Git sync a forked repo

Refer to:

Configuring a remote for a fork
Syncing a fork

When we fork a repo, we get a forked remote repo, then we clone to local.

If the repo we fork from is updated, we wish to sync with it, we can do this:

Before we can sync with an upstream repo, we must first config a remote which points to to upstream.

• List currently configured remote repos for our fork:

git remote -v

• Specify a new remote upstream repo which will be synced with the forked repo:

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

• Make sure the new remote upstream is ready:

git remote -v

$ git remote -v
origin  http:XXX.git (fetch)
origin  http:XXX.git (push)
upstream        http:YYY (fetch)
upstream        http:YYY (push)

• Fetch the branches and their respective commits from the upstream repo. Commits to master will be stored in a local branch upstream/master.

git fetch upstream

• Checkout to master branch

git checkout master

• Merge the changes from upstream/master to our local master. This brings our forked repo's master branch in sync with the upstream's repo, without losing our local changes.

git merge upstream/master  
# If our branch doesn't have any unique commits, git will instead perform a fast-forward.

• These steps will make our local project up to date, but if we want to update our own remote repo, perhaps a git push origin master is needed to keep your own remote repo up to date.