Introduction

I have a couple of forked git repositories. When I want to add custom code it’s useful to get the latest available code from the “original” repository. Before I can do that I have to sync my fork with the latest available code.

The steps to do this are explained extensively in the Github help, this is merely a placeholder for my own documentation.

Some online resources

• https://help.github.com/articles/syncing-a-fork/
• https://help.github.com/articles/configuring-a-remote-for-a-fork/

Configuring a remote for a fork

The first step that you will have to take is to add the remote repository as an ‘upstream’ repository.

git remote add upstream https://github.com/ORIGINAL_OWNER/ORIGINAL_REPOSITORY.git

Check that it has been added with

git remote -v

Sync the fork

Once the remote authoritative repository has been added as upstream you’ll have to sync from the upstream code.

git fetch upstream
git checkout master
git merge upstream/master

Once this is done you can update your local repository with Github and you’ll have an updated version.