Python script to create an orphan branch

orphan.py

import requests


def create_orphan_branch(repository, authentication, branch_name,
                         github_api_path='https://api.github.com'):
    res1 = requests.get(
        github_api_path + '/repos/{0}/{1}/git/refs/heads/{2}'.format(
            repository['owner'],
            repository['name'],
            branch_name
        ),
        auth=(
            authentication['user'],
            authentication['pass'],
        ),
    )

    if res1.status_code == 404:
        print('Creating the initial tree...', end='')
        res2 = requests.post(
            github_api_path + '/repos/{0}/{1}/git/trees'.format(
                repository['owner'],
                repository['name'],
            ),
            json={
                'tree': [{
                    'path': '_orphan',
                    'mode': '100644',
                    'type': 'blob',
                    'content': branch_name,
                }]
            },
            auth=(
                authentication['user'],
                authentication['pass'],
            )
        )

        if res2.status_code == 201:
            print(' SUCCESS ')
            print('Creating the initial commit...', end='')
            res3 = requests.post(
                github_api_path + '/repos/{0}/{1}/git/commits'.format(
                    repository['owner'],
                    repository['name'],
                ),
                json={
                    'message': 'Initial commit',
                    'tree': res2.json().get('sha'),
                    'parents': [],
                },
                auth=(
                    authentication['user'],
                    authentication['pass'],
                )
            )

            if res3.status_code == 201:
                print(' SUCCESS ')
                print('Creating the orphan branch...', end='')
                res4 = requests.post(
                    github_api_path + '/repos/{0}/{1}/git/refs'.format(
                        repository['owner'],
                        repository['name'],
                    ),
                    json={
                        'ref': 'refs/heads/{0}'.format(branch_name),
                        'sha': res3.json().get('sha'),
                    },
                    auth=(
                        authentication['user'],
                        authentication['pass'],
                    )
                )

                if res4.status_code == 201:
                    print(' SUCCESS ')
                    print('Successfully created the orphan branch {0}'.format(branch_name))
                else:
                    print(' FAILED ')
                    print('Could not create the orphan branch, error: {0}'.format(res4.json()))
            else:
                print(' FAILED ')
                print('Could not create the initial commit, error: {0}'.format(res3.json()))
        else:
            print(' FAILED ')
            print('Could not create the initial tree, error: {0}'.format(res2.json()))
    else:
        print('The branch {0} already exists'.format(branch_name))

Thanks a lot for your solution. I really appreciate it 💯

This wasn't my cleanest code, but I'm glad it helped you!

Your code helped us a lot to create an orphan branch via the Github V3 API. Thank you very much for that.

If you want, you can include an improvement we found, which is to remove the "Create initial tree" step and use the "magic" SHA: 4b825dc642cb6eb9a060e54bf8d69288fbee4904 (More info)