gitlab-copy is a simple tool for copying issues/labels/milestones/notes from one GitLab project to another, possibly running on different GitLab instances.

By default, gitlab-copy won't copy anything until told explicitly to do so on the command line: running it will do nothing but showing some statistics.

Note: GitLab 8.6 introduced the ability to move an issue to another project, but on the same GitLab installation only. gitlab-copy can still prove valuable to move issues between projects on different GitLab hosts and to perform batch operations from the command line (see the feature list below).

Installing gitlab-copy is very easy since it comes as a static binary with no dependencies. Just grab a compiled version for your system (or have a look at the Compile From Source section).

The following features are available:

• Copy milestones if not existing on target (use milestonesOnly to copy milestones only, see below)
• Copy all source labels on target (use labelsOnly to copy labels only, see below)
• Copy issues if not existing on target (by title)
• Apply closed status on issues, if any
• Set issue's assignee (if user exists) and milestone, if any
• Copy notes (attached to issues), preserving user ownership
• Can specify in the config file a specific issue or range of issues to copy
• Auto-close source issues after copy
• Add a note with a link to the new issue created in the target project
• Use a custom link text template, like "Closed in favor or me/myotherproject#12"

First, make sure you have valid GitLab account tokens for both source and destination GitLab installations. They are used to access GitLab resources without authentication. GitLab private tokens are availble in "Profile Settings -> Account".

Now, write a gitlab.yml YAML config file to specify source and target projects, along with your GitLab account tokens:

from:
  url: https://gitlab.mydomain.com
  token: atoken
  project: namespace/project
to:
  url: https://gitlab.myotherdomain.com
  token: anothertoken
  project: namespace/project

Note that a specific issue or ranges of issues can be specified in the YAML config file. If you want to copy only issue #15 and issues #20 to #30, add an issues key in the from: key:

from:
  url: https://gitlab.mydomain.com
  token: atoken
  project: namespace/project
  issues:
  - 15
  - 20-30
...

In order to copy all labels from one project to another (labels only, not issues), just append a labelsOnly entry in the from section:

from:
  url: https://gitlab.mydomain.com
  token: atoken
  project: namespace/project
  labelsOnly: true
to:
  url: https://gitlab.sameorotherdomain.com
  token: anothertoken
  project: namespace/otherproject
...

In order to copy all milestones only, just add a milestonesOnly entry in the from section:

from:
  url: https://gitlab.mydomain.com
  token: atoken
  project: namespace/project
  milestonesOnly: true
...

Notes in issues can preserve original user ownership when copied. To do that, you need to

• have tokens for all users involved
• add related users as members of the target project beforehand (with at least a Reporter permission)
• add a users entry into the to target section:

...
to:
  url: https://gitlab.sameorotherdomain.com
  token: anothertoken
  project: namespace/otherproject
  users:
    bob: anothertoken
    alice: herowntoken

Now grab some project stats by running

$ ./gitlab-copy gitlab.yml

If everything looks good, run the same command, this time with the -y flag to effectively copie issues between GitLab instances (they can be the same):

$ ./gitlab-copy -y gitlab.yml

Ensure you have a working Go 1.5+ installation then:

$ go get -u github.com/gotsunami/gitlab-copy
$ make

• The program gets compiled into bin/gitlab-copy
• Cross-compile with make buildall
• Prepare distribution packages with make dist

MIT. See LICENSE file.