How do I fetch a branch on someone else's fork on GitHub?

git github git-branch git-fork git-fetch
Christian picture Christian · Feb 5, 2012 · Viewed 73.2k times · Source

I've forked from a repo on GitHub. I want to get the code from a branch on another user's fork.

Must I clone this user's whole repo to a separate local repo or can I do something like git checkout link_to_the_other_users_branch?

Answer

amalloy picture amalloy · Feb 5, 2012 
$ git remote add theirusername [email protected]:theirusername/reponame.git
$ git fetch theirusername
$ git checkout -b mynamefortheirbranch theirusername/theirbranch

Note that there are multiple "correct" URIs you can use for the remote when you add it in the first step.

  • [email protected]:theirusername/reponame.git is an SSH-based URI
  • https://github.com/theirusername/reponame.git is an HTTP URI

Which one you prefer to use will depend on your situation. GitHub has a help article explaining the difference and helping you choose: Which remote URL should I use?

Related questions

Best practices on GitHub repos, to Fork or create a New Branch

I'm looking for the best practice, forking vs branching on GitHub. I've read this Forking vs. Branching in GitHub, but it's not relevant. Our team of 5 people are working on the same repository, and we would like to avoid merging …

Read More
How to push a single file in a subdirectory to Github (not master)

I have changed a single file in a subdirectory of my repository and I want to push just that file to Github. I've made a small change to one file, and I don't want to re-upload the entire repository. It …

Read More
What is the difference between origin and upstream on GitHub?

What is the difference between origin and upstream on GitHub? When a git branch -a command is done, some branches have a prefix of origin (remotes/origin/..) while others have a prefix of upstream (remotes/upstream/..).

Read More