Copy a repository to your local machine with git clone
List remotes with git remote
Duplicate other organizations' repositories into your own via GitHub with the "Fork" button
Introduction
Git repositories let us create logged histories of the versions of the files
we "track." Just think, right now, around the world people are using Git
to track their projects: Star Trek Fan Fiction, resumes, Ruby Code, JavaScript
code, PhD theses, etc.
Git not only lets you track files in a local repo on your machine, you can "share"
your repo on the internet so that others can use your code. In this lesson
we'll discuss how to get others' repositories.
In a later lesson we'll cover how to push our locally-created repositories onto the
internet so that others can see our projects.
Copy a Repository to Your Local Machine with git clone
We use git clone to copy someone else's repo from the internet to our local machine.
We are not getting their repo from their local machine (that would be very creepy).
Instead, they must have
already "mirrored" their local repository onto the internet. In Git-speak we'd say
they would have had to have created a remote repository: a copy of their local repository,
but on the internet. We'll be cloning that remote repository.
Let's get the code for the popular ReactJS framework.
Click the "Copy to clipboard" button (highlighted below). This will copy the
URL for us to use when we clone.
In the terminal, run the git clone command. It takes the URL we just copied as an argument, like so:
$ git clone your-copied-github-url
This will create a local copy of the GitHub repository on our own machine.
List Remotes with git remote
If you use the ls command, you'll see Git created a directory called
react. Use cd to enter that directory.
$ cd react
Type git remote to see the names of each remote repository (or, "remote") available.
Since you cloned your repository, you should see a remote name called origin. The remote
name origin is the default name Git gives to the remote you cloned from:
$ git remote
origin
Let's prove that the origin name has some relationship to the address GitHub gave us.
The "remote address" [email protected]:facebook/react.git assigned to the
"remote name" - origin - is the same thing you copied from the
GitHub web interface. This confirms that the remote repository you
cloned automatically set up a remote name called origin.
Duplicate Other Organizations' Repositories into Your Own via GitHub with the "Fork" Button
Forking a GitHub repository is just a way to create a personal, online duplicate
of it. When you fork a repository, GitHub creates a duplicate of that repository
under your control.
If my GitHub username were octocat and I "forked" facebook/react, GitHub would
copy the remote repository facebook/react and create it under my name as
octocat/react. It's making a copy of one remote repository to a new remote
repository.
It's like saying "Hey, can I have the Louvre's version of The Mona Lisa?" The
Louvre would say, "No." If you were to create a perfect online duplicate by forking
it from louvre/mona_lisa to your-name/mona_lisa, and then were to clone
from that remote repository, then the Louvre can keep their copy and you can
update your copy as you choose.
Let's try a fork and clone workflow.
Click the GitHub icon at the top of this page:
This will bring you to the "learn-co-students" version of this lesson. Click the
'Fork' button in the upper right corner of the page. You will be prompted to
choose where the repository should be forked to, so go ahead and choose your
account. GitHub will take a few moments to create the fork, then navigate to
your copy of the repository. If all has gone well, you will see your username at
the top of the page, followed by a / and the name of the repository, along
with a link just below to the original repository. (More on forking in the GitHub docs.)
The important take away is to not misuse the words "fork" and "clone" when speaking
with other Git users. To get a local copy: clone; to make an online copy of
a repository to your personal organization so that you have the ability to
update its master (or main) branch, fork.
Often, the original authors will include license information regarding how you
can use their repository, so make sure to check before you publish, sell or
distribute any material you've forked, cloned and modified.
Conclusion
GitHub gives developers many ways to collaborate. Using GitHub's "Fork" button and git clone together allows you to make copies of others' code.
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