General GitHub Workflow

Basic Setup

Forking a repository on GitHub involves creating your copy of someone else's repository. It's a fundamental feature of GitHub that allows you to contribute to projects, experiment with changes, or use the code as a starting point for your own project.

1. Creating a Fork: On GitHub, you'll find a "Fork" button on the top right of a repository page. Clicking this creates a copy of the repository under your GitHub account.

2. Your Copy: The forked repository now exists in your GitHub account, and you can make changes to it without affecting the original repository. You can clone this fork to your local machine and start working on it just like you would with any other repository.

3. Cloning: To create a local copy, find the "Clone or download" button on your GitHub repository page. Clicking this button reveals a URL that you can use to clone the repository to your local machine using the git clone command. The full command looks like this:

git clone <url>

Notice that the repository on your local machine and the repository on GitHub are now linked, but they do not sync automatically. To achieve this, you must manually push and pull changes between them using the git push and git pull commands.

Making Changes

The basic workflow for making changes to a repository is as follows:

1. Create a Branch: When you're working on a project, you're going to want to create a branch for each new feature or bug fix you implement. This keeps your changes organized and allows you to work on multiple features at once without affecting the main codebase. To create a branch, use the git checkout command with the -b flag:

git checkout -b <branch-name>

2. Make Changes: Once you've created a branch, you can start making changes to the codebase. You can use the git status command to see which files have been modified, and the git diff command to see the exact changes you've made. When you're ready to commit your changes, use the git add command to add the files you want to commit, and the git commit command to commit them:

git add <file1> <file2> ... # or `git add .` to add all files
git commit -m "Commit message"

3. Push Changes: Once you've committed your changes, you can push them to your GitHub repository using the git push command:

git push origin <branch-name>

4. Create a Pull Request: Once you've pushed your changes to your GitHub repository, you can create a pull request to merge them into the main codebase. To do this, go to your repository page on GitHub and click the "New pull request" button. This will take you to a page where you can review your changes and create a pull request.

Note that any changes you make to your local repository after creating a pull request will be included in the pull request automatically. This means that you can continue working on your branch while the pull request is being reviewed.

Note also that you any changes you do locally must be pushed to your GitHub repository before they can be included in the pull request.

5. Review Changes: Once you've created a pull request, you can review your changes and make sure everything looks good before merging them into the main codebase. You can also use this time to discuss your changes with other contributors and make sure everyone is on the same page.

6. Merge Changes: Once you and the collaborators are happy with your changes, you can merge them into the main codebase using the "Merge pull request" button on GitHub (or this will be done by one of the maintainers). This will merge your changes into the main codebase and close the pull request.

Note that you can only merge a pull request if there are no conflicts between your changes and the main codebase. If there are conflicts, you will need to resolve them before you can merge the pull request.

Staying Up to Date

When you're working on a project, it's important to stay up to date with the latest changes in the main codebase. This ensures that your changes are compatible with the latest version of the codebase, and that you don't accidentally overwrite someone else's work.

To sync your GitHub forked copy with the source repository, you can click the sync button on your GitHub repository page. This will pull changes from the main codebase into your GitHub repository, and allow you to continue working on your branch without affecting the main codebase.

To stay up to date between your GitHub copy and local copy, you can use the git pull command to pull changes from the main codebase into your local repository. This will merge any changes that have been made since you last pulled into your local repository, and allow you to continue working on your branch without affecting the main codebase.

git pull origin main

Note that if you have uncommitted changes in your local repository, you will need to commit them before you can pull changes from the main codebase.

Resolving Conflicts

When you merge a pull request, GitHub will automatically try to merge your changes into the main codebase. If there are any conflicts between your changes and the main codebase, GitHub will notify you and allow you to resolve them manually.

To resolve conflicts, you can use the git merge command to merge the main codebase into your local repository. This will allow you to resolve any conflicts manually before merging your changes into the main codebase.

git merge origin main

Further information

You can read more about the GitHub flow here (opens in a new tab).