To git lovers - looking for auto-sync app
reddit / selfhosted

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usrdef · 2023-10-03 08:11

Has anyone come across any type of program / docker image that allows
for you to specify a folder on your server, and automatically upload
that folder to a defined git repo on a set timer that can be modified?

I've love to be same to just define a folder, define the repo, give it
my Github token, and then every hour or whatever I choose, it just
pushes those files right to the repo without any interaction by me.

I could make a bash script to do it, but I hate messing with crons,
and if there's something already out there, why re-invent the wheel.

Spent a few hours poking around on Github for scripts, but the ones I
found seem old as hell (like 8 years), and haven't been touched by the
developer.

Bonus if the script works for any Git repo (like Gitea).

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NikStalwart · 2023-10-03 08:28

I think a program or a docker container for this is too heavy-handed
and likely isn't appropriate to your individual usecase.

> cron

Cron is outdated these days: the new game in town is systemd timers.
[Archwiki has good
documentation](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Timers).
Just set up a simple unit file that runs git commit && git push, and
set up the timer.

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usrdef · 2023-10-03 08:35

Interesting, I'll look into this.

Right now I'm on Ubuntu, and I absolutely hate using crons. They're an
astronomical pain in the ass.

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ElevenNotes · 2023-10-03 09:02

I think using Ubuntu is more the problem here than cron.

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usrdef · 2023-10-03 12:15

I've been with crons on a number of distros, and they just aren't fun
in general.

Years ago on web design, crons were used for every damn job. One
program I was developing had over 70. And they all had to play nice
each other.

I've seen distros "Duplicate" crons, where you'll have only the one
cron registered, yet the system caches the crons and won't stop them.
I've had them just flat out not fire. There's just a slew of things
crons can fuck up with on any system. And it's about damn time they
were phased out.

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ElevenNotes · 2023-10-03 18:22

Just use Alpine Linux.

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xkcd__386 · 2023-10-04 10:31

splitting your question into two parts...

-   what to run: what you're asking for is literally 3 (very short)
shell commands: `git add -A; git commit -m whatever; git push`

-   when to run it: crontab syntax is not very user-friendly but other
than that, I don't see a problem with cron, but if you're more
comfortable with systemd that achives the same thing

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usrdef · 2023-10-04 13:00

Yeah, I've always "thought" that doing the commits would be easy.
However, I've worked at this a few times, and there always ends up
being some type of issue.

I also gpg sign, and at random I'll get errors about not being able to
sign, or something with the heads missing. It seems like completely
random issues.

Like here's an example of one script I did months ago. Sometimes it
works, and sometimes I get random issues. I even had to add code in
there to automatically add an entry to the safe list

```
# -------------------------------------------------------------
#   GIT UPDATE
# -------------------------------------------------------------

bFoundSafe=false
NOW=`date '+%m.%d.%Y %H:%M:%S'`;
repo_commit_msg="auto-update - $NOW"
repo_branch="main"
repo_path="/path/to/repo"
repo_name="repo-name"

cd $repo_path

# see if repo directory is in safelist for git
if git config --global --get-all safe.directory | grep -q
"$repo_path"; then
    bFoundSafe=true
fi

# if new repo, add to safelist
if ! $bFoundSafe ; then
    git config --global --add safe.directory $repo_path
fi

git config --global user.name "MyUsername"
git config --global user.email "email@domain.com"

sleep 2s

git branch -m $repo_branch
git add --all
git add -u

sleep 5s

git commit -S -m "$repo_commit_msg"

sleep 5s

git push -u origin $repo_branch
```

Obviously this isn't the full script, but just to give an idea of the
direction I try to go in.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

I don't remember why I have `git add --all` and `git add -u` but I had
an issue and someone recommended that.