Syncing a Github fork

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

• Open Terminal.

• Change the current working directory to your local project.

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

  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://github.com/ORIGINAL_OWNER/ORIGINAL_REPOSITORY
  >  * [new branch]      master     -> upstream/master
  

• Check out your fork’s local master branch.

  git checkout master
  
  > Switched to branch 'master'
  

• Merge the changes from upstream/master into your local master branch. This brings your fork’s master branch into sync with the upstream repository, without losing your local changes.

  git merge upstream/master
  
  > 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 bran ch didn’t have any unique commits, Git will instead perform a “fast-forward”:

    git merge upstream/master

    > 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 GitHub, you must push your changes.