forks.md

What is a fork?

Not really ...

What is a fork?

• In general, when contributing to a repository, you only have read access.
• In other words, you can only pull (unless it is your own repository or access has been granted).
• In general, you cannot write changes. In other words, you do not have push access.
• You have to work on your own copy.
• In other words, you have to work on your own fork.

How to get a fork?

Browse to the original repository and click on the button Fork:

Time to practice!

Fork the practice repository:

https://github.com/LCSB-BioCore/basic-git-practice

Then, clone your fork to your home directory!

$ $ git clone git@github.com:<yourName>/basic-git-practice.git

Change to the practice directory with:

$ cd basic-git-practice

If you did not configure your SSH key, clone using HTTPS:

$ git clone https://github.com/<yourName>/basic-git-practice.git

A note on shortcuts ...

Any other rudimentary method such as

'I simply download the .zip and unzip it - works like a charm!'

shall be avoided!

Why?

How to update my fork?

As you have your own fork, it will not automatically be updated once the original repository is updated.

You have to update it yourself!

More on that later!