将git repo从源代码合并到上游存储库

Question

Let's say I have an upstream repository, which I have forked to a new origin .

If I want to merge changes from the upstream repo into my forked origin, I would do something like this from within the fork:

$ git merge upstream/master

How would I go the other direction, from origin to upstream? Say I change something in the fork that I want to push to the parent — how would I go about that?

Is it just a matter of setting a new remote/upstream for the parent, using the fork as the parent's upstream ?

Answer 1

A fork is simply another clone of the original repository.

If you want to share commits/branches between them, add both of them as remote s of your local repository, and then you can decide how to merge and push your commits to which repository.

When you do git merge upstream/master , you join your current one with the master branch of your upstream remote. If you push those changes to upstream ( git push upstream master ), you'll update your upstream remote. If you push them to your origin remote ( git push origin master ), you'll be updating your original repository.

Answer 2

The only difference between a fork and a clone is about access .

If you clone some open-source project, you usually do a fork , as you can't push back into the central repository of that project, because you dont have the rights to do so. If everybody did have the right to push something into a project's central repo, a huge amount of spam would be pushed to popular projects (not to mention the people creating a more hidden spam, eg bad quality code, viruses, whatever).

In such a case, your only chance to get code back into the central repo is, to tell the projects maintainer to pull your code. He will review your code, and he thinks it is good, it will get merged into the central repo eventually. This is what is called a pull request .

HOWEVER

If you clone your own project, or the project you work on (you are the maintainer, or one of them), you have the rights to push into the central repo. So, in that case you just can push. If you don't work on open-source, you will usually have this case. Just set up the central repo as remote and push to it.