CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitgithubgit-branch
Matthew Mitchell
Matthew Mitchell

Reputation: 5383

Git pulling a branch from another repository?

I have a local git repository which is a clone of a repository on github. Someone has forked the repository and made changes in a new branch on a new repository. I want to move this new branch into my repository (locally to work on it first before merging with the master).

I tried creating a new branch and then pulling from the forked repository but it complains because the new branch is a copy of the master branch as well as the local file changes, so it says

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge.

So how can I pull the branch in the other repository into a new branch on my local repository?

I hope that makes sense. If not, this is my repository: https://github.com/MatthewLM/cbitcoin

As you can see, someone has created a new repository with the branch "linuxBuild": https://github.com/austonst/cbitcoin/tree/linuxBuild

I want that branch on my local repository for MatthewLM/cbitcoin.

How can I do this?

Upvotes: 133

Views: 132742

Answers (4)

FullStackCoder
FullStackCoder

Reputation: 530

If you want to fetch without tracking from (repository1 > branch1) to (repository2 > branch2),

  • cd repository2
  • git fetch repository1 branch1:branch2

Upvotes: 2

Daniel Hilgarth
Daniel Hilgarth

Reputation: 174309

You need to make sure that git status shows that no unstaged changes exist in your local repository.
You can do this by first stashing your local changes and than pulling that branch. Afterward you can apply your stash.

If you want to re-create the branch structure of the fork in your local repository, you can do the following:

git remote add fork <url of fork>
git fetch fork <branch>
git checkout -b fork_branch fork/<branch>

This will create the local branch fork_branch with the same history like <branch> in the fork, i.e. fork_branch will branch off of your master where <branch> does in the fork. Additionally, your local branch will now track that branch in the fork, so you can easily pull in new changes committed in the fork.

I think you still need to make sure beforehand that your working copy doesn't contain any changes.

If you do not need to track the fork:

git remote remove fork

Upvotes: 202

Integralist
Integralist

Reputation: 550

I was able to do something similar using...

git switch -c new_branch
git pull https://github.com/<user>/<forked-repo>.git <branch>

Upvotes: 6

Alex78191
Alex78191

Reputation: 3066

Method without adding remote.

git checkout --orphan fork_branch
git reset --hard
git pull <url of fork> <branch>

Upvotes: 83

Related Questions