https://github.com/patrickdappollonio/gc-rust
Clone GitHub repositories like a champ!
https://github.com/patrickdappollonio/gc-rust
cloning github repository
Last synced: 9 months ago
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Clone GitHub repositories like a champ!
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/patrickdappollonio/gc-rust
- Owner: patrickdappollonio
- Created: 2024-06-13T20:10:02.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-01-25T23:17:58.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-01T03:51:21.319Z (10 months ago)
- Topics: cloning, github, repository
- Language: Rust
- Homepage:
- Size: 230 KB
- Stars: 3
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 2
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# `gc-rust` a GitHub clone helper
- [`gc-rust` a GitHub clone helper](#gc-rust-a-github-clone-helper)
- [Installation](#installation)
- [Usage](#usage)
- [Defining a location for the repositories](#defining-a-location-for-the-repositories)
- [Specifying a branch](#specifying-a-branch)
`gc-rust` is a tiny Rust application that allows you to clone GitHub repositories with ease to a predetermined location.
As a Go developer, I liked the idea that my code was organized using a `$GOPATH`, in the form of:
```bash
$HOME/go/src/github.com//
```
So I kept maintaining even non-Go projects in the same way.
This is where `gc-rust` comes in handy: Given a GitHub repository URL, it will perform the `git clone` operation by finding the appropriate location for the resulting folder.
For example, given the repository:
```bash
github.com/example/application
```
It will correctly create the folder structure so the repository is cloned to:
```bash
$HOME/go/src/github.com/example/application
```
You can configure the location where the repositories are cloned by setting the `$GC_DOWNLOAD_PATH` environment variable. [Instructions below](#defining-a-location-for-the-repositories).
If there was a preexistent folder in the location where the clone should happen, it will ask you if you want to overwrite it. **This will destroy any prior content in the destination folder!**
### Installation
Download a copy of the binary and place it anywhere in your `$PATH`. Downloads are available in the [releases page](https://www.github.com/patrickdappollonio/gc-rust/releases/latest).
If you have Homebrew installed on macOS or Linux, you can also install it via:
```bash
brew install patrickdappollonio/tap/gc-rust
```
### Usage
To clone a GitHub repository, you can use any of the following instructions:
```bash
gc-rust git@github.com:example/application.git
gc-rust github.com/example/application
gc-rust example/application
gc-rust https://github.com/example/application
gc-rust https://github.com/example/application/issues
gc-rust https://github.com/example/application/security/dependabot
gc-rust https://github.com/example/application/this/is/a/made/up/path
```
All of them will detect the repository as `github.com/example/application` and clone it to the correct location.
The output of `gc-rust` will all be printed to `stderr` with one exception: the folder location where it was cloned. This is useful if you want to create a function that both clones a repository and then `cd` into it:
```bash
function gc() {
if ! type "gc-rust" > /dev/null; then
echo -e "Install gc-rust first from github.com/patrickdappollonio/gc-rust"
exit 1
fi
cd "$(gc-rust "$@")" || return
}
```
With this in your `.bashrc` or `.bash_profile`, you can now simply run `gc` and it will clone the repository and `cd` into it:
```bash
$ pwd
/home/patrick/go/src/github.com/patrickdappollonio/gc-rust
$ gc https://github.com/patrickdappollonio/http-server
Cloning patrickdappollonio/http-server...
Cloning into '/home/patrick/Golang/src/github.com/patrickdappollonio/http-server'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 848, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (228/228), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (156/156), done.
remote: Total 848 (delta 183), reused 72 (delta 72), pack-reused 620 (from 1)
Receiving objects: 100% (848/848), 4.11 MiB | 17.99 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (469/469), done.
Successfully cloned patrickdappollonio/http-server into /home/patrick/Golang/src/github.com/patrickdappollonio/http-server
$ pwd
/home/patrick/go/src/github.com/patrickdappollonio/http-server
```
### Defining a location for the repositories
By default, **`gc-rust` will clone the repositories to the path defined in the environment variable `$GC_DOWNLOAD_PATH`**. If this variable is not set, it will use the `$GOPATH` environment variable since the original idea came from Go project management. If neither are defined you'll see an error.
### Specifying a branch
Contrary to what you might think, **`gc-rust` will not deduce a branch name from the URL**. Instead, it will clone using whatever branch is currently set as the default in the repository. If you want to clone a specific branch, you can do so by specifying the `-b` or `--branch` flag:
```bash
# this will clone `patrickdappollonio/http-server` into the `feature-branch` branch,
# and not the branch called `example` (as seen by the URL)
gc-rust https://github.com/patrickdappollonio/http-server/tree/example -b feature-branch
```