# Getting started with the API

python-gitlab only supports GitLab APIs v4.

## `gitlab.Gitlab` class

To connect to a GitLab server, create a `gitlab.Gitlab` object:

    import gitlab

    # private token or personal token authentication
    gl = gitlab.Gitlab('http://10.0.0.1', private_token='JVNSESs8EwWRx5yDxM5q')

    # oauth token authentication
    gl = gitlab.Gitlab('http://10.0.0.1', oauth_token='my_long_token_here')

    # job token authentication (to be used in CI)
    import os
    gl = gitlab.Gitlab('http://10.0.0.1', job_token=os.environ['CI_JOB_TOKEN'])

    # anonymous gitlab instance, read-only for public resources
    gl = gitlab.Gitlab('http://10.0.0.1')

    # make an API request to create the gl.user object. This is mandatory if you
    # use the username/password authentication.
    gl.auth()

You can also use configuration files to create `gitlab.Gitlab` objects:

    gl = gitlab.Gitlab.from_config('somewhere', ['/tmp/gl.cfg'])

See the Configuration section for more information about configuration files.

Warning

If the GitLab server you are using redirects requests from http to https, make sure to use the `https://` protocol in the URL definition.

### Note on password authentication

The `/session` API endpoint used for username/password authentication has been removed from GitLab in version 10.2, and is not available on gitlab.com anymore. Personal token authentication is the preferred authentication method.

If you need username/password authentication, you can use cookie-based authentication. You can use the web UI form to authenticate, retrieve cookies, and then use a custom `requests.Session` object to connect to the GitLab API. The following code snippet demonstrates how to automate this: https://gist.github.com/gpocentek/bd4c3fbf8a6ce226ebddc4aad6b46c0a.

See issue 380 for a detailed discussion.

## Managers

The `gitlab.Gitlab` class provides managers to access the GitLab resources. Each manager provides a set of methods to act on the resources. The available methods depend on the resource type.

Examples:

    # list all the projects
    projects = gl.projects.list()
    for project in projects:
        print(project)

    # get the group with id == 2
    group = gl.groups.get(2)
    for project in group.projects.list():
        print(project)

    # create a new user
    user_data = {'email': 'jen@foo.com', 'username': 'jen', 'name': 'Jen'}
    user = gl.users.create(user_data)
    print(user)

You can list the mandatory and optional attributes for object creation and update with the manager’s `get_create_attrs()` and `get_update_attrs()` methods. They return 2 tuples, the first one is the list of mandatory attributes, the second one is the list of optional attribute:

    # v4 only
    print(gl.projects.get_create_attrs())
    (('name',), ('path', 'namespace_id', ...))

The attributes of objects are defined upon object creation, and depend on the GitLab API itself. To list the available information associated with an object use the `attributes` attribute:

    project = gl.projects.get(1)
    print(project.attributes)

Some objects also provide managers to access related GitLab resources:

    # list the issues for a project
    project = gl.projects.get(1)
    issues = project.issues.list()

python-gitlab allows to send any data to the GitLab server when making queries. In case of invalid or missing arguments python-gitlab will raise an exception with the GitLab server error message:

    >>> gl.projects.list(sort='invalid value')
    ...
    GitlabListError: 400: sort does not have a valid value

You can use the `query_parameters` argument to send arguments that would conflict with python or python-gitlab when using them as kwargs:

    gl.user_activities.list(from='2019-01-01')  ## invalid

    gl.user_activities.list(query_parameters={'from': '2019-01-01'})  # OK

## Gitlab Objects

You can update or delete a remote object when it exists locally:

    # update the attributes of a resource
    project = gl.projects.get(1)
    project.wall_enabled = False
    # don't forget to apply your changes on the server:
    project.save()

    # delete the resource
    project.delete()

Some classes provide additional methods, allowing more actions on the GitLab resources. For example:

    # star a git repository
    project = gl.projects.get(1)
    project.star()

## Base types

The `gitlab` package provides some base types.

- `gitlab.Gitlab` is the primary class, handling the HTTP requests. It holds the GitLab URL and authentication information.
- `gitlab.base.RESTObject` is the base class for all the GitLab v4 objects. These objects provide an abstraction for GitLab resources (projects, groups, and so on).
- `gitlab.base.RESTManager` is the base class for v4 objects managers, providing the API to manipulate the resources and their attributes.

## Lazy objects

To avoid useless API calls to the server you can create lazy objects. These objects are created locally using a known ID, and give access to other managers and methods.

The following example will only make one API call to the GitLab server to star a project (the previous example used 2 API calls):

    # star a git repository
    project = gl.projects.get(1, lazy=True)  # no API call
    project.star()  # API call

## Pagination

You can use pagination to iterate over long lists. All the Gitlab objects listing methods support the `page` and `per_page` parameters:

    ten_first_groups = gl.groups.list(page=1, per_page=10)

Warning

The first page is page 1, not page 0.

By default GitLab does not return the complete list of items. Use the `all` parameter to get all the items when using listing methods:

    all_groups = gl.groups.list(all=True)
    all_owned_projects = gl.projects.list(owned=True, all=True)

You can define the `per_page` value globally to avoid passing it to every `list()` method call:

    gl = gitlab.Gitlab(url, token, per_page=50)

Gitlab allows to also use keyset pagination. You can supply it to your project listing, but you can also do so globally. Be aware that GitLab then also requires you to only use supported order options. At the time of writing, only `order_by="id"` works.

    gl = gitlab.Gitlab(url, token, pagination="keyset", order_by="id", per_page=100)
    gl.projects.list()

Reference: https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/api/README.html#keyset-based-pagination

`list()` methods can also return a generator object which will handle the next calls to the API when required. This is the recommended way to iterate through a large number of items:

    items = gl.groups.list(as_list=False)
    for item in items:
        print(item.attributes)

The generator exposes extra listing information as received from the server:

- `current_page`: current page number (first page is 1)
- `prev_page`: if `None` the current page is the first one
- `next_page`: if `None` the current page is the last one
- `per_page`: number of items per page
- `total_pages`: total number of pages available
- `total`: total number of items in the list

## Sudo

If you have the administrator status, you can use `sudo` to act as another user. For example:

    p = gl.projects.create({'name': 'awesome_project'}, sudo='user1')

## Advanced HTTP configuration

python-gitlab relies on `requests` `Session` objects to perform all the HTTP requests to the Gitlab servers.

You can provide your own `Session` object with custom configuration when you create a `Gitlab` object.

### Context manager

You can use `Gitlab` objects as context managers. This makes sure that the `requests.Session` object associated with a `Gitlab` instance is always properly closed when you exit a `with` block:

    with gitlab.Gitlab(host, token) as gl:
        gl.projects.list()

Warning

The context manager will also close the custom `Session` object you might have used to build the `Gitlab` instance.

### Proxy configuration

The following sample illustrates how to define a proxy configuration when using python-gitlab:

    import gitlab
    import requests

    session = requests.Session()
    session.proxies = {
        'https': os.environ.get('https_proxy'),
        'http': os.environ.get('http_proxy'),
    }
    gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4, session=session)

Reference: http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/user/advanced/#proxies

### Client side certificate

The following sample illustrates how to use a client-side certificate:

    import gitlab
    import requests

    session = requests.Session()
    session.cert = ('/path/to/client.cert', '/path/to/client.key')
    gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4, session=session)

Reference: http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/user/advanced/#client-side-certificates

### Rate limits

python-gitlab obeys the rate limit of the GitLab server by default. On receiving a 429 response (Too Many Requests), python-gitlab sleeps for the amount of time in the Retry-After header that GitLab sends back. If GitLab does not return a response with the Retry-After header, python-gitlab will perform an exponential backoff.

If you don’t want to wait, you can disable the rate-limiting feature, by supplying the `obey_rate_limit` argument.

    import gitlab
    import requests

    gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4)
    gl.projects.list(all=True, obey_rate_limit=False)

If you do not disable the rate-limiting feature, you can supply a custom value for `max_retries`; by default, this is set to 10. To retry without bound when throttled, you can set this parameter to -1. This parameter is ignored if `obey_rate_limit` is set to `False`.

    import gitlab
    import requests

    gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4)
    gl.projects.list(all=True, max_retries=12)

Warning

You will get an Exception, if you then go over the rate limit of your GitLab instance.

### Transient errors

GitLab server can sometimes return a transient HTTP error. python-gitlab can automatically retry in such case, when `retry_transient_errors` argument is set to `True`. When enabled, HTTP error codes 500 (Internal Server Error), 502 (502 Bad Gateway), 503 (Service Unavailable), and 504 (Gateway Timeout) are retried. By default an exception is raised for these errors.

    import gitlab
    import requests

    gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4)
    gl.projects.list(all=True, retry_transient_errors=True)

### Timeout

python-gitlab will by default use the `timeout` option from it’s configuration for all requests. This is passed downwards to the `requests` module at the time of making the HTTP request. However if you would like to override the global timeout parameter for a particular call, you can provide the `timeout` parameter to that API invocation:

    import gitlab

    gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4)
    gl.projects.import_github(ACCESS_TOKEN, 123456, "root", timeout=120.0)