How to migrate a git repository to a different location

Sometimes it can happen that you have to migrate a git repository from a location to another (eg. from GitHub to an Azure DevOps git repository) for many reasons. This short tutorial will show you how to perform this migration.

First, clone the repository from the original location in a temp local folder using the --mirror option:

git clone --mirror original_repo_location_url temp_dir

The --mirror option maps all refs (remote branches, tags, ...) from the remote origin to local.

Now we can remove the remote origin, which is still targeting the original repository location url:

git remote rm origin

Add the new remote origin using the new repository location url:

git remote add origin new_repo_location_url

Now push all branches, tags, etc. to the new location using the --mirror option:

git push origin --mirror

Now we have a full copy of the repository (including commits history and tags) in the new location. You can now delete the temp local folder created before and then clone the repository using the new location url without specifying the --mirror option.

The repository in the original location will still remain, so, if you want, you can manually remove it.

Conclusions

As you can see, mirroring a git repository from a location to another is really easy and straightforward. As always, if you have some improvements or doubts, feel free to contact me.
See you!

Notes: when you create the repository in the new location don't add any README.md and don't add any license file. You are going to migrate the whole repository from the original location, so you will copy those files too if present.

Links