Add an upstream to forked repositories

[j-f1]

Description

Currently, cloning a forked repository adds an origin remote linking to the fork on GitHub. However, there is no way to fetch changes from the parent, because no remote is added for the parent.

Version

GitHub Desktop version: 0.7.0

OS version: macOS 10.12.3 (16D32)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Fork a repo on GitHub
2. Clone the fork with GitHub Desktop
3. Run git remote on the command line

Expected behavior: Two remotes are present, with origin linking to the fork and upstream or username-of-parent-repo linking to the parent repo

Actual behavior: Only the origin remote is present

Reproduces how often: Always

[iAmWillShepherd]

Thanks for creating this issue. We actually already have this on our roadmap for v1.1, but didn't have an issue for it yet.

[joshaber]

Scope for 1.1:

• Add an upstream remote to forked repositories
• Include in the periodic fetch

Designs TBD

[joshaber]

Is this something we'd do silently and automagically, or would we ask the user, similar to LFS setup?

[j-f1]

I think it should be automatic since they don’t have to use the remote if they don’t want to, and it shouldn’t cause any issues, unlike LFS which requires that you pay for storage space if you use too much.

[joshaber]

I'm leaning that way too. The only case that would cause problems is if they already have an upstream remote configured to something else. I gotta think those cases would be vanishingly rare tho.