124 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
124 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Updating Forked Repositories on GitHub
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date: 2015-06-18
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excerpt:
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I just had to update a repo that I forked on GitHub. This is how I did it. Did
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I do it the correct way?
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tags:
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- git
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- github
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- phpstorm
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- sculpin
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---
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I just had to update a repo that I forked on GitHub. This is how I did it. Did I
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do it the correct way?
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## Sculpin
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People may or may not know, but this site runs on
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[Sculpin](https://sculpin.io/), a PHP based static site generator (this may be
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the first time that I've mentioned it on this site). The source code is hosted
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on [GitHub](https://github.com/opdavies/oliverdavies.uk), and I've listed the
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site on the [Community page](https://sculpin.io/community/) on the Sculpin
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website.
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To get it there, I forked the
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[main sculpin.io repository](https://github.com/sculpin/sculpin.io) so that I
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had [my own copy](https://github.com/opdavies/sculpin.io), created a branch,
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made my additions and submitted a pull request. Easy enough!
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## New Domain
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In the last week or so, I've changed this site URL from .co.uk to just .uk, and
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also updated the GitHub repo URL to match, so I wanted to update the Community
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page to use the correct URL.
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There had been commits to the main repo since my pull request was merged, I
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didn't want to delete my repo and fork again, and making any changes against and
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old codebase isn't best practice, so I wanted to merge the latest changes into
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my forked repo before I did anything else - just to check that I didn't break
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anything!
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## Updating my Local Repo
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I had a quick look for a _Update my fork_ button or something, but couldn't see
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one to I added the main repository as an additional remote called `upstream` and
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fetched the changes.
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```language-bash
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$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/sculpin/sculpin.io.git
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$ git fetch upstream
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remote: Counting objects: 33, done.
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remote: Total 33 (delta 6), reused 6 (delta 6), pack-reused 27
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Unpacking objects: 100% (33/33), done.
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From https://github.com/sculpin/sculpin.io
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* [new branch] master -> upstream/master
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* [new branch] pr/4 -> upstream/pr/4
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```
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Now my local site knows about the upstream repo, and I could rebase the changes
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(`git pull upstream master` should have worked too) and push them back to
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origin.
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```language-bash
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$ git rebase upstream/master
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First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it...
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...
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Fast-forwarded master to upstream/master.
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$ git push origin master
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```
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This seems to have worked OK - the commits are still authored by the correct
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people and at the correct date and time - and I went ahead and created a new
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feature branch and pull request based on that master branch.
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{% include 'figure' with {
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image: {
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src: '/images/blog/forked-github-repo-commits.png',
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alt: 'The commits on my master branch after rebasing',
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},
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caption: 'The commits on my forked master branch after rebasing and pushing. All good!',
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} %}
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{% include 'figure' with {
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image: {
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src: '/images/blog/my-commit-to-the-rebased-branch.png',
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alt: 'The new feature branch with my additional commit',
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},
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caption: 'The new feature branch with the new commit.',
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} %}
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## Is There a Better Way?
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Did I miss something? Is there a recommended and/or better way to update your
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forked repos, maybe through the UI? Please
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<a href="https://twitter.com/?status=Rebasing GitHub Forks: @{{ site.twitter.user }}">send
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me a tweet</a> with any comments.
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## Up
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**December 2015:** I’ve found that PhpStorm has an option available to rebase a
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fork from within the IDE. This is within the _VCS_ > _Git_ menu.
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I believe that it will use an existing "upstream" remote if it exists, otherwise
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it will add one automatically for you, linking to the repository that you forked
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from.
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Once you’ve completed the rebase, you can then push your updated branch either
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from the terminal, or using the _Push_ command from the same menu.
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It would be great to see something similar added to
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[hub](https://hub.github.com) too (I’ve created
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[an issue](https://github.com/github/hub/issues/1047))!
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## Resources
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- [PhpStorm - Advanced GitHub Integration: Rebase My GitHub Fork (blog post)](http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2011/02/advanced-github-integration-rebase-my-github-fork/)
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- [Rebasing a GitHub fork inside PhpStorm (video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twy-dhVgN4k)
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- [hub](https://hub.github.com) - makes Git better with GitHub
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