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Fork and clone

Fork

For this exercise

Since GitHub doesn't allow forking a repository to the same account, create a new organization to act as a different contributor. This setup lets you practice the standard cross-account collaboration workflow.

Click the Fork button on the GitHub project page.

Fork

This creates a copy of the project under your GitHub account.

Forked account

Your fork is independent from the original (upstream), but stays aware of its changes.

Forked repo

Conventions: origin and upstream

origin (Your Fork)

  • origin refers to your personal fork on GitHub.
  • Example: 
    origin → https://github.com/yjchoi1-personal/project-dev-demo-fork.git

upstream (The Original Repository)

  • upstream is a conventional name (not built into Git) for the original repository you forked from.
  • You usually add upstream manually in your local Git repository: 
    git remote add upstream https://github.com/ORIGINAL_OWNER/project-dev-demo.git
  • This helps you keep track of updates from the source project.

Clone

Copy the repository URL from your fork.

Copy URL

Then clone it to your local machine.

cd <your-project-parent-directory>
git clone <fork-url>
# git clone https://github.com/yjchoi1-personal/project-dev-demo-fork.git

Your local copy is now linked to your forked remote.

Project in VS Code

See which remote is linked to your local project.

git remote -v