github fork : your branch is 5 commits ahead how to clean this without pushing

Question

I forked a project on github, in order to send pull requests. The problem is that my way to do was very ... dirty.

I worked on a local copy of the fork, created a branch for my modifications and merge it on the master. Then I pushed the master on the github fork in order to create a pull request.

The problem is that recently, my pull request have been rejected. So now I am 5 commits ahead from the original master. What are the solutions in order to be even with the original repository?

Should I have to checkout the upstream master in a new-branch and make the new master with it (how to do this?)

Or is it better to delete my github fork (I have previous accepted commits) and recreate it (you can see the github repos here)https://github.com/cedlemo/ruby-gnome2

score 72 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

First, you should always make your PR form a branch, not from master.
master is for mirroring upstream/master, with 'upstream' being the name of the original repo that you forked.

In your case, make sure that upstream exists, make a branch in order to reference your current patches, and reset master to upstream/master:

Before:

  z--z (upstream/master, with new commits)
 /
z--y--y--y (master with local patches, origin/master)

Memorize current work:

git checkout master
git checkout -b mybranch
git remote add upstream /url/original/repo
git fetch upstream

# reset master to upstream/master
git checkout master
git reset --hard upstream/master
git push --force

  y--y--y (mybranch)
 /
z--z--z   (master, upstream/master, origin/master)

# replay the patches (even they are rejected for now) on top of master
git checkout mybranch
git rebase master
git push -u origin mybranch

        y'--y'--y' (mybranch, origin/mybranch)
       /
z--z--z   (master, upstream/master, origin/master)

Here: git reset --hard upstream/master will reset master HEAD on the updated upstream/master, in order for master to reflect the exact same history as the one in the original repo.

But since some commits where previously done on master and pushed on the fork (origin/master), you would need to replace that history with the new master state. Hence the git push --force.

Rebasing mybranch allows for those current patches to be based on the most up-to-date commit of the original repo.

That works! The problem is that I don't really understand the parts reset master and replay the patches. could you explain the git reset --hard upstream/master + git push force and the git rebase — cedlemo, Mar 14 '15 at 14:36
@cedlemo Sure, I have edited the answer to explain those steps. — VonC, Mar 14 '15 at 14:57
@Harry_Hopkinson Great! I am glad this answer is still helpful seven years later. — VonC, Mar 25 '22 at 20:51

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '18 at 09:46

I use this small shell script to reset a branch to it's origin

function git_branch_reset_origin() {
  branch_name="$(git symbolic-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null)"
  branch_name=${branch_name##refs/heads/}
  git checkout -b foo
  git branch -D ${branch_name}
  git checkout ${branch_name}
  git branch -D foo
}

Put simply it moves to a new 'foo' branch, deletes the branch you were on, and checks it out again. Checking out a branch you don't have locally makes a new local branch of that name at the position of the origin branch.

github fork : your branch is 5 commits ahead how to clean this without pushing

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