archive git repositories to the Internet Archive.

iagitup clones a git repository from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Codeberg, or any HTTPS git URL, creates a portable git bundle, and uploads it to the Internet Archive with rich metadata. GitHub repos get full API metadata; all other platforms extract metadata from the local git history. If the repository has a wiki (GitHub only), that is bundled and uploaded too. A companion command, archive-watchlist, continuously archives the most-starred repositories on GitHub -- either all-time, by recency (--days), or within a custom date range (--since/--until).

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Features

• Multi-platform support -- GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Codeberg, self-hosted Gitea/Forgejo, and any HTTPS git URL.
• Full-fidelity snapshots -- every branch, tag, and ref is preserved in a single git bundle.
• Git LFS support -- LFS-enabled repos are detected automatically; large file objects are fetched and archived alongside the bundle.
• Wiki archiving -- wiki repositories are detected and bundled automatically (GitHub only).
• Rich IA metadata -- description, README, topics, language, stars, and more are attached to each item. GitHub repos get full API metadata; other platforms extract metadata from git history.
• Duplicate prevention -- two layers (local state cache + IA item check) ensure the same snapshot is never uploaded twice.
• Bulk archiving -- archive-watchlist fetches and archives the top-N most-starred GitHub repos on a schedule, with --days, --since, and --until filters for trending repos.
• Parallel workers -- configurable concurrency for bulk runs.
• Custom metadata -- pass extra key:value pairs to enrich any upload.

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Installation

From PyPI

pip install iagitup

This installs two commands: iagitup and archive-watchlist.

From source

git clone https://github.com/gdamdam/iagitup.git
cd iagitup
pip install .

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, or 3.13
• git on $PATH
• git-lfs on $PATH (optional — needed to archive LFS objects; repos are still archived without it, but LFS pointers won't resolve)
• An Internet Archive account
• HTTPS URLs are required (SSH user@host:path syntax is not supported)
• For non-GitHub platforms, standard git authentication applies (credential helpers, ~/.netrc, etc.)

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Quick Start

Archive a single repository

# GitHub
iagitup https://github.com/torvalds/linux
GitLab
iagitup https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape
Bitbucket
iagitup https://bitbucket.org/berkeleylab/upcxx
Codeberg
iagitup https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo
Any HTTPS git URL
iagitup https://git.example.com/org/project

:: Downloading https://github.com/torvalds/linux ...
:: Cloning https://github.com/torvalds/linux.git ...
:: Uploading bundle: torvalds-linux_-_2026-02-28_10-00-00.bundle
:: Upload FINISHED.
   Identifier:          github.com-torvalds-linux_-_2026-02-28_10-00-00
   Archived repository: https://archive.org/details/github.com-torvalds-linux_-_2026-02-28_10-00-00
   Git bundle:          https://archive.org/download/github.com-torvalds-linux_-_2026-02-28_10-00-00/torvalds-linux_-_2026-02-28_10-00-00.bundle

Bulk-archive top starred repos

# Preview the top 10 without uploading
archive-watchlist --dry-run --top-n 10
Full run with 8 parallel workers
archive-watchlist --workers 8
Archive the most-starred repos created in the last 7 days
archive-watchlist --days 7
Archive repos created in a specific date range
archive-watchlist --since 2025-01-01 --until 2025-06-30
Archive repos created since a specific date
archive-watchlist --since 2025-06-01
Preview trending repos from the last month
archive-watchlist --days 30 --dry-run --top-n 20

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Usage

iagitup

iagitup [options] <repo_url>

Flag	Short	Default	Description
repo_url	--	(required)	Git repository URL to archive (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or any HTTPS git URL)
--metadata	-m	--	Custom metadata fields (see Custom Metadata)
--version	-v	--	Print version and exit

archive-watchlist

archive-watchlist [options]

Flag	Default	Description
--top-n N	100	Number of top repositories to fetch and check (max 100)
--days N	(all-time)	Only consider repos created within the last N days
--since DATE	--	Only consider repos created on or after DATE (YYYY-MM-DD)
--until DATE	--	Only consider repos created on or before DATE (YYYY-MM-DD)
--workers N	4	Number of parallel archive workers
--dry-run	off	Preview what would be archived -- no uploads, no state changes
--state-file PATH	./watchlist_state.json	Path to the persistent state cache
--version / -v	--	Print version and exit

Examples:

# Use a custom state file
archive-watchlist --state-file /var/lib/iagitup/state.json
Archive trending repos from the past week
archive-watchlist --days 7
Archive repos from a date range with a custom state file
archive-watchlist --since 2025-01-01 --until 2025-12-31 --state-file /var/lib/iagitup/state.json
Combine with top-n for a quick daily trending sweep
archive-watchlist --days 1 --top-n 20 --dry-run

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Configuration

GitHub Authentication (GitHub repos only)

Unauthenticated GitHub API calls are rate-limited to 60 requests/hour. Set GITHUB_TOKEN to raise this to 5,000/hour:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here
iagitup https://github.com/user/repo

Generate a token at https://github.com/settings/tokens -- no specific scopes are required for public repositories.

Internet Archive Credentials

On first run, if no credentials are found, iagitup will prompt you to run ia configure interactively. Credentials are stored in ~/.ia or ~/.config/ia.ini and reused on subsequent runs.

You can also configure them manually:

ia configure

Or create ~/.ia directly:

[s3]
access = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
secret = YOUR_SECRET_KEY

Find your keys at https://archive.org/account/s3.php.

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Custom Metadata

Pass additional Internet Archive metadata fields as comma-separated key:value pairs:

iagitup --metadata="subject:python;cli,creator:myorg" https://github.com/user/repo

Custom fields are merged into the default metadata. Any key that matches a default field will override it.

Default metadata fields

Field	Value
mediatype	software
collection	open_source_software
creator	GitHub owner login
title	IA item identifier
date	Last push date (YYYY-MM-DD)
year	Last push year
subject	{Platform};code;software;git (e.g. GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
originalurl	Repository URL
pushed_date	Full push timestamp (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
uploaded_with	iagitup-vX.X.X
description	HTML: repo description + README + restore instructions

Extra fields added by archive-watchlist

Field	Value
stars_count	Stargazer count at time of archive
forks_count	Fork count
watchers_count	Watcher count
language	Primary programming language
topics	Semicolon-joined topic list
github_rank	Position in the top-N list
subject	Extended: base tags + language + topics

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How It Works

Single repository (iagitup)

1. Fetches metadata -- for GitHub repos, from the GitHub API (pushed_at, description, owner, etc.); for all other platforms, from the local git history after cloning.
2. Checks for duplicates -- the IA item identifier is derived from the platform hostname, repo name, and pushed_at timestamp ({platform}-{owner}-{repo}_-_{YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS}). If an item with that identifier already exists, iagitup exits early.
3. Clones the repository in full (all branches and tags).
4. Downloads the owner's avatar as a cover image (cover.jpg), concurrently with wiki cloning (GitHub only; skipped for other platforms).
5. Creates git bundles (git bundle create --all) for the repository and, if present, the wiki.
6. Builds an HTML description from the repo description, README (.md or .txt), and restore instructions.
7. Uploads the bundle(s) and cover image to the Internet Archive.

Each archived repository becomes a single IA item containing:

File	Description
<bundle_name>.bundle	Full git bundle (all branches + tags)
cover.jpg	Repository owner's avatar
<bundle_name>_wiki.bundle	Wiki git bundle (if wiki exists)
<bundle_name>_lfs.tar.gz	Git LFS objects (if repo uses LFS)

Bulk archiving (archive-watchlist)

1. Fetches the top-N repos from the GitHub Search API (sorted by stars, optionally filtered by --days, --since, or --until).
2. Compares each repo's pushed_at against a local state cache.
3. Skips unchanged repos instantly (no network, no IA call).
4. Archives new or updated repos via iagitup, enriched with popularity metadata.
5. Repos are processed in parallel across a configurable worker pool.
6. State is saved to disk after each archive -- a crash mid-run loses at most one item.

Duplicate prevention

Two independent layers prevent the same snapshot from being uploaded twice:

Layer	Where	How
Local cache	archive_watchlist.py	Compares pushed_at to the state file -- instant skip, zero network traffic
IA item check	iagitup.upload_ia	Checks item.exists on IA before any heavy work -- safe even if the state file is deleted

A new push changes pushed_at, generates a new IA item identifier, and triggers a fresh archive -- preserving the full history of snapshots.

Cron setup

Add to your crontab (crontab -e) to run daily at 03:00:

0 3 * * * archive-watchlist >> watchlist.log 2>&1

Set GITHUB_TOKEN in the cron environment to avoid rate limiting:

GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here
0 3 * * * archive-watchlist >> watchlist.log 2>&1

State file

The state file (watchlist_state.json) tracks the last-seen snapshot of each repository:

{
  "owner/repo": {
    "pushed_at": "2026-02-01T12:00:00Z",
    "archived_at": "2026-02-02T03:00:00Z",
    "ia_identifier": "github.com-owner-repo_-_2026-02-01_12-00-00",
    "stars": 470000
  }
}

To force a re-archive of a specific repo, delete its entry from the file or change pushed_at to an old value.

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Restoring an Archived Repository

1. Find the .bundle file in the archived IA item.
2. Download it:

wget https://archive.org/download/<identifier>/<bundle>.bundle

3. Clone from the bundle:

git clone <bundle>.bundle my-repo

All branches and tags are preserved in the bundle.

Restoring LFS objects

If the archived item includes an _lfs.tar.gz file:

cd my-repo
wget https://archive.org/download/<identifier>/<bundle>_lfs.tar.gz
mkdir -p .git/lfs
tar -xzf <bundle>_lfs.tar.gz -C .git/
git lfs install
git lfs checkout

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or submit a pull request at https://github.com/gdamdam/iagitup.

The project uses GitHub Actions and GitLab CI for automated testing across Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, and 3.13.

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License

GPLv3 -- Copyright (C) 2018-2026 Giovanni Damiola

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0 as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.