git-sync-all

Scans a directory tree for git repositories and keeps them in sync. For each repo it fetches from all configured remotes, then pulls, pushes, or reports problems depending on the state of the working tree. Pushes go to every remote, not just origin.

Install

Homebrew

brew install jweisner/git-sync-all/git-sync-all

Manual

Copy the git-sync-all script to a directory on your PATH:

curl -Lo ~/.local/bin/git-sync-all https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jweisner/git-sync-all/main/git-sync-all
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/git-sync-all

Behaviour

State	Action
Clean, up to date	No output; omitted from summary (shown with -v or when fetch had errors)
Clean, behind remote	git pull --ff-only
Clean, ahead of remote	git push to all remotes
Clean, diverged	Attempts push to all remotes, reports failure if rebase required
Dirty	Reports changed files; advises on pull/push/conflict risk
No tracking branch	Reports and skips
All remotes unreachable	fetch failed with skipped/failed remote names

When a repo has multiple remotes, the repo header lists them and push results are reported per-remote. If some remotes succeed and others fail, the summary shows partial push with the names of the failed remotes.

With --dry-run, no push or pull is performed — the summary shows would push (listing the target remotes) or would pull instead.

A summary table is printed at the end with one row per repository, coloured by status (green = healthy, yellow = attention, red = needs intervention).

Usage

git-sync-all [-h] [-o] [-v] [-d] [-a] [-t N] [directory]

If directory is omitted, the current working directory is used.

Flag	Long form	Description
-h	--help	Show usage and exit
-o	--offline	Skip git fetch; use last known remote refs (useful offline)
-v	--verbose	Include up-to-date repos in the summary table
-d	--dry-run	Preview actions without pulling or pushing
-a	--ascii	Use ASCII-only symbols (^ v -- ~ ->) instead of Unicode
-t N	--timeout N	Seconds before a stalled remote operation times out (default: 10)

Flags can be combined: -vo, -va, -oda, etc.

Timeouts and unreachable hosts

Before contacting a remote for the first time, git-sync-all probes the host with a TCP connection test (nc -z, 5-second timeout). If the probe fails the host is added to a blocklist and every remote pointing at it is skipped instantly for the rest of the run. This keeps the script fast when a VPN is down or a server is unreachable.

If nc (netcat) is not installed, probing is disabled and a warning is printed. The script will still work but will rely on git-native timeouts to detect unreachable hosts.

For active connections, git-sync-all uses git's built-in stall detection rather than a wall-clock timer, so large fetches on slow links are never killed mid-transfer:

• HTTPS: http.lowSpeedLimit (1 KB/s) and http.lowSpeedTime abort transfers only when throughput drops below the threshold for the timeout duration.
• SSH: ConnectTimeout, ServerAliveInterval, and ServerAliveCountMax detect dead sessions without interfering with slow-but-progressing transfers.

If a git operation fails with a connection error, the host is added to the blocklist so subsequent repos at the same host are skipped without waiting.

Fetch failures in the summary

Connection errors and skipped remotes during fetch are surfaced in the summary table:

• If all remotes for a repo failed to fetch, the summary shows fetch failed in red with details like skipped: gitlab; failed: origin.
• If some remotes failed but others succeeded, the normal status is shown with the fetch failure appended to the details column (e.g. main (skipped: gitlab)) and the row colour is upgraded to yellow.
• Repos that would normally be hidden as "up to date" are always shown when they have fetch warnings, even without -v.

Ctrl+C handling

Press Ctrl+C once to skip the current repository and move on to the next. Press Ctrl+C twice quickly (within one second) to exit immediately. Skipped repos appear in the summary as skipped / interrupted.

Example

$ git-sync-all ~/projects

==> ~/projects/api-server
  Unpushed: 2 commit(s) on main — pushing
  Pushed → origin

==> ~/projects/frontend  (origin, github)
  DIRTY — branch: feature/login
  M  src/auth.ts
  ?? src/auth.test.ts
  Can pull: 1 new remote commit(s) — stash or commit first

==> ~/projects/infra/k8s  (origin, gitlab)
  Unpushed: 1 commit(s) on main — pushing
  Push to gitlab failed:
    error: could not push to 'gitlab'
  Pushed → origin

 SUMMARY
----------------------------------------------------
Repo        Status          Details
----------------------------------------------------
api-server  pushed          2↑
frontend    dirty/can pull  1↓ available
infra/k8s   partial push    failed: gitlab
----------------------------------------------------

Up-to-date repos are omitted from the summary by default. Pass -v to show all.