Jeremy Schuurmans

Posted on Oct 11, 2019

How to sync your fork with the parent repository

#hacktoberfest #opensource #git

Right now, my fork of dev.to displays this message:

How do I update my fork so that it's the same as thepracticaldev:master?

cd into the directory of the cloned repo

Running git remote -v will display the current remotes

Add the parent repository as a new remote, specifying it as the upstream repository. In this example, we will run



git remote add upstream https://github.com/thepracticaldev/dev.to.git

Verify with git remote -v

Fetch the upstream repository with git fetch upstream

The commits that are different from my fork are now in separate branches in my local environment. Let's merge those. git merge upstream/master

Now my cloned repo looks just like the upstream repository.

NOTE: any changes made locally before the merge are preserved, so you don't have to worry about losing any of your work when you do this.

From now on, whenever I need to sync with the upstream repository, all I need to do is fetch and merge.

At this point, running git push will update the forked repo and display this message:

Top comments (13)

Warren Parad • Oct 13 '19 • Edited

Wow, after getting some links here, I was sure as hell expecting to have an automated solution, like a scheduled task to automate this, or a link to a github article on how to set up fork syncing.

... Disappointed.

What's a much better thing to do is directly track upstream instead of origin.

[remote "origin"]
        url = git@github.com:wparad/forked-repository.git
        fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[remote "upstream"]
        url = git@github.com:source/original-repository.git
        fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/upstream/*
[branch "master"]
        remote = upstream
        merge = refs/heads/master

Then just ignore your master branch fetched from origin. If you want to know how to set this up from the CLI:

git remote add upstream upstream_url
git branch --set-upstream-to upstream/master

You can even overwrite the origin master ref locally, so that it is always the same as the source:

[remote "upstream"]
        url = git@github.com:source/original-repository.git
        fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/upstream/*
# This next line always overwrites the origin ref to the upstream ref
# This is purely optional
        fetch = +refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

You'll need to match sure that you always git fetch --all, but that can be easily solved with a git alias.

Also if you are using Gitlab, there is already a feature to automatically support this (from three years ago: about.gitlab.com/blog/2016/12/01/h...)

maxdevjs • Oct 13 '19

wow :O I have to try this, not grasped it ... master branch fetched from origin , why I'd fetch from origin?

Warren Parad • Oct 15 '19

By default your local branch master is set to track changes from origin. However what you really want is master tracking changes from upstream. So I'm just suggesting to ignore origin/master as a mindset shift, and then everything works out as you would expect. Sure your remote origin/master is wrong, but who cares.

Jeremy Schuurmans • Oct 13 '19

Thank you for sharing that! I hadn’t seen that before, and it’s always nice to learn new techniques. I can definitely see the benefit of an automated solution as well. Food for thought 🤔

Daniel Schildt • Oct 15 '19

Another option is to create a script (for example: scripts/pull-changes-from-upstream.sh) to the repository for helping new contributors. Then people already have a helper available to keep them on track more easily. Better to have good defaults (whatever those are), and automate basics so people don't have to quess what is the development workflow of a project.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Add upstream Git repository
# git remote add upstream URL_OF_GIT_REPOSITORY

# Merge latest changes from the upstream Git repository
git fetch upstream
git checkout master
git merge upstream/master

WEPUKHULU TIMOTHY • Oct 12 '19

How can I use git desktop bro

Jeremy Schuurmans • Oct 12 '19

Hey! I’d love to help if I can, but I’m not sure what you’re asking. Are you asking how to use git in your local environment, or how to use GitHub Desktop?

WEPUKHULU TIMOTHY • Oct 12 '19

Github desktop man am owky with git but for the desktop just freeks me out

Jeremy Schuurmans • Oct 12 '19

I'm not familiar with GitHub Desktop since (as far as I know) it's not available for Linux, but I did see this post that might point you in the right direction:

The beginner's guide to contributing to projects with GitHub Desktop

Thea ・ Oct 13 '18 ・ 3 min read

#opensource #github #beginners #hacktoberfest

It looks like a really good one. I hope it helps!

maxdevjs • Oct 13 '19

Hey, great article :)

I am curious: you have different commits in your master compared to upstream because not using branches for your changes or something else?

Jeremy Schuurmans • Oct 13 '19

any changes made locally before the merge are preserved, so you don't have to worry about losing any of your work when you do this.

Are you referencing this line?

I don’t think I had any commits in master when I put this together, but you bring up a good point. I think it would have been clearer if I had mentioned to checkout master before merging. I was just trying to say that any local changes anyone might have won’t be overwritten in the merge, but now that I think about it more, perhaps it wasn’t totally necessary for me to make that point.