git pif (Push in Fork)

git pif is a simple utility to increase collaboration across github.

It simplifies the process of forking a repo. And pushing commits to it. Only step left for user is to create a PR to original Repo.

The git pif does all the next steps:

1. forks the current git repo in path
2. add a new remote fork with forked repository
3. push the current branch and set the remote of current branch to fork

If you have Go setup in your machine

go install github.com/zmalik/git-pif

Or

Download the binary from the latest release: https://github.com/zmalik/git-pif/releases

Check out to a new branch in the repo where you want to open a new PR

➜  git-pif git:(master) git co -b my-fix
Switched to a new branch 'my-fix'

let git pif to fork the repo, in case it hasn't been. And push the branch to the fork.

➜  git-pif git:(my-fix) git pif
Using config file: /Users/zainmalik/.git-pif/config.yaml
Checking if user octagen have a fork of zmalik/git-pif
Forking the repo zmalik/git-pif to octagen/git-pif
Waiting the creation of the fork octagen/git-pif
Fork octagen/git-pif created successfully
Branch my-fix set up to track remote branch my-fix from fork

• A new fork has been created for the repo. And a new remotefork has been added.

➜  git-pif git:(my-fix) git remote -v
fork	https://github.com/octagen/git-pif (fetch)
fork	https://github.com/octagen/git-pif (push)
origin	https://github.com/zmalik/git-pif (fetch)
origin	https://github.com/zmalik/git-pif (push)

• The branch my-fix has been pushed to octagen/gif-pif and its remote is the fork. Which basically means that from now on git push in the my-fix will go to the fork

➜  git-pif git:(my-fix) cat .git/config
[core]
	repositoryformatversion = 0
	filemode = true
	bare = false
	logallrefupdates = true
	ignorecase = true
	precomposeunicode = true
[remote "origin"]
	url = https://github.com/zmalik/git-pif
	fetch =  refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[branch "master"]
	remote = origin
	merge = refs/heads/master
[remote "fork"]
	url = https://github.com/octagen/git-pif
	fetch =  refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/fork/*
[branch "my-fix"]
	remote = fork
	merge = refs/heads/my-fix

Everybody willing to do a Pull Request Cycle to Github repository.

But I made it out specially for Go developers. As in case of Go the path is also really important. So you cannot just fork a repository and clone it in another path. As it will mess up with the packages. You have to play with the remotes. And this tool intends to simplify that process.

git pif needs an environment variable. GITHUB_TOKEN The github personal API token is used to get the current user information and fork the repository.

There are two ways to setting it:

• Set the environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN or inlineGITHUB_TOKEN=mygithubtooken git pif
• Add the GITHUB_TOKEN to $HOME/.git-pif/config.yaml

cat $HOME/.git-pif/config.yaml
GITHUB_TOKEN : mygithubtoken

• Mixing up the branches in the fork and origin is not possible. That means:
  • using master branch to push in the fork is not possible with git pif.
  • pushing a branch that exists in origin is not possible with git pif.