<p>Suppose you fork <a href="http://github.com/wycats/merb-core/tree/master">http://github.com/wycats/merb-core/tree/master</a> by clicking on the “fork” button at the top of that page.<br />
<img src="http://img.skitch.com/20080303-q2aceaadcqk59kqck4b199bdmh.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>(Image from the <a href="http://railsontherun.com/2008/3/3/how-to-use-github-and-submit-a-patch">Rails on the Run tutorial</a>)</p>
<p>That copies the repository to your github account, with username <code>username</code> (for example). Once you’ve <a href="http://github.com/guides/providing-your-ssh-key">provided your <span class="caps">SSH</span> key</a>, you can <a href="http://github.com/guides/getting-a-copy-of-your-github-repo">check out this remote branch to a directory on your local computer</a> with git’s clone command:<br />
<pre class="console"><br />
git clone git@github.com:username/merb-core.git<br />
</pre></p>
<p>The above command copies the repository to the directory in which it is run with the following remote reference in your <code>.git/config</code> file<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>:<br />
<pre><code>
[remote "origin"]
url = git@github.com:username/merb-core.git
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
</code></pre></p>
<p>To also be able to pull in updates from <code>wycats/merb-core</code>, add it to your remote references:<br />
<pre class="console"><br />
git remote add wycats git://github.com/wycats/merb-core.git<br />
</pre></p>
<p>The above command adds the following remote reference to your <code>.git/config</code> file<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>:<br />
<pre><code>
[remote "wycats"]
url = git://github.com/wycats/merb-core.git
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/wycats/*
</code></pre></p>
<h2>Manually Pull from Each Repository</h2>
<p>Once the remote branch is created (You only have to do this once.), you can pull in new changes:<br />
<pre class="console"><br />
git checkout master<br />
git pull wycats master<br />
</pre></p>
<p>If you don’t wish for an automatic merge to happen, you can instead fetch and merge:<br />
<pre class="console"><br />
git checkout master<br />
git fetch wycats<br />
git merge wycats/master<br />
</pre></p>
<h2>Shortcut: Pull from Both Repositories in One Command</h2>
<p>NB: I’m not sure why, but for this shortcut to work for me, I had to first pull manually once (as instructed above).</p>
<p>To make things easier, you can create an alias that fetches from <code>origin</code> and <code>wycats</code> and octopus merges them with the current branch on your local machine. Paste the following in your <code>.git/config</code> file<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>:</p>
<pre>
[alias]
pu = !"git fetch origin -v; git fetch wycats -v; git merge wycats/master"
</pre>
<p>You can delete both <code>-v</code>‘s, which stand for verbose, if you don’t care for git to explain what’s happening in detail. Now, all you have to type to stay completely up to date is:<br />
<pre class="console"><br />
git pu<br />
</pre></p>
<p class="footnote" id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> To get a better understanding of git configuration files, go to the <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-config.html">git-config(1) Manual Page</a>, search for “syntax”, and read the first few paragraphs of the “Configuration File” section. Then, skim the “Variables” section to get a sense of what variables you can configure.</p>
2008-06-06T13:39:30-07:00
48
keeping-a-git-fork-in-sync-with-the-forked-repo
Keeping a git fork in sync with the forked repo
2009-08-16T09:57:14-07:00
106587