Create a private fork of a public repository

private_fork.md

The repository for the assignment is public and Github does not allow the creation of private forks for public repositories.

The correct way of creating a private frok by duplicating the repo is documented here.

For this assignment the commands are:

1. Create a bare clone of the repository. (This is temporary and will be removed so just do it wherever.)

   git clone --bare git@github.com:usi-systems/easytrace.git

2. Create a new private repository on Github and name it easytrace.

   If you are unable to create a private repo, you can request unlimited private repos as a studant by getting the student pack from Github.

3. Mirror-push your bare clone to your new easytrace repository.

   Replace <your_username> with your actual Github username in the url below.

   cd easytrace.git
   git push --mirror git@github.com:<your_username>/easytrace.git

4. Remove the temporary local repository you created in step 1.

   cd ..
   rm -rf easytrace.git

5. You can now clone your easytrace repository on your machine (in my case in the code folder).

   cd ~/code
   git clone git@github.com:<your_username>/easytrace.git

6. If you want, add the original repo as remote to fetch (potential) future changes. Make sure you also disable push on the remote (as you are not allowed to push to it anyway).

   git remote add upstream git@github.com:usi-systems/easytrace.git
   git remote set-url --push upstream DISABLE

   You can list all your remotes with git remote -v. You should see:

   origin	git@github.com:<your_username>/easytrace.git (fetch)
   origin	git@github.com:<your_username>/easytrace.git (push)
   upstream	git@github.com:usi-systems/easytrace.git (fetch)
   upstream	DISABLE (push)
   

   When you push, do so on origin with git push origin.

   When you want to pull changes from upstream you can just fetch the remote and rebase on top of your work.

     git fetch upstream
     git rebase upstream/master

   And solve the conflicts if any

7. Make your easytrace repo available in your Vagrant VM by adding the following to your Vagrantfile

   Replace "~/code/easytrace" with your local path to the easytrace repo.

   config.vm.synced_folder "~/code/easytrace", "/easytrace"
   

8. Reload your VM to enable the synced folder (in the folder containing your Vagrant file).

   vagrant reload 

9. The easytrace repo is available at /easytrace once you ssh into the machine.

Nowadays you should be able to just use the Import a Repository feature. Not sure if you can import someone's repo straight away, but I first did a public fork and then imported that as private.

So this just works cleanly and well. THANKS!

Thank you so much!!!

Nowadays you should be able to just use the Import a Repository feature. Not sure if you can import someone's repo straight away, but I first did a public fork and then imported that as private.

Thank you, it helped me!

If you use the "import" feature, can you then pull from the public repo and merge it into the private repo fork?

Thanks! Helped me big time.

When i make a private fork. can i later make pull requests to the original repository?

Im also interested in this.

When i make a private fork. can i later make pull requests to the original repository?

Im also interested in this.

I guess the solution is to have your fork public, then private fork your public fork, then make a patch on your public fork

@0mars you mean syncing your public fork (with upstream) and then merge your public fork with your private fork ? Or how do you patch your fork or even merge another repo (public fork into private repo) ?

Minor typo: The correct way of creating a private frok by duplicating the repo is documented here.
frok => fork

very helpful! Thanks!

Nowadays you should be able to just use the Import a Repository feature. Not sure if you can import someone's repo straight away, but I first did a public fork and then imported that as private.

Perfect.

Thanks for the explanation! Before I had noticed the github import repo solution, I made a bash script using your instructions and publish it here

https://github.com/gartisk/pseudo-fork

Thanks

its mentioned in docs
https://docs.github.com/en/github/creating-cloning-and-archiving-repositories/creating-a-repository-on-github/duplicating-a-repository

Thank you!

If you use the "import" feature, can you then pull from the public repo and merge it into the private repo fork?

I tried with my own personal project, yes you can still pull from the public repo. What I did was after I import the repo, I used these two commands:

git remote add upstream git@github.com:usi-systems/easytrace.git
git remote set-url --push upstream DISABLE

Thanks - just found this gist very useful!

Cheers!

Nice

Great!

Well written. Thanks

Thanks...
Useful!

Even though I do not use this repo, the process of making a private fork helped a lot, thank you!

Thx a lot.

Thank you!

Thank you. Step 6 should contain cd easytrace ;-)

Thank you. very helpful 💡💡

Thank you!

the one thing - it is not forking but duplicating, it means - you wouldn't be able to create a pull request

Very useful, thank you a lot! 👍

Thank you, this is great!

Very nice, thank you!

Thank you very much for this useful guide.
Is it possible to make a pull request to the remote public repo from your private fork/mirror?
If so, how would you do it?
Thank you
Best regards
Stefano

It's a useful guide. But it's not up to date for this case: "Mirroring a repository that contains Git Large File Storage objects"
Better to check the GitHub Documentation.

Thank you very much for this.
Is it possible to create a mirror of specific branch ?

Thank you, sir!

Grato! :)

Use this one:
https://github.com/new/import

Thanks

Thanks!

Thanks!

Petit filou !

Great job bro!

Thank you!

Really helpful, spent hours looking for this exact guide!

👍

Great tutorial.
Follow up question though. How would I go about making a pull request from my private form to the upstream? Normally when you form there's a button in GitHub to allow you to do this but since this is done manually the GitHub linking isn't there. 🤔

Thank you

Thanks 😃

Thx :)

According to this entry on the GitHub Docs, using GitHub's forking method means that you lose access to your fork if the source repo goes private and you are not authorized to view the now private repo. Making a private fork with this method seems like a no-brainer if you don't use backups and want to access your changes.

This is immensely useful thanks a lot!!

This is immensely useful thanks a lot!!

https://github.com/new/import also works! 😅

This is a game changer, thank you so much!

Great tutorial! Thanks a lot!

Thanks mate!

Thanks too !

Use this one: https://github.com/new/import

This is the easiest option by far. Just enter the URL of the Github repo you want to replicate and that's it

Use this one: https://github.com/new/import

This is the easiest option by far. Just enter the URL of the Github repo you want to replicate and that's it

Thanks man. the best solution.

According to this entry on the GitHub Docs, using GitHub's forking method means that you lose access to your fork if the source repo goes private and you are not authorized to view the now private repo. Making a private fork with this method seems like a no-brainer if you don't use backups and want to access your changes.

I suggest to read that entry again specifically this part here: Changing a public repository to a private repository

...a public repository's forks will remain public in their own separate repository network even after the upstream repository is made private...

Best Github guide I found so far. Straight to the point!

be careful that sometimes, when you make this bare clone, github will loose track of what branch is the default, so you have to configurate it

Use this one: https://github.com/new/import

This is the easiest option by far. Just enter the URL of the Github repo you want to replicate and that's it

Thanks man. the best solution.

Yup this works for me

For people using Visual Studio 2022:

The repository for the assignment is public and Github does not allow the creation of private forks for public repositories.

For this assignment the commands are:

1. Create a public fork of the repository easytrace.
   (This is temporary and will be removed.)

2. Clone your fork using Visual Studio 2022's Clone a repository feature.

   Replace <your_username> with your actual Github username in the url below.

   git@github.com:<your_username>/easytrace.git

3. Delete your public fork you made in step 1.

4. Create a new private repository on Github and name it easytrace.

   If you are unable to create a private repo, you can request unlimited private repos as a studant by getting
   the student pack from Github.

5. In Visual Studio 2022, open Git.

   Git > Open in Command Prompt

6. Mirror-push your bare clone to your new easytrace repository in the command prompt you just opened in step 5.

   Replace <your_username> with your actual Github username in the url below.

   git push --mirror git@github.com:<your_username>/easytrace.git