Objective

This guide demonstrates how to seamlessly migrate a code repository between different platforms while preserving the complete commit history. The process is applicable to any Git-based repository platforms, such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.

Steps

To illustrate the migration process, we’ll walk through moving a repository from GitLab (source platform) to GitHub (destination platform).

Create a New Project on the Destination Platform

First, create a blank repository on GitHub using the same name as your source repository (though using a different name is also acceptable).

Clone the Repository as Bare

Create a mirror copy of the source repository on your local machine using the --bare flag. This specialized clone operation creates a repository that contains all the version control data—including branches, tags, and the complete commit history—but without a working directory for file editing.

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git clone https://gitlab.com/abc/xyz.git --bare

What is a bare repository? A bare repository contains only Git’s version control data (the .git folder contents) without the actual working files. It’s ideal for migration and server-side repositories.

Push All Branches to the Destination

Navigate to the cloned bare repository and push all branches and objects to the destination platform:

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cd xyz.git
git push https://github.com/abc/xyz.git --all

Push All Tags to the Destination

Transfer all tags from the local repository to the destination platform:

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git push https://github.com/abc/xyz.git --tags

Verification

After migration, verify your repository by:

1. Check commit history: git log should show all previous commits
2. Check branches: git branch -a should list all branches
3. Check tags: git tag should show all version tags

One-Liner Script

For convenience, here’s a complete migration script:

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# Replace SOURCE_URL and DEST_URL with your repository URLs
SOURCE_URL="https://gitlab.com/abc/xyz.git"
DEST_URL="https://github.com/abc/xyz.git"

git clone $SOURCE_URL --bare && \
cd $(basename $SOURCE_URL) && \
git push $DEST_URL --all && \
git push $DEST_URL --tags

Conclusion

Your repository has been successfully migrated with all commit history, branches, and tags fully preserved. The new repository is ready for use while maintaining its complete development history.