/api/v4 always added to url when using -githost.url

[nickp30]

I've tried to use gitbackup to create a backup of my repository from a self-hosted Forgejo instance. It seams like when using the flag -githost.url the function parseGitHostURL in client.go always adds /api/v4 to the url. The forgejo-sdk later adds the correct api path to the url as well. Instead of a call made to /api/v1/user/repos a call to /api/v4/api/v1/user/repos is made instead.

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with go so I can't solve this myself.

[amitsaha]

Hi @nickp30 thanks for reporting. can you please share the command you ran and the error you got? I understand the issue, just wanted go have a clearer view.

[nickp30]

Hi @amitsaha

I was running the fallowing command:

gitbackup \
  -service forgejo \
  -githost.url  "https://my-domain.lan" \
  -backupdir backup \
  -use-https-clone

and the error i received was:

2026/01/31 10:02:44 fetching user repositories from forgejo: unknown API Error: 404
Request: '/api/v4/api/v1/user/repos' with 'GET' method and 'Not found.
' body

[amitsaha]

Hi @nickp30 thanks. I suspect we only have tested with https://codeberg.org/

[amitsaha]

Hi @nickp30 can you please retest using the new version: https://github.com/amitsaha/gitbackup/releases/tag/v1.0.4 ? let me know how it goes.

[nickp30]

Hello @amitsaha

Thank you for your quick fix. It seems like now the correct url to make the api calls is used. Unfortunately I'm getting an auth error while trying to clone the repository. However, I saw that for https-cloning there is a function in helpers.go to get the username which has no option for Forgejo currently. Could it be that no username is not set in the clone url or is there a different function to detect it?

While I was already add it I've also tested other features and shortly noted down what I observed. Please let me know if you have time and if you're willing to try to solve this issues. Unfortunately, I can't help with programming but I wouln't mind doing some testing again. I would also totally understand it if you don't have the time or if you're not interested in solving those issues. Especially since it seems like that you're not using forgejo.

Observations:

I've tried to clone two repositories from code.forgejo.org. One of the repositories was private and the other one was public. The one which was public I was able to clone. Trying to clone the private one failed with the same auth error. To test if ssh cloning would work I removed the -use-https-clone flag. When I did so I received an error stating that no Username could be detected. The url used for cloning seemed to be the same.

Just out of interested I also tried out the starred flag. From the output it seems like a user is detected but I'm not sure if it is used for cloning cause cloning the private repository still fails.

While cloning from my private instance I also noticed that all of my repositories are detected as Private:false but most of them are in private organisations. I only have two repositories in a public organisation and those two are the only once which are cloned.

Open points

• Is a username detected and used?
• Is ssh cloning working?
• Are repositories in a private organisation wrongly detected as public?

Logs

Auth error:

remote: Credentials are incorrect or have expired. Retry your command or see https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/issues/2809 for more information

Log code.forgejo.org with -use-https-clone:

2026/02/03 19:42:42 Creating forgejo client https://code.forgejo.org
2026/02/03 19:42:42 Backing up 2 repositories now..
2026/02/03 19:42:42 Cloning cascading-pr
2026/02/03 19:42:42 Cloning Test
2026/02/03 19:42:42 &main.Repository{CloneURL:"https://code.forgejo.org/NickP/cascading-pr.git", Name:"cascading-pr", Namespace:"NickP", Private:false}
2026/02/03 19:42:42 &main.Repository{CloneURL:"https://code.forgejo.org/NickP/Test.git", Name:"Test", Namespace:"NickP", Private:true}
2026/02/03 19:42:42 Error backing up Test: Cloning into 'backup/code.forgejo.org/NickP/Test'...
fatal: could not read Username for 'https://code.forgejo.org': No such device or address

Log code.forgejo.org without -use-https-clone:

2026/02/03 19:49:57 Creating forgejo client https://code.forgejo.org
2026/02/03 19:49:57 Backing up 2 repositories now..
2026/02/03 19:49:57 Cloning cascading-pr
2026/02/03 19:49:57 Cloning Test
2026/02/03 19:49:57 &main.Repository{CloneURL:"https://code.forgejo.org/NickP/cascading-pr.git", Name:"cascading-pr", Namespace:"NickP", Private:false}
2026/02/03 19:49:57 &main.Repository{CloneURL:"https://code.forgejo.org/NickP/Test.git", Name:"Test", Namespace:"NickP", Private:true}
2026/02/03 19:49:57 Error backing up Test: Cloning into 'backup/code.forgejo.org/NickP/Test'...
fatal: could not read Username for 'https://code.forgejo.org': No such device or address

Log code.forgejo.org with -use-https-clone and -forgejo.repoType starred:

2026/02/03 20:00:33 Creating forgejo client https://code.forgejo.org
2026/02/03 20:00:33 Found user NickP with ID ****
2026/02/03 20:00:33 Backing up 2 repositories now..
2026/02/03 20:00:33 Cloning cascading-pr
2026/02/03 20:00:33 Cloning Test
2026/02/03 20:00:33 &main.Repository{CloneURL:"https://code.forgejo.org/actions/cascading-pr.git", Name:"cascading-pr", Namespace:"actions", Private:false}
2026/02/03 20:00:33 &main.Repository{CloneURL:"https://code.forgejo.org/NickP/Test.git", Name:"Test", Namespace:"NickP", Private:true}
2026/02/03 20:00:33 Error backing up Test: Cloning into 'backup/code.forgejo.org/NickP/Test'...
remote: Credentials are incorrect or have expired. Retry your command or see https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/issues/2809 for more information
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://code.forgejo.org/NickP/Test.git/'

[amitsaha]

Hi @nickp30 - thanks, i am going to look into it. Appreciate the detailed observations!

Can you clarify one thing for me:

"Are repositories in a private organisation wrongly detected as public?" -> are these private user repositories or there is a concept of organizations - and you are referring to private organizations?

This is my setup now:

1. One public repository on code.forgejo.org
2. One private repository on ^

Is there anything I should add to reproduce the issue you are facing?

[nickp30]

Hi @amitsaha

Yes, at Forgejo there is a concept of organizations. I think they work similar as organizations do on github but I'm not entirely sure since I'm not that familiar with github. It seems like on code.forgejo.org you can't create an organization but on codeberg itself it is possible. In the Documentation it is mentioned that you can create them for free.

While creating an organizations you can select one of those three options:

1. Public -> Everyone can see the org.
2. Limited -> Only visible when logged in.
3. Private -> Only visible when the user is a member of the org.

I'm not sure if there is something similar to limited organizations on github or gitlab 🤔. As with user repositories, a repository in a public or limited organization can be configured as private.