Help with GitHub

[balanga]

I have never really used GitHub although I have created an account but I'm struggling to work out how to copy an existing repository to it.

How would I copy https://github.com/mmatuska/mfsbsd to my repository.

Sorry for these newbie type questions but I'm new to all this and whatever I have tried doesn't work.

 

[jdakhayman]

Do you mean you want a copy of it in your account that you can alter? I think what your looking to do is to fork it? I could be wrong....

 

[tembun]

If you want to have your own copy of already existing repository that someone else owns, then jdakhayman is right - you need to "fork" this repo.

If you have your own git repository locally and you want to transfer it to GitHub, then, on your GitHub page you need to create a new empty repository, and then connect your local repo to it like this:

$ git remote add github https://github.com/<your-gh-name>/<your-repo-name>.git
$ git push github HEAD

after that you will see your repo content in the GitHub view. In fact, when you create a repo, GitHub shows a hint that tells how to clone repos.

And finally, if you have a GitHub repo (your or someone else's) and you want it clone it to your local machine to make some changes there, then:

$ git clone https://github.com/<author-gh-name>/<repo-name>.git

Or you can use SSH instead of HTTPS if you want (you will be able to find an appropriate link on the repo page).

 

[elgrande]

Also afaik GitHub has a functionality to create a fork directly from a repository page.

 

[tingo]

Yes, the common way (if you want to work on an existing repo that is not one you have created) is to fork it. Github has docs for this https://docs.github.com/en/pull-req...-pull-requests/working-with-forks/fork-a-repo

Note: similar functionality exists in gitlab (it might have a different name) and probably the other open source repository providers too.