How can I check out a GitHub pull request with git?

Question

I'd like to check out a previously created pull request (created via GitHub web interface). I searched and found different places where a refs/pull or refs/pull/pr

But when I add fetch = +refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/pr/* to the git config file and do a git fetch

What I'm doing wrong? Should GitHub create automatically the pull/xyz stuff, or do I have to configure something?

What does the complete remote section of your config file look like? — , Dec 19 '14 at 14:25
possible duplicate of [How can I fetch an unmerged pull request for a branch I don't own?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6743514/how-can-i-fetch-an-unmerged-pull-request-for-a-branch-i-dont-own) — Ciro Santilli Путлер Капут 六四事, Aug 16 '15 at 09:06
possible duplicate of [github clone from pull request?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14947789/github-clone-from-pull-request) — BuZZ-dEE, Aug 31 '15 at 20:44
I ended up on this question, but I actually needed https://stackoverflow.com/q/1783405/2413303 — EpicPandaForce, Dec 01 '17 at 10:35
The second paragraph is not a complete sentence. "But when I add ... and do a git fetch" - when you do these things *what* happens? — cp.engr, Jan 11 '18 at 21:55

score 688 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 16 '21 at 14:35

688

To fetch a remote PR into your local repo,

git fetch origin pull/$ID/head:$BRANCHNAME

where $ID is the pull request id and $BRANCHNAME is the name of the new branch that you want to create. Once you have created the branch, then simply

git checkout $BRANCHNAME

For instance, let's imagine you want to checkout pull request #2 from the origin main branch:

git fetch origin pull/2/head:MASTER

See the official GitHub documentation for more.

edited Dec 16 '21 at 14:35

iamtodor

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answered Jun 01 '15 at 23:25

timbo

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I used this to fetch a pr from an upstream repo into my local forked repo, you can replace origin with upstream as well. – Jngai1297 Feb 17 '16 at 22:33
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My command ended up looking like `git fetch origin pull/1/head:githubusername` , not what I was expecting – Anthony Mar 13 '16 at 23:20
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@Antoine `BRANCHNAME` is whatever you want to name the branch. I'm guessing you tried to use a name that already existed (e.g. `master`) and that didn't work, so you tried your username, which did work, because their was no branch with that name. Perhaps I misunderstand what you were saying. – Nateowami Jun 20 '18 at 18:18
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It may be the case that you configured your local repo the way that `origin` points to your fork and `upstream` – to the original repository (following https://help.github.com/articles/configuring-a-remote-for-a-fork, for instance). Make sure to change `origin` to `upstream` in the mentioned command, if you want to fetch pull request from the original repo. – mvlabat Nov 29 '18 at 12:19
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I was trying to fetch including the "#" symbol in the ID, as highlighted in GitHubs documentation, as in `pull/#1/head:branch`. Only the number must go in, so `pull/1/head/branch`. – Lucas Apr 13 '20 at 06:25
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Just one question please, how to fetch new-coming commits to this local-created branch? – James Rao Mar 09 '21 at 01:51
Was able to solve the issue using the [GitHub Documentation link](https://help.github.com/en/articles/checking-out-pull-requests-locally) posted by @timbo – Haddock-san Aug 09 '21 at 11:52
i suggest as an improvement to this post an example with content, e.g., if the pull request is #37 and the new branch I want to create is called "regressionFixes", then "git fetch origin pull/37/head:regressionFixes" And, another would be making it all one command (because it's easy to forget to switch branches); i.e., with above example: "git fetch origin pull/37/head:regressionFixes && git checkout regressionFixes" – Adamokkha Sep 09 '21 at 15:08
Also note that "head" needs to be in small letters, not the usual caps HEAD. – Waqar Dec 03 '21 at 10:47
you can also omit branch name and then do `git checkout FETCH_HEAD` – licancabur Dec 31 '21 at 09:40

score 166 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

166

This will fetch without you having to name a branch:

git pull origin pull/939/head

How do I get a specific pull request on my machine?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Sep 08 '15 at 00:47

Zombo

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Note that if you do this while on your master branch, for example, it will commit directly into this branch. If you'd like to bring the pull request into a separate branch for staging, try @timbo's answer. – phoenix Jan 30 '17 at 13:16
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This also works if you later want to pull changes from the pull request into your local branch. – luator Jan 24 '18 at 13:58
I was looking for this only, as I need to pull others code to review and I don't want to switch to a new branch – Vivek Agrawal Oct 11 '21 at 07:43

Andrew Ymaz · Answer 3 · 2018-06-22T15:00:25.013

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I prefer to fetch and checkout without creating a local branch and to be in HEAD detached state. It allows me quickly to check the pull request without polluting my local machine with unnecessary local branches.

git fetch upstream pull/ID/head && git checkout FETCH_HEAD

where ID is a pull request ID and upstream where is original pull request has been created (it could be origin, for example).

I hope it helps.

edited Jun 22 '18 at 15:00

answered Aug 30 '17 at 19:04

Andrew Ymaz

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I like this solution. One of the benefits is that if the PR is updated with more commits, then you can just run this again and it'll pull in the new commit(s). – Alex Johnson Jul 21 '19 at 21:16
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Voted! No need for a local branch and can update from remote easily. – James Rao Mar 24 '21 at 00:36
@JamesRao thanks, no local branch is the best part! – Andrew Ymaz Mar 24 '21 at 13:28

VonC · Answer 4 · 2014-12-19T14:26:52.030

That gist does describe what happend when you do a git fetch:

Obviously, change the github url to match your project's URL. It ends up looking like this:

[remote "origin"]
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
    url = git@github.com:joyent/node.git
    fetch = +refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/pr/*

Now fetch all the pull requests:

$ git fetch origin
From github.com:joyent/node
 * [new ref]         refs/pull/1000/head -> origin/pr/1000
 * [new ref]         refs/pull/1002/head -> origin/pr/1002
 * [new ref]         refs/pull/1004/head -> origin/pr/1004
 * [new ref]         refs/pull/1009/head -> origin/pr/1009
...

To check out a particular pull request:

$ git checkout pr/999
Branch pr/999 set up to track remote branch pr/999 from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'pr/999'

You have various scripts listed in issues 259 to automate that task.
The git-extras project proposes the command git-pr (implemented in PR 262)

`git-pr`(1) -- Checks out a pull request locally

SYNOPSIS

git-pr <number> [<remote>]
git-pr clean

DESCRIPTION

Creates a local branch based on a GitHub pull request number, and switch to that branch afterwards.

The name of the remote to fetch from. Defaults to origin.

EXAMPLES

This checks out the pull request 226 from origin:

$ git pr 226

remote: Counting objects: 12, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (9/9), done.
remote: Total 12 (delta 3), reused 9 (delta 3)
Unpacking objects: 100% (12/12), done.
From https://github.com/visionmedia/git-extras
  * [new ref] refs/pull/226/head -> pr/226
Switched to branch 'pr/226'

I was not aware of the `git-extras` project, thanks for mentioning it! − See also this other SO answer [How do I checkout a PR from a fork?](https://stackoverflow.com/a/62432946/9164010) where I proposed a similar command `git prw` that additionally *sets the upstream branch* (so the branch so obtained is not a "read-only" branch). — ErikMD, Apr 30 '21 at 22:31

bagerard · Answer 5 · 2021-08-03T12:24:43.563

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Github recently released a cli utility called github-cli. After installing it, you can checkout a pull request's branch locally by using its id (doc)

e.g: gh pr checkout 2267

This works with forks as well but if you then need to push back to the fork, you'll need to add the remote repository and use traditional git push (until this ticket gets implemented in gh utility)

edited Aug 03 '21 at 12:24

answered Mar 02 '20 at 20:49

bagerard

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Wow! this is so cool, thanks for sharing. – Mahesh Jamdade Jun 01 '22 at 16:02

score 22 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 27 '17 at 16:14

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If you are using Github.com, go to "Pull requests", click on the relevant pull request, and then click on the "command line instructions" link:

answered Feb 27 '17 at 16:14

AmitB

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Say, is there actually a way - when you are looking at github.com I mean - to download the new/changed files, of the PR? So, when you are looking at a repo on github, you can click the handy "download as a zip" button, or indeed, you can, quite simply, click through and just look at each (entire) file of the project. For PR, I can't see how to, simply, click through to "look at the file" - know what I mean? Am I missing something? Cheers! – Fattie Apr 07 '17 at 13:27
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@Fattie Yes. You simply click yourself through to your contributor's repository (you can pick any state of their repository, the latest or any other commit) and then use the *↓ Code* ➜ *Download ZIP* feature on the repository's main page. – Peterino Oct 25 '20 at 04:33

score 19 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 12 '17 at 12:16

19

Referencing Steven Penny's answer, it's best to create a test branch and test the PR. So here's what you would do.

Create a test branch to merge the PR into locally. Assuming you're on the master branch:

git checkout -b test

Get the PR changes into the test branch

git pull origin pull/939/head:test

Now, you can safely test the changes on this local test branch (in this case, named test) and once you're satisfied, can merge it as usual from GitHub.

answered Jun 12 '17 at 12:16

gabbar0x

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I'd go even one better - I would create a worktree, set it to a new `test` branch and THEN pull in the PR - that way I don't need about restoring branches locally when done; I just dispose of the worktree. In fact I NEVER just `checkout -b` anymore - I always create a worktree and then branch. Disk is cheap. Of course, I have a script that does this; I don't type all the command needed individually. – mpersico Nov 15 '18 at 18:15

Ariel Gabizon · Answer 8 · 2017-04-15T22:30:43.057

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The problem with some of options above, is that if someone pushes more commits to the PR after opening the PR, they won't give you the most updated version. For me what worked best is - go to the PR, and press 'Commits', scroll to the bottom to see the most recent commit hash and then simply use git checkout, i.e.

git checkout <commit number>

in the above example

git checkout 0ba1a50

edited Apr 15 '17 at 22:30

answered Apr 15 '17 at 21:57

Ariel Gabizon

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I hit exactly this problem with the `git fetch origin pull/ID/head:BRANCHNAME` approach mentioned in https://stackoverflow.com/a/30584951/659732. Thanks for the solution! – Joe Wicentowski Aug 01 '17 at 21:14

score 11 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 04 '17 at 06:52

You can use git config command to write a new rule to .git/config to fetch pull requests from the repository:

$ git config --local --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/pr/*'

And then just:

$ git fetch origin
Fetching origin
remote: Counting objects: 4, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
remote: Total 4 (delta 2), reused 4 (delta 2), pack-reused 0
Unpacking objects: 100% (4/4), done.
From https://github.com/container-images/memcached
 * [new ref]         refs/pull/2/head -> origin/pr/2
 * [new ref]         refs/pull/3/head -> origin/pr/3

What about pushing it back upstream for updates? – void.pointer Apr 12 '22 at 20:40 — void.pointer, Apr 12 '22 at 20:40

score 11 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 06 '18 at 07:40

For Bitbucket, you need replace the word pull to pull-requests.

First, you can confirm the pull request URL style by git ls-remote origin command.

$ git ls-remote origin |grep pull
f3f40f2ca9509368c959b0b13729dc0ae2fbf2ae    refs/pull-requests/1503/from
da4666bd91eabcc6f2c214e0bbd99d543d94767e    refs/pull-requests/1503/merge
...

As you can see, it is refs/pull-requests/1503/from instead of refs/pull/1503/from

Then you can use the commands of any of the answers.

init0 · Answer 11 · 2018-04-02T19:15:02.220

If you're following the "github fork" workflow, where you create a fork and add the remote upstream repo:

14:47 $ git remote -v
origin  git@github.com:<yourname>/<repo_name>.git (fetch)
origin  git@github.com:<yourname>/<repo_name>.git (push)
upstream        git@github.com:<repo_owrer>/<repo_name>.git (fetch)
upstream        git@github.com:<repo_owner>/<repo_name>.git (push)

to pull into your current branch your command would look like:

git pull upstream pull/<pull_request_number>/head

to pull into a new branch the code would look like:

git fetch upstream pull/<pull_request_number>/head:newbranch

score 6 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 19 '19 at 08:07

6

I'm using hub, a tool from github: https://github.com/github/hub

With hub checking out a pull request locally is kinda easy:

hub checkout https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/1234
or
hub pr checkout 1234

answered Feb 19 '19 at 08:07

Daniel Wehner

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score 4 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 24 '15 at 14:22

I accidentally ended up writing almost the same as provided by git-extras. So if you prefer a single custom command instead of installing a bunch of other extra commands, just place this git-pr file somewhere in your $PATH and then you can just write:

git pr 42
// or
git pr upstream 42
// or
git pr https://github.com/peerigon/phridge/pull/1

score 4 · Answer 14 · answered Feb 11 '20 at 08:29

4

Get the remote PR branch into local branch:

git fetch origin ‘remote_branch’:‘local_branch_name’

Set the upstream of local branch to remote branch.

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/PR_Branch_Name local_branch

When you want to push the local changes to PR branch again

git push origin HEAD:remote_PR_Branch_name

answered Feb 11 '20 at 08:29

Elakya

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This should note that on Github, you can't actually edit the PR and push it back. The remote refs/pull/ namespace is [read-only](https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/checking-out-pull-requests-locally#modifying-an-inactive-pull-request-locally). – K.S. Dec 01 '20 at 00:13

score 3 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 05 '21 at 15:08

3

With newer versions of Git:

git fetch origin refs/pull-requests/<id>/from:<localbranchname>

answered Aug 05 '21 at 15:08

A. Gille

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score 1 · Answer 16 · edited Feb 17 '20 at 11:25

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Suppose your origin and upstream info is like below

   $ git remote -v
   origin  git@github.com:<yourname>/<repo_name>.git (fetch)
   origin  git@github.com:<yourname>/<repo_name>.git (push)
   upstream   git@github.com:<repo_owner>/<repo_name>.git (fetch)
   upstream   git@github.com:<repo_owner>/<repo_name>.git (push)

and your branch name is like

   <repo_owner>:<BranchName>

then

   git pull origin <BranchName>

shall do the job

edited Feb 17 '20 at 11:25

martyn

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answered Feb 17 '20 at 10:49

PankajA

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When you shared code, please try to explain your code – Yunus Temurlenk Feb 17 '20 at 11:12

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Sep 15 '21 at 08:08

To quickly check PR on your local, open it and check the branch name from which PR is created.

As we can see in the red line above name of branch is 'CLUPET-173-glrr-apis' use below command to quickly see the code in the PR/Branch

git checkout origin/CLUPET-173-glrr-apis

Now this code on your local would run as detached head mode.

To stop all PR code viewing and to go back to your previous branch

git switch -

In case you want to move PR(plus any new local changes you made after fetching PR) to a new local branch use below command

git switch -c myNewLocalBranch

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 22 '21 at 13:00

To checkout PR and see all changes from that PR as compared to the main branch in VSCode. Similar to files changed section of Github PR page.

checkout PR (100) in 'detached HEAD' state
git fetch origin pull/100/head && git checkout FETCH_HEAD
show as uncommitted changes
git reset main
switch back to main branch and carry these changes
git switch -

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Jun 01 '22 at 16:24

Although most of the answers on this thread work, I prefer cherry-picking the pull request changes, this allows me to test as well as see the difference in my IDE.

git checkout <newbranch>
git fetch origin pull/<pullrequestId>/head && git cherry-pick FETCH_HEAD

e.g

git checkout test-pr
git fetch origin pull/34/head && git cherry-pick FETCH_HEAD

Running the above command will pull the changes of the PR and show them in your IDE version control since those changes won't be committed.

score -1 · Answer 20 · answered Jan 08 '21 at 07:28

-1

There is an easy way for doing this using git-cli

gh pr checkout {<number> | <url> | <branch>}

Reference: https://cli.github.com/manual/gh_pr_checkout

answered Jan 08 '21 at 07:28

Shashanka Balakuntala

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How is this answer different from bagerard's? – The Godfather Feb 11 '21 at 10:31

score -2 · Answer 21 · answered Jan 28 '21 at 10:46

-2

Create a local branch

git checkout -b local-branch-name

Pull the remote PR

git pull git@github.com:your-repo-ssh.git remote-branch-name

answered Jan 28 '21 at 10:46

Fatih Bulut

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How can I check out a GitHub pull request with git?

21 Answers21

`git-pr`(1) -- Checks out a pull request locally

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

EXAMPLES

Linked

Related

How can I check out a GitHub pull request with git?

21 Answers21

git-pr(1) -- Checks out a pull request locally

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

EXAMPLES

Linked

Related

`git-pr`(1) -- Checks out a pull request locally