I’ve used an “old” version of Gitlab where the (bare) repositories of each project where visible under the data directory. I had setup my external ticket system to read these repos (in read-only access) and auto-link changes that have been made along the development. However, when I updated to version 13.11.3 Gitaly converted my repos to its specific hashed structure. Now I’m not able to read them anymore (without searching though the folder structure and in the end finding the correct repo) without cloning the repos to an intermediat location and reading it from there (aside the fact that it’ll double my required disk space). Is there a way of converting the repo layout back to the “old” one before gitaly?
No, legacy storage, eg: repos that are not hashed are no longer supported. See this link: Redirecting...
In GitLab 13.0, legacy storage is deprecated. If you haven’t migrated to hashed storage yet, check the migration instructions. Support for legacy storage is scheduled to be removed in GitLab 14.0. In GitLab 13.0 and later, switching new projects to legacy storage is not possible. The option to choose between hashed and legacy storage in the Admin Area is disabled.
Unless the Gitlab API can be utilised for it, then no I have no idea sorry as I don’t do anything like that with my repos. Maybe you can check the Gitlab API docs and see if that offers anything.