Fork and pull request workflow in Git - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Fork and Pull Request Workflow

📖 Scenario: You want to contribute a small fix to an open-source project on GitHub. You will use the fork and pull request workflow to safely make your changes and propose them to the original project.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to fork a repository, clone your fork locally, create a new branch, make a change, push it to your fork, and open a pull request to the original repository.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the exact repository URL https://github.com/example/project.git

Create a fork on GitHub (simulated by a command)

Clone your fork using the URL https://github.com/yourusername/project.git

Create a branch called fix-typo

Make a change by creating a file fix.txt with content Fixed typo

Commit the change with message Fix typo in documentation

Push the branch fix-typo to your fork

Open a pull request from fix-typo branch of your fork to the main branch of the original repository

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Open-source contributors use fork and pull request workflows to safely propose changes without affecting the original project directly.

💼 Career

Understanding this workflow is essential for collaborating on shared codebases in software development jobs and open-source projects.

1

Fork and clone the repository

Simulate forking the repository by creating a new remote called origin with URL https://github.com/yourusername/project.git. Then clone your fork locally using git clone https://github.com/yourusername/project.git.

Git

# Simulate fork by adding remote origin
# Then clone your fork
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git remote add origin <url> to add your fork as a remote. Then use git clone <url> to copy it locally.

2

Create a new branch for your fix

Create a new branch called fix-typo using git checkout -b fix-typo.

Git

git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/project.git
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/project.git
# Create a new branch called fix-typo
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git checkout -b fix-typo to create and switch to the new branch.

3

Make a change and commit it

Create a file named fix.txt with the content Fixed typo. Then stage the file using git add fix.txt and commit with the message Fix typo in documentation using git commit -m "Fix typo in documentation".

Git

git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/project.git
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/project.git
git checkout -b fix-typo
# Create fix.txt with content 'Fixed typo'
# Stage and commit the file
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "Fixed typo" > fix.txt to create the file. Then add and commit it with the exact message.

4

Push your branch and open a pull request

Push the branch fix-typo to your fork using git push origin fix-typo. Then simulate opening a pull request from your fix-typo branch to the main branch of the original repository by printing Pull request opened from fix-typo to main.

Git

git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/project.git
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/project.git
git checkout -b fix-typo
echo "Fixed typo" > fix.txt
git add fix.txt
git commit -m "Fix typo in documentation"
# Push the fix-typo branch to origin
# Print 'Pull request opened from fix-typo to main'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git push origin fix-typo to upload your branch. Then print the message exactly as shown.