Merge pull request #459 from Iamrodos/issue-93-starred-gists-warning

fix: warn and skip when --starred-gists used for different user

CHANGES.rst

@@ -1,10 +1,25 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 
-0.53.0 (2025-11-30)
+0.54.0 (2025-12-03)
 -------------------
 ------------------------
 
+Fix
+~~~
+- Send INFO/DEBUG to stdout, WARNING/ERROR to stderr. [Rodos]
+
+  Fixes #182
+
+Other
+~~~~~
+- Docs: update README testing section and add fetch vs pull explanation.
+  [Rodos]
+
+
+0.53.0 (2025-11-30)
+-------------------
+
 Fix
 ~~~
 - Case-sensitive username filtering causing silent backup failures.

README.rst

@@ -301,6 +301,8 @@ Starred gists vs starred repo behaviour
 
 The starred normal repo cloning (``--all-starred``) argument stores starred repos separately to the users own repositories. However, using ``--starred-gists`` will store starred gists within the same directory as the users own gists ``--gists``. Also, all gist repo directory names are IDs not the gist's name.
 
+Note: ``--starred-gists`` only retrieves starred gists for the authenticated user, not the target user, due to a GitHub API limitation.
+
 
 Skip existing on incomplete backups
 -----------------------------------
@@ -308,6 +310,25 @@ Skip existing on incomplete backups
 The ``--skip-existing`` argument will skip a backup if the directory already exists, even if the backup in that directory failed (perhaps due to a blocking error). This may result in unexpected missing data in a regular backup.
 
 
+Updates use fetch, not pull
+---------------------------
+
+When updating an existing repository backup, ``github-backup`` uses ``git fetch`` rather than ``git pull``. This is intentional - a backup tool should reliably download data without risk of failure. Using ``git pull`` would require handling merge conflicts, which adds complexity and could cause backups to fail unexpectedly.
+
+With fetch, **all branches and commits are downloaded** safely into remote-tracking branches. The working directory files won't change, but your backup is complete.
+
+If you look at files directly (e.g., ``cat README.md``), you'll see the old content. The new data is in the remote-tracking branches (confusingly named "remote" but stored locally). To view or use the latest files::
+
+    git show origin/main:README.md           # view a file
+    git merge origin/main                    # update working directory
+
+All branches are backed up as remote refs (``origin/main``, ``origin/feature-branch``, etc.).
+
+If you want to browse files directly without merging, consider using ``--bare`` which skips the working directory entirely - the backup is just the git data.
+
+See `#269 <https://github.com/josegonzalez/python-github-backup/issues/269>`_ for more discussion.
+
+
 Github Backup Examples
 ======================
 
@@ -357,7 +378,12 @@ A huge thanks to all the contibuters!
 Testing
 -------
 
-This project currently contains no unit tests.  To run linting::
+To run the test suite::
+
+    pip install pytest
+    pytest
+
+To run linting::
 
     pip install flake8
     flake8 --ignore=E501

bin/github-backup

@@ -16,12 +16,23 @@ from github_backup.github_backup import (
     retrieve_repositories,
 )
 
-logging.basicConfig(
+# INFO and DEBUG go to stdout, WARNING and above go to stderr
-    format="%(asctime)s.%(msecs)03d: %(message)s",
+log_format = logging.Formatter(
+    fmt="%(asctime)s.%(msecs)03d: %(message)s",
     datefmt="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S",
-    level=logging.INFO,
 )
 
+stdout_handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
+stdout_handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+stdout_handler.addFilter(lambda r: r.levelno < logging.WARNING)
+stdout_handler.setFormatter(log_format)
+
+stderr_handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stderr)
+stderr_handler.setLevel(logging.WARNING)
+stderr_handler.setFormatter(log_format)
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, handlers=[stdout_handler, stderr_handler])
+
 
 def main():
     args = parse_args()

github_backup/__init__.py

@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.53.0"
+__version__ = "0.54.0"

github_backup/github_backup.py

@@ -1565,16 +1565,22 @@ def retrieve_repositories(args, authenticated_user):
         repos.extend(gists)
 
     if args.include_starred_gists:
-        starred_gists_template = "https://{0}/gists/starred".format(
+        if not authenticated_user.get("login") or args.user.lower() != authenticated_user["login"].lower():
-            get_github_api_host(args)
+            logger.warning(
-        )
+                "Cannot retrieve starred gists for '%s'. GitHub only allows access to the authenticated user's starred gists.",
-        starred_gists = retrieve_data(
+                args.user,
-            args, starred_gists_template, single_request=False
+            )
-        )
+        else:
-        # flag each repo as a starred gist for downstream processing
+            starred_gists_template = "https://{0}/gists/starred".format(
-        for item in starred_gists:
+                get_github_api_host(args)
-            item.update({"is_gist": True, "is_starred": True})
+            )
-        repos.extend(starred_gists)
+            starred_gists = retrieve_data(
+                args, starred_gists_template, single_request=False
+            )
+            # flag each repo as a starred gist for downstream processing
+            for item in starred_gists:
+                item.update({"is_gist": True, "is_starred": True})
+            repos.extend(starred_gists)
 
     return repos