GitHub | Issues

The forklone command clones a given GitHub repository — unless you don't have push permission on the repository, in which case forklone forks it and clones the fork instead so you get something you can push to.

Installation

forklone requires Python 3.8 or higher. Just use pip for Python 3 (You have pip, right?) to install it:

python3 -m pip install git+https://github.com/jwodder/forklone.git

Usage

forklone [<options>] <github-repo> [<directory>]

Clones the given GitHub repository to the given directory; if no directory is specified, the repository is cloned to a directory with the same name as the repository. If the authenticated user does not have push permission on the repository, then the repository is forked (or a pre-existing fork is used), and the fork is cloned instead.

The GitHub repository can be specified in the form OWNER/NAME (or, when OWNER is the authenticated user, just NAME) or as a GitHub repository URL.

If the cloned repository ends up being a fork (either because forklone forked the specified repository or because the repository was already a fork), then the clone's upstream remote is set to point to the fork's parent repository.

Options

--clone-opts OPTIONS
	Pass the given options to the git clone command. Example: --clone-opts="--depth 1 --quiet"
--org ORGANIZATION
	Create the fork within the given organization
-U, --upstream-remote NAME
	Use the given name for the remote for the parent repository [default value: "upstream"]

Authentication

forklone requires a GitHub access token with appropriate permissions in order to run. Specify the token via the GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable (possibly in an .env file), by storing a token with the gh or hub command, or by setting the hub.oauthtoken Git config option in your ~/.gitconfig file.