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Git 7: Forking

Key Terms

  • fork - make a copy of a remote repo on GitHub from one account to another.
  • pull request - ask the upstream maintainer to pull in changes from origin.
  • upstream - the name for a remote read-only repository
  • origin - the name for a remote read-and-write repository

A Typical Setup for Forked Code

Branching vs Forking

  • Branching is a feature of Git, you've used branching already
  • Forking is a feature of GitHub
    • A fork is a personal copy of another user's repository that lives on your account. Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without affecting the original. Forks remain attached to the original, allowing you to submit a pull request to the original's author to update with your changes. You can also keep your fork up to date by pulling in updates from the original. - GitHub Glossary
    • When you fork a repository, you get all of the branches the other person posted on GitHub
    • Pull requests however, don't acknowledge forks since they are a feature of GitHub and not Git. So while you can colloquially say "I'm issuing a pull request from my fork to yours", really what you're saying is "I'm issuing a pull request from the master branch of my fork to the master branch of your fork". You can actually issue a pull request from any branch in your forked repository to any branch in the original repository.

Here is a good example repository that makes use of issues and pull requests: https://github.com/openelections/

#c5f015 Example (shorter - no local repository)

  1. Step 1: Fork my repository dmil/simple-website.

  2. Go to Settings > GitHub Pages and select the "master" branch as the source. Wait a few seconds and then go to http://your-username.github.io/simple-website to make sure github pages is set up correctly.

  3. Normally I'd clone the forked repository locally onto my computer, push changes to the fork, then issue a pull request. For the sake of time lets cut that step out. Make one small edit in your fork of this code directly in GitHub.

  4. Create a pull request. Note that this time we are creating pull request across repositories instead of just across branches within the same repository. The base will be dmil/simple-website/master while the compare will be your-username/simple-website/master.

  5. Compare your website http://your-username.github.io/simple-website to mine: http://dhrumilmehta.com/simple-website/

  6. I will now merge your pull requests and we can see what changes you all make to the website over time. There's a good chance we may run into some merge conflicts as well.

#c5f015 Example (Longer)

  1. Step 1: Fork my repository dmil/simple-website.

  2. Go to Settings > GitHub Pages and select the "master" branch as the source. Wait a few seconds and then go to http://your-username.github.io/simple-website to make sure github pages is set up correctly.

  3. Clone the forked repository to your Development folder.

    git clone [email protected]:XXXX/XXXX.git

  4. Create a feature branch with your name.

    git checkout -b <your name>

  5. Make a random change.

  6. Commit and push the change.

    git commit -m "describe your random change here"
git push

  7. Create a pull request. Note that this time we are creating pull request across repositories instead of just across branches within the same repository. The base will be dmil/simple-website/master while the compare will be your-username/simple-website/feature-branch-name.

  8. Create another pull request within the fork itself where the base is your own master branch. More explicitly, the base is your-username/simple-website/master and the compare is your-username/simple-website/feature-branch-name. Merge this pull request.

    Note: Draw diagram on board

  9. Compare your website http://your-username.github.io/simple-website to mine: http://dhrumilmehta.com/simple-website/

  10. I will now merge your pull requests and we can see what changes you all make to the website over time. There's a good chance we may run into some merge conflicts as well.

Woohoo! You just collaborated open-source.

Open source collaboration is great for:

  • Not duplicating work
  • Collaborating accross organizations
  • Interacting with people - sometimes making an issue or a pull request can lead to friendship (or sources or collaborators)
  • Reader feedback
  • Collective debugging, finding critical errors faster (often also leads to better security and better data quality).
  • Building upon someone else's project
  • Feuding
  • Philosophical Reasons
  • Being nerdy?

More Links

#f03c15 Try It

  1. Find another partner, and fork their <username>-simple-website.
  2. Clone your fork onto your local computer and create a feature branch called endorsement.
  3. Put an endorsement on their webpage as the last item on the site. 
    <h2> Endorsements </h2>
<p> You are a really cool person. - Dhrumil</p>
  4. Commit this endorsement and push it to your fork..
  5. Issue a pull request back to that person's github repo.

Pull Requests and Issues in the Wild

#f03c15 Try It

Make an issue on my simple-website repository: https://github.com/dmil/simple-website