Forks

Overview

Teaching: 0 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• What are forks?

Objectives

• Understand how forks are created.

A fork of a repository is a new repository which shares code and history with the repository it was forked from - it is a server-side copy (clone) of the original repository. This is particularly useful when you want to work on an open source project where you don’t have write permissions to the repository.

Creating a fork and a local copy of the fork

In order to try out the commands in this lesson we need to set up a repository on GitHub:

• Go to https://github.com/NOC-OI/intermediate-git-test-repo
• Click on the Fork button on the top right and follow the instructions. When this is process is done, you will be directed to your copy of the repository on GitHub.
• Click the green Code button. Copy the SSH or HTTPS path to the repository to your local machine. Do not download a ZIP file.
• Create a local copy. The command will be similar to this but with your user name:

  git clone git@github.com:<user-name>/intermediate-git-test-repo.git
  

Exercise 1: Create a fork

Follow the above instructions to create a fork of the intermediate-git-test-repo. Then create a local copy of it.

We’ll discuss forking further in the Remotes and Branching Models chapters.

Key Points

• A fork is a server-side copy of a repository

• A fork can be created on Github through the Fork button in the top right