How do I update a GitHub forked repository?

Question

I recently forked a project and applied several fixes. I then created a pull request which was then accepted.

A few days later another change was made by another contributor. So my fork doesn't contain that change.

How can I get that change into my fork? Do I need to delete and re-create my fork when I have further changes to contribute? Or is there an update button?

Answer 1

A lot of answers end up moving your fork one commit ahead of the parent repository. This answer summarizes the steps found here which will move your fork to the same commit as the parent.

1. Change directory to your local repository.

   • Switch to master branch if you are not git checkout master

2. Add the parent as a remote repository, git remote add upstream <repo-location>

3. Issue git fetch upstream

4. Issue git rebase upstream/master

   • At this stage you check that commits what will be merged by typing git status

5. Issue git push origin master

For more information about these commands, refer to step 3.

Answer 2

Follow the below steps. I tried them and it helped me.

Checkout to your branch

Syntax: git branch yourDevelopmentBranch
Example: git checkout master

Pull source repository branch for getting the latest code

Syntax: git pull https://github.com/tastejs/awesome-app-ideas master
Example: git pull https://github.com/ORIGINAL_OWNER/ORIGINAL_REPO.git BRANCH_NAME

Answer 3

When you have cloned your forked repository, go to the directory path where your clone resides and the few lines in your Git Bash Terminal.

$ cd project-name

$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/user-name/project-name.git
 # Adding the upstream -> the main repo with which you wanna sync

$ git remote -v # you will see the upstream here 

$ git checkout master # see if you are already on master branch

$ git fetch upstream

And there you are good to go. All updated changes in the main repository will be pushed into your fork repository.

The "fetch" command is indispensable for staying up-to-date in a project: only when performing a "git fetch" will you be informed about the changes your colleagues pushed to the remote server.

You can still visit here for further queries

Answer 4

In your local clone of your forked repository, you can add the original GitHub repository as a "remote". ("Remotes" are like nicknames for the URLs of repositories - origin is one, for example.) Then you can fetch all the branches from that upstream repository, and rebase your work to continue working on the upstream version. In terms of commands that might look like:

# Add the remote, call it "upstream":

git remote add upstream https://github.com/whoever/whatever.git

# Fetch all the branches of that remote into remote-tracking branches,
# such as upstream/master:

git fetch upstream

# Make sure that you're on your master branch:

git checkout master

# Rewrite your master branch so that any commits of yours that
# aren't already in upstream/master are replayed on top of that
# other branch:

git rebase upstream/master

If you don't want to rewrite the history of your master branch, (for example because other people may have cloned it) then you should replace the last command with git merge upstream/master. However, for making further pull requests that are as clean as possible, it's probably better to rebase.

---

If you've rebased your branch onto upstream/master you may need to force the push in order to push it to your own forked repository on GitHub. You'd do that with:

git push -f origin master

You only need to use the -f the first time after you've rebased.

Answer 5

As a complement to this answer, I was looking for a way to update all remote branches of my cloned repo (origin) from upstream branches in one go. This is how I did it.

This assumes you have already configured an upstream remote pointing at the source repository (where origin was forked from) and have synced it with git fetch upstream.

Then run:

for branch in $(git ls-remote --heads upstream|sed 's#^.*refs/heads/##'); do git push origin refs/remotes/upstream/$branch:refs/heads/$branch; done

The first part of this command lists all heads in the upstream remote repo and removes the SHA-1 followed by refs/heads/ branch name prefix.

Then for each of these branches, it pushes the local copy of the upstream remote tracking branch (refs/remotes/upstream/<branch> on local side) directly to the remote branch on origin (refs/heads/<branch> on remote side).

Any of these branch sync commands may fail for one of two reasons: either the upstream branch have been rewritten, or you have pushed commits on that branch to your fork. In the first case where you haven't committed anything to the branch on your fork it is safe to push forcefully (Add the -f switch; i.e. git push -f in the command above). In the other case this is normal as your fork branch have diverged and you can't expect the sync command to work until your commits have been merged back into upstream.

Answer 6

Here is GitHub's official document on Syncing a fork:

Syncing a fork

The Setup

Before you can sync, you need to add a remote that points to the upstream repository. You may have done this when you originally forked.

Tip: Syncing your fork only updates your local copy of the repository; it does not update your repository on GitHub.

$ git remote -v
# List the current remotes
origin  https://github.com/user/repo.git (fetch)
origin  https://github.com/user/repo.git (push)

$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/otheruser/repo.git
# Set a new remote

$ git remote -v
# Verify new remote
origin    https://github.com/user/repo.git (fetch)
origin    https://github.com/user/repo.git (push)
upstream  https://github.com/otheruser/repo.git (fetch)
upstream  https://github.com/otheruser/repo.git (push)

Syncing

There are two steps required to sync your repository with the upstream: first you must fetch from the remote, then you must merge the desired branch into your local branch.

Fetching

Fetching from the remote repository will bring in its branches and their respective commits. These are stored in your local repository under special branches.

$ git fetch upstream
# Grab the upstream remote's branches
remote: Counting objects: 75, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (53/53), done.
remote: Total 62 (delta 27), reused 44 (delta 9)
Unpacking objects: 100% (62/62), done.
From https://github.com/otheruser/repo
 * [new branch]      master     -> upstream/master

We now have the upstream's master branch stored in a local branch, upstream/master

$ git branch -va
# List all local and remote-tracking branches
* master                  a422352 My local commit
  remotes/origin/HEAD     -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/master   a422352 My local commit
  remotes/upstream/master 5fdff0f Some upstream commit

Merging

Now that we have fetched the upstream repository, we want to merge its changes into our local branch. This will bring that branch into sync with the upstream, without losing our local changes.

$ git checkout master
# Check out our local master branch
Switched to branch 'master'

$ git merge upstream/master
# Merge upstream's master into our own
Updating a422352..5fdff0f
Fast-forward
 README                    |    9 -------
 README.md                 |    7 ++++++
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 README
 create mode 100644 README.md

If your local branch didn't have any unique commits, git will instead perform a "fast-forward":

$ git merge upstream/master
Updating 34e91da..16c56ad
Fast-forward
 README.md                 |    5 +++--
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Tip: If you want to update your repository on GitHub, follow the instructions here