DATALAD-CREATE-SIBLING-GITHUB(1)

📦
version 1.1.5 · 8 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 datalad create-sibling-github

okay bestie, real talk: this is a page from the General Commands Manual, and it's about datalad create-sibling-github. Yes, the command name is a whole mouthful. No, we're not shortening it. It's iconic like that. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

datalad create-sibling-github — create a dataset sibling on GitHub.org (or an enterprise deployment, if your org is fancy like that 💼).

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

       datalad create-sibling-github [-h] [--dataset DATASET] [-r] [-R LEVELS]
              [-s NAME] [--existing {skip|error|reconfigure|replace}]
              [--github-login TOKEN] [--credential NAME] [--github-
              organization NAME] [--access-protocol {https|ssh|https-ssh}]
              [--publish-depends SIBLINGNAME] [--private]
              [--description DESCRIPTION] [--dryrun] [--dry-run] [--api URL]
              [--version] [<org-name>/]<repo-(base)name>

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So GitHub is, like, the popular commercial solution for code hosting and collaborative development. Everyone and their group chat is on it. But here's the tea 🍵: GitHub cannot host dataset content (but see LFS, http://handbook.datalad.org/r.html?LFS — there's a whole handbook page about it, go read it, iykyk).

However!! In combination with other data sources and siblings, publishing a dataset to GitHub can facilitate distribution and exchange, while still allowing any dataset consumer to obtain actual data content from alternative sources. It's giving ✨ teamwork ✨.

In order to be able to use this command, a personal access token has to be generated on the platform. The path is literally this, follow it exactly:

Account->Settings->Developer Settings->Personal access tokens->Generate new token

(not me having to navigate that every single time 😭)

This command can be configured with "datalad.create-sibling-ghlike.extra-remote-settings.NETLOC.KEY=VALUE" in order to add any local KEY = VALUE configuration to the created sibling in the local .git/config file. NETLOC is the domain of the Github instance to apply the configuration for. This leads to a behavior that is equivalent to calling datalad's siblings('configure', ...)||siblings configure command with the respective KEY-VALUE pair after creating the sibling. The configuration, like any other, could be set at user- or system level, so users do not need to add this configuration to every sibling created with the service at NETLOC themselves. big slay for not repeating yourself 💅

Changed in version 0.16

The API has been aligned with the some create-sibling-... commands of other GitHub-like services, such as GOGS, GIN, GitTea.

Deprecated in version 0.16

The --dryrun option will be removed in a future release, use the renamed --dry-run option instead.

The --github-login option will be removed in a future release, use the --credential option instead.

The --github-organization option will be removed in a future release, prefix the repository name with <org>/ instead.

heads up bestie — "deprecated" means it's on its way out. like a trends cycle. don't build your whole vibe on it 🫶

🧚 Examples

Use a new sibling on GIN as a common data source that is auto-available when cloning from GitHub:

        % datalad create-sibling-gin myrepo -s gin

        # the sibling on GitHub will be used for collaborative work
        % datalad create-sibling-github myrepo -s github

        # register the storage of the public GIN repo as a data source
        % datalad siblings configure -s gin --as-common-datasrc gin-storage

        # announce its availability on github
        % datalad push --to github

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

  • [<org-name>/]<repo-(base)name> — the repository name. optionally you can slap an '<organization>/' prefix on the front if the repository shall not reside under a user's namespace. and when you're operating recursively, a suffix will be appended to this name for each subdataset (cute, right?). Constraints: value must be a string.
  • -h, --help, --help-np — show this help message. --help-np forcefully disables the use of a pager for displaying the help message (so it just dumps it straight to your terminal, no less situation).
  • --dataset DATASET, -d DATASET — the dataset to create the publication target for. If not given, an attempt is made to identify the dataset based on the current working directory. Constraints: Value must be a Dataset or a valid identifier of a Dataset (e.g. a path) or value must be NONE.
  • -r, --recursive — if set, recurse into potential subdatasets. down the rabbit hole we go 🐇
  • -R LEVELS, --recursion-limit LEVELS — limit recursion into subdatasets to the given number of levels. Constraints: value must be convertible to type 'int' or value must be NONE.
  • -s NAME, --name NAME — name of the sibling in the local dataset installation (remote name). Constraints: value must be a string or value must be NONE. [Default: 'github']
  • --existing {skip|error|reconfigure|replace} — behavior when already existing or configured siblings are discovered: skip the dataset ('skip'), update the configuration ('reconfigure'), or fail ('error'). Constraints: value must be one of ('skip', 'error', 'reconfigure', 'replace'). [Default: 'error']
DEPRECATED DANGER ZONE 🚨 With 'replace', an existing repository will be irreversibly removed, re-initialized, and the sibling (re-)configured (thus implies 'reconfigure'). REPLACE could lead to data loss! In interactive sessions a confirmation prompt is shown, an exception is raised in non-interactive sessions. The 'replace' mode will be removed in a future release. bestie I am begging you, read that twice 😭
  • --github-login TOKEN — Deprecated, use the credential parameter instead. If given must be a personal access token. Constraints: value must be a string or value must be NONE.
  • --credential NAME — name of the credential providing a personal access token to be used for authorization. The token can be supplied via configuration setting 'datalad.credential.<name>.token', or environment variable DATALAD_CREDENTIAL_<NAME>_TOKEN, or will be queried from the active credential store using the provided name. If none is provided, the host-part of the API URL is used as a name (e.g. 'https://api.github.com' -> 'api.github.com'). Constraints: value must be a string or value must be NONE.
  • --github-organization NAME — Deprecated, prepend a repo name with an '<orgname>/' prefix instead. Constraints: value must be a string or value must be NONE.
  • --access-protocol {https|ssh|https-ssh} — access protocol/URL to configure for the sibling. With 'https-ssh' SSH will be used for write access, whereas HTTPS is used for read access. Constraints: value must be one of ('https', 'ssh', 'https-ssh'). [Default: 'https'] — honestly 'https-ssh' is the main character here 👑
  • --publish-depends SIBLINGNAME — add a dependency such that the given existing sibling is always published prior to the new sibling. This equals setting a configuration item 'remote.SIBLINGNAME.datalad-publish-depends'. This option can be given more than once to configure multiple dependencies. Constraints: value must be a string or value must be NONE.
  • --private — if set, create a private repository. 🙈 no peeking.
  • --description DESCRIPTION — Brief description, displayed on the project's page. Constraints: value must be a string or value must be NONE.
  • --dryrun — Deprecated. Use the renamed --dry-run parameter.
  • --dry-run — if set, no repository will be created, only tests for sibling name collisions will be performed, and would-be repository names are reported for all relevant datasets. it's giving preview mode ✨ nothing happens, you just get to look.
  • --api URL — URL of the GitHub instance API. Constraints: value must be a string or value must be NONE. [Default: 'https://api.github.com']
  • --version — show the module and its version which provides the command.

💜 AUTHORS 💜

datalad is developed by The DataLad Team and Contributors <team@datalad.org>.

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this was datalad create-sibling-github, version 1..., dated 2025-06-15, straight from the datalad cr...ling-github(1) manual. go forth and create siblings responsibly 💖✨🎀

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