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Syncing a fork

Sync a fork of a repository to keep it up-to-date with the upstream repository.

Before you can sync your fork with an upstream repository, you must configure a remote that points to the upstream repository in Git.

  1. Open TerminalTerminalGit Bash.
  2. Change the current working directory to your local project.
  3. Fetch the branches and their respective commits from the upstream repository. Commits to BRANCHNAME will be stored in the local branch upstream/BRANCHNAME.
    $ git fetch upstream
    > remote: Counting objects: 75, done.
    > remote: Compressing objects: 100% (53/53), done.
    > remote: Total 62 (delta 27), reused 44 (delta 9)
    > Unpacking objects: 100% (62/62), done.
    > From https://hostname/ORIGINAL_OWNER/ORIGINAL_REPOSITORY
    >  * [new branch]      main     -> upstream/main
  4. Check out your fork's local default branch - in this case, we use main.
    $ git checkout main
    > Switched to branch 'main'
  5. Merge the changes from the upstream default branch - in this case, upstream/main - into your local default branch. This brings your fork's default branch into sync with the upstream repository, without losing your local changes.
    $ git merge upstream/main
    > Updating a422352..5fdff0f
    > Fast-forward
    >  README                    |    9 -------
    >  README.md                 |    7 ++++++
    >  2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
    >  delete mode 100644 README
    >  create mode 100644 README.md
    If your local branch didn't have any unique commits, Git will instead perform a "fast-forward":
    $ git merge upstream/main
    > Updating 34e91da..16c56ad
    > Fast-forward
    >  README.md                 |    5 +++--
    >  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Tip: Syncing your fork only updates your local copy of the repository. To update your fork on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, you must push your changes.