Migration¶

Here is the summry of migrating repos from github to azure devops.

Do not do it¶

• Using git clone instead of --mirror: will lose tags, refs, or hidden branches

• Adding files to the Azure repo before push:causes conflicts and diverging history

• Email mismatch: Commits still exist, but user linking in ADO may not auto‑resolve; Fix via user email mapping in Azure DevOps

Best‑practice: Git mirror migration¶

• Preserves commit history

• Preserves authors, timestamps, commit SHAs

• Preserves branches, tags, and refs

• git blame works exactly as before

• No vendor lock‑in tooling required

• Works for GitHub Enterprise Server and Cloud

Create an empty repo in Azure DevOps¶

• Project -> Repos -> New repository

• Do not add README, .gitignore, or license

Clone the GitHub repo as a mirror¶

git clone --mirror https://github.enterprise.example.com/org/repo.git
cd repo

Push the mirror to Azure DevOps¶

git remote set-url --push origin https://dev.azure.com/org/project/_git/repo
git push --mirror

What not preserved¶

• Pull Requests: Need migration tool

• PR comments & reviews: Need migration tool

• Issues: Need migration tool

• Wiki: Separate repo

• GitHub Actions: Must be rewritten as Azure Pipelines

• Repo permissions: Must be recreated