bytelyst-devops-tools/README_remove_user_script.md

GitHub User Removal Script

A comprehensive script to remove a specified user from all repositories matching a prefix pattern under a given GitHub username or organization.

Features

• ✅ Flexible Filtering: Support for various repository prefix patterns including wildcards
• ✅ Dry Run Mode: Test operations without making actual changes
• ✅ Verbose Logging: Detailed output for debugging and monitoring
• ✅ Progress Tracking: Real-time progress updates during processing
• ✅ Error Handling: Robust error handling with detailed HTTP status reporting
• ✅ Statistics: Comprehensive summary of operations performed
• ✅ Auto-detection: Automatically detects if the root is a user or organization

Requirements

• bash (version 4.0+)
• curl
• jq
• Valid GitHub Personal Access Token with repo and admin:org permissions

Usage

./remove_user_from_repos.sh -t TOKEN -r ROOT_USER -u USER_TO_REMOVE -p REPO_PREFIX [OPTIONS]

Required Parameters

Parameter	Description
-t, --token TOKEN	GitHub Personal Access Token
-r, --root ROOT_USER	Root GitHub username or organization
-u, --user USER_TO_REMOVE	Username to remove from repositories
-p, --prefix REPO_PREFIX	Repository name prefix pattern

Optional Parameters

Parameter	Description
-d, --dry-run	Show what would be done without making changes
-v, --verbose	Enable verbose logging
-h, --help	Show help message

Repository Prefix Patterns

Pattern	Description	Example Matches
"bytelyst-"	Repos starting with 'bytelyst-'	bytelyst-web, bytelyst-api
"*api*"	Repos containing 'api'	web-api, api-service, my-api-v2
"*"	All repositories	All repos in the organization/user
"web-app"	Repos starting with 'web-app'	web-app-frontend, web-app-v2

Examples

1. Remove user from all repositories starting with 'bytelyst-'

export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_token_here"
./remove_user_from_repos.sh -t "$GITHUB_TOKEN" -r "saravanakumardb" -u "i-ayushh18" -p "bytelyst-"

2. Dry run - Remove user from all repositories (preview mode)

./remove_user_from_repos.sh -t "$GITHUB_TOKEN" -r "myorg" -u "olduser" -p "*" --dry-run

3. Remove user with verbose logging

./remove_user_from_repos.sh -t "$GITHUB_TOKEN" -r "myorg" -u "olduser" -p "project-" --verbose

4. Remove user from repositories containing 'api'

./remove_user_from_repos.sh -t "$GITHUB_TOKEN" -r "myorg" -u "developer123" -p "*api*"

Output Example

GitHub User Removal Script
============================================================
ℹ️  Root user/organization: saravanakumardb
ℹ️  User to remove: i-ayushh18
ℹ️  Repository prefix: bytelyst-
✅ Token validated (authenticated as: saravanakumardb)

Repository Discovery
============================================================
✅ Found 23 repositories

Filtering Repositories
============================================================
✅ Found 4 repositories matching prefix 'bytelyst-'

Processing Repositories
============================================================
Progress: [100%] 4/4 repositories processed
✅ Successfully removed i-ayushh18 from saravanakumardb/bytelyst-web-app

Operation Summary
============================================================
Repositories scanned: 23
Repositories matching prefix: 4
Repositories where user was collaborator: 1

Successful removals: 1
Already removed: 0
Failed removals: 0
Success rate: 100%

✅ Operation completed successfully!

Creating GitHub Token

1. Go to GitHub → Settings → Developer Settings → Personal Access Tokens → Fine-grained tokens
2. Click "Generate new token"
3. Select the required permissions:
   • repo (Full control of private repositories)
   • admin:org (Full control of orgs and teams)
4. Set appropriate expiration date
5. Generate and copy the token

Security Best Practices

• Store tokens as environment variables: export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_token"
• Never commit tokens to version control
• Use fine-grained tokens with minimal required permissions
• Regularly rotate tokens
• Use --dry-run first to verify operations

Error Handling

The script handles various error scenarios:

• Invalid tokens: Authentication validation before operations
• Missing repositories: Graceful handling of non-existent repos
• Insufficient permissions: Clear error messages for access issues
• Network issues: Retry logic for transient failures
• Invalid users/orgs: Proper detection and error reporting

Exit Codes

• 0: Success - All operations completed successfully
• 1: Failure - One or more operations failed (details in summary)

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "Invalid or expired GitHub token"

   • Check token validity
   • Ensure token has required permissions

2. "Access forbidden for repository"

   • Token may lack admin permissions for the repository
   • Repository may be archived or have restricted access

3. "Could not fetch repositories"

   • User/organization name may be incorrect
   • Token may lack appropriate access

Debug Mode

Use --verbose flag to see detailed operation logs:

./remove_user_from_repos.sh -t "$TOKEN" -r "user" -u "target" -p "*" -v

Integration Examples

CI/CD Pipeline

- name: Remove user from repositories
  run: |
    ./remove_user_from_repos.sh \
      -t "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" \
      -r "${{ vars.ORG_NAME }}" \
      -u "${{ vars.USER_TO_REMOVE }}" \
      -p "${{ vars.REPO_PREFIX }}"    

Batch Processing

#!/bin/bash
users=("user1" "user2" "user3")
for user in "${users[@]}"; do
  ./remove_user_from_repos.sh -t "$TOKEN" -r "myorg" -u "$user" -p "*"
done

License

This script is provided as-is for repository management purposes. Use responsibly and ensure you have appropriate permissions before running in production environments.