Reduce unnecessary pull requests with incremental fetching

CHANGES.rst

@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ Unreleased
   backups use the legacy global checkpoint as a migration fallback, and the
   legacy file is removed once existing issue/pull backups have resource
   checkpoints (#62).
+- Stop paginating pull requests during incremental backups once the sorted
+  results are older than the active checkpoint.
 - Add ``--token-from-gh`` to read authentication from ``gh auth token``.
 
 

github_backup/github_backup.py

@@ -717,11 +717,12 @@ def calculate_retry_delay(attempt, headers):
     return delay + random.uniform(0, delay * 0.1)
 
 
-def retrieve_data(args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True):
+def retrieve_data(args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True, lazy=False):
     """
     Fetch the data from GitHub API.
 
-    Handle both single requests and pagination with yield of individual dicts.
+    Handle both single requests and pagination. Returns a list by default, or
+    a generator when lazy=True so callers can stop before fetching every page.
     Handles throttling, retries, read errors, and DMCA takedowns.
     """
     query_args = query_args or {}
@@ -851,6 +852,9 @@ def retrieve_data(args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True):
             ):
                 break  # No more data
 
+    if lazy:
+        return fetch_all()
+
     return list(fetch_all())
 
 
@@ -2656,16 +2660,18 @@ def backup_pulls(args, repo_cwd, repository, repos_template):
         pull_states = ["open", "closed"]
         for pull_state in pull_states:
             query_args["state"] = pull_state
-            _pulls = retrieve_data(args, _pulls_template, query_args=query_args)
-            for pull in _pulls:
+            for pull in retrieve_data(
+                args, _pulls_template, query_args=query_args, lazy=True
+            ):
                 track_newest_pull_update(pull)
                 if pulls_since and pull["updated_at"] < pulls_since:
                     break
                 if not pulls_since or pull["updated_at"] >= pulls_since:
                     pulls[pull["number"]] = pull
     else:
-        _pulls = retrieve_data(args, _pulls_template, query_args=query_args)
-        for pull in _pulls:
+        for pull in retrieve_data(
+            args, _pulls_template, query_args=query_args, lazy=True
+        ):
             track_newest_pull_update(pull)
             if pulls_since and pull["updated_at"] < pulls_since:
                 break

tests/test_pull_incremental_pagination.py

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+"""Tests for incremental pull request pagination."""
+
+import json
+import os
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+from github_backup import github_backup
+
+
+class MockHTTPResponse:
+    def __init__(self, data, link_header=None):
+        self._content = json.dumps(data).encode("utf-8")
+        self._link_header = link_header
+        self._read = False
+        self.reason = "OK"
+
+    def getcode(self):
+        return 200
+
+    def read(self):
+        if self._read:
+            return b""
+        self._read = True
+        return self._content
+
+    @property
+    def headers(self):
+        headers = {"x-ratelimit-remaining": "5000"}
+        if self._link_header:
+            headers["Link"] = self._link_header
+        return headers
+
+
+def test_backup_pulls_incremental_stops_before_fetching_old_pages(
+    create_args, tmp_path
+):
+    args = create_args(include_pulls=True, incremental=True)
+    args.since = "2026-04-26T08:13:46Z"
+    repository = {"full_name": "owner/repo"}
+
+    responses = [
+        MockHTTPResponse([]),
+        MockHTTPResponse(
+            [
+                {
+                    "number": 2,
+                    "title": "new pull",
+                    "updated_at": "2026-04-26T09:00:00Z",
+                },
+                {
+                    "number": 1,
+                    "title": "old pull",
+                    "updated_at": "2026-04-26T07:00:00Z",
+                },
+            ],
+            link_header='<https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/pulls?per_page=100&state=closed&page=2>; rel="next"',
+        ),
+        MockHTTPResponse(
+            [
+                {
+                    "number": 0,
+                    "title": "older pull on page 2",
+                    "updated_at": "2026-04-25T07:00:00Z",
+                }
+            ]
+        ),
+    ]
+    requests_made = []
+
+    def mock_urlopen(request, *args, **kwargs):
+        requests_made.append(request.get_full_url())
+        return responses[len(requests_made) - 1]
+
+    with patch("github_backup.github_backup.urlopen", side_effect=mock_urlopen):
+        github_backup.backup_pulls(
+            args, tmp_path, repository, "https://api.github.com/repos"
+        )
+
+    assert len(requests_made) == 2
+    assert "state=open" in requests_made[0]
+    assert "state=closed" in requests_made[1]
+    assert all("page=2" not in url for url in requests_made)
+    assert os.path.exists(tmp_path / "pulls" / "2.json")
+    assert not os.path.exists(tmp_path / "pulls" / "1.json")
+    assert not os.path.exists(tmp_path / "pulls" / "0.json")

tests/test_pull_reviews.py

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ def test_backup_pulls_includes_review_data(create_args, tmp_path, monkeypatch):
     repository = {"full_name": "owner/repo"}
     calls = []
 
-    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True):
+    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True, **kwargs):
         calls.append((template, query_args))
         if template == "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/pulls":
             if query_args["state"] == "open":
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ def test_pull_reviews_backfill_ignores_repository_checkpoint(
     args.since = "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"
     repository = {"full_name": "owner/repo"}
 
-    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True):
+    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True, **kwargs):
         if template == "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/pulls":
             if query_args["state"] == "open":
                 return [
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def test_pull_reviews_uses_review_checkpoint_when_older_than_repository_checkpoi
     pulls_dir.mkdir()
     (pulls_dir / "reviews_last_update").write_text("2025-01-01T00:00:00Z")
 
-    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True):
+    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True, **kwargs):
         if template == "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/pulls":
             if query_args["state"] == "open":
                 return [
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ def test_pull_reviews_preserves_existing_optional_pull_data(
             f,
         )
 
-    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True):
+    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True, **kwargs):
         if template == "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/pulls":
             if query_args["state"] == "open":
                 return [
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ def test_pull_reviews_does_not_advance_checkpoint_on_review_error(
     pulls_dir.mkdir()
     (pulls_dir / "reviews_last_update").write_text("2025-01-01T00:00:00Z")
 
-    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True):
+    def fake_retrieve_data(passed_args, template, query_args=None, paginated=True, **kwargs):
         if template == "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/pulls":
             if query_args["state"] == "open":
                 return [