Repository mirroring allows for the mirroring of repositories to and from external sources. You can use it to mirror branches, tags, and commits between repositories.
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## Use cases
The following are some possible use cases for repository mirroring:
- You migrated to Gitea but still need to keep your project in another source. In that case, you can simply set it up to mirror to Gitea (pull) and all the essential history of commits, tags, and branches are available in your Gitea instance.
- You have old projects in another source that you don’t use actively anymore, but don’t want to remove for archiving purposes. In that case, you can create a push mirror so that your active Gitea repository can push its changes to the old location.
## Pulling from a remote repository
For an existing remote repository, you can set up pull mirroring as follows:
1. Select **New Migration** in the **Create...** menu on the top right.
2. Select the remote repository service.
3. Enter a repository URL.
4. If the repository needs authentication fill in your authentication information.
5. Check the box **This repository will be a mirror**.
The repository now gets mirrored periodically from the remote repository. You can force a sync by selecting **Synchronize Now** in the repository settings.
:exclamation::exclamation: **NOTE:** You can only set up pull mirroring for repos that don't exist yet on your instance. Once the repo is created, you can't convert it into a pull mirror anymore. :exclamation::exclamation:
3. If the repository needs authentication expand the **Authorization** section and fill in your authentication information. Note that the requested **password** can also be your access token.
4. Select **Add Push Mirror** to save the configuration.
The repository now gets mirrored periodically to the remote repository. You can force a sync by selecting **Synchronize Now**. In case of an error a message displayed to help you resolve it.
:exclamation::exclamation: **NOTE:** This will force push to the remote repository. This will overwrite any changes in the remote repository! :exclamation::exclamation:
### Setting up a push mirror from Gitea to GitHub
To set up a mirror from Gitea to GitHub, you need to follow these steps:
1. Create a [GitHub personal access token](https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token) with the *public_repo* box checked.
2. Create a repository with that name on GitHub. Unlike Gitea, GitHub does not support creating repositories by pushing to the remote. You can also use an existing remote repo if it has the same commit history as your Gitea repo.
3. In the settings of your Gitea repo, fill in the **Git Remote Repository URL**: `https://github.com/<your_github_group>/<your_github_project>.git`.
4. Fill in the **Authorization** fields with your GitHub username and the personal access token as **Password**.
5. (Optional, available on Gitea 1.18+) Select `Sync when new commits are pushed` so that the mirror will be updated as well as soon as there are changes. You can also disable the periodic sync if you like.
6. Select **Add Push Mirror** to save the configuration.
