Is it possible to fork a public GitHub repo into an enterprise repository?
GitGithubGit BranchGit Problem Overview
There exist a public repo for Quick framework here. I'd like to be able to fork this into a private enterprise GitHub repository. Forking would allow all the branches to remain.
the alternative would be to clone the repo and push up only a single branch to the enterprise but then I lose on not having all the branches from the source/original.
update: I ended up pushing all my branches into the enterprise git. if you just do a git push yourRemoteName myNewBranch then it will push the code into that branch on the enterprise git while creating that branch in enterprise GitHub.
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
It's not possible, because your GitHub Enterprise (GHE) installation is separate from the public one, so there's no way for the two systems to track each other's branch relationships.
The best you can do is exactly as you describe: Clone the repo, then push it to your GHE installation, and yes, you will then lose the branching relationships across repos.
The other option would be to keep a fork on the public GitHub (GH) repo--possibly keeping it in sync (manually, or with a cronjob) with your GHE repo. Then you'll have two instances of your repo, and the public one would retain branch relationships with the original repo.
Depending on why you need to put this on GHE, it may or may not work. If you're making private contributions, it clearly won't work--as your private contributions would no longer be private. If you want it on GHE due to some corporate policy that all open source projects used internally are kept on the GHE, or something similar, then it would work, with the added administrative overhead of keeping the repo in sync two places.
Solution 2 - Git
While it isn't possible to fork from the public GitHub directly to your Enterprise installation, you can fork it on the public GitHub and then mirror that forked repository on your enterprise installation.
Steps
- Create an empty repository on your enterprise GitHub:
curl https://github.yourenterprise.com/api/v3/user/repos \ -u "yourUsername" \ -d "{\"name\": \"whatever-repository\", \"private\": true }"
- Create a bare clone of your fork
git clone --bare https://github.com/publicGitHubUser/forked-repository.git
- Change directories so you are inside the bare clones folder:
cd ./whatever-repository.git/
- Push the repository with the
--mirror
flag to your enterprise GitHubgit push --mirror https://github.yourenterprise.com/enterpriseGitHubUser/forked-repository.git
More Information
Solution 3 - Git
If you use GitHub Enterprise then you automatically get access to GitHub Enterprise Cloud i.e. https://github.com/enterprises/mycompany, with the same licence count. This can be linked with SAML to your in-house Active Directory. Then you can simply fork it in GitHub yet keep it within your company's control.
Sadly you will still need to mirror clone it if you really need it on your in-house instance. However as you control both ends now, you should be able to use GitHub Actions (or Apps) to more intelligently keep them in sync.