I’m using VS code and the extension Remote -SSH because I am running the Pi headless and it’s the easiest way to copy the public SSH key

Github ssh key

In the Raspberry Pi terminal:

Check if you already have a SSH key with

ls -al ~/.ssh

If not, generate one with

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"

rsa is a placeholder name. Change it if you like

Start ssh agent

eval `ssh-agent -s`

Add key to agent

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Change rsa to a name you choose if you like

Navigate to the .ssh directory and copy the contents of public key id_rsa.pub

~cd .ssh

This is where using VS code to navigate to the directory is handy as copying the key from a text file from the pi and pasting on the host computer is harder than it sounds.

In a browser of the host computer log into github and navigate to Settings⇒ SSH and GPG keys

Add key, name key (anything you will remember) and paste key.

Create Git Repository

While still in the browser create and name a new repository

On the pi navigate to the Node-Red directory. It is a hidden directory called .node-red

cd ~/.node-red is the default

Initialize the local directory as a Git repository

git init -b main

Add the files in your new local repository. You only need the “flows_raspberrypi.json” for an effective backup. You can add the whole directory for a backup including all the packages. Note if “flowsraspberrypi.json” is not in the directory it is most probably called “flows.json”

git add flows_raspberrypi.json

or

git add .to add the whole directory

Before the commit you will need to let the pi know who is doing the commits with

git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

git config --global user.name "your_username"

Commit with

git commit -m “first commit”

Add remote origin (the repository we created earlier) changing username and repository_name to match your credentials

git remote add origin [email protected]:username/repository_name

If you mashed an extra key and added the wrong repository name like I did the first time, remove it and try adding again $git remote rm origin

Push with

git push -u origin master

-u links the local branch with the remote branch which means you may use git pull without any arguments.

Automate daily backup within node red

From Node-Red: In a new flow drop in a “inject” node a “exec” node and a “debug” node

Change the inject to repeat from “none” to “at a specific time”

Connect the inject to exec node

In exec node uncheck Append msg.payload and add to Command

cd ~/.node-red && git commit -a -m "daily commit" && git push

Connect the first output of the exec node to the debug node

Deploy flow

Test by clicking the inject tab.

I have also added a message sent to Telegram to confrim when a change has been committed but that is another project...