Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Simple Steps
• Setting up a remote and local environment
• Create a Pull Request
• Resources

Introduction

This is a simple guide for beginners to make a Pull Request and contribute to a GitHub project.

Simple Steps

(1) Fork the original project.

(2) Clone forked project on your page on your local pc.

$ git clone git@github.com:AccountName/NameOfTheProject.git

(3) Create upstream which points to the original project

$ git remote add upstream git@github.com:AccountName/NameOfTheProject.git

(4) Make sure your origin is upto date with the upstream and create your feature branch.

$ git checkout master
// Pull from the original project's repository and push it to the clone on your account.
$ git pull upstream master && git push origin master
$ git checkout -b NameOfNewBranch

(5) Push it to origin and make a PR.

$ git push origin NameOfNewBranch

Setting up a remote and local environment

First of all, go to the page of the project you want to contribute to and click the fork button which is placed at the upper right corner of the page. This will create a copy of the repository in your own GitHub account.
Secondly, you need to create a copy of the project locally on your pc. Go to the page of the project in your account again and get the clone with SSH and run the command below.

$ git clone git@github.com:AccountName/NameOfTheProject.git

Thirdly, change the directory to the project that you’ve just created.

$ cd NameOfTheProject

Lastly, you need to create a new remote that points to the original project. Go to the page of the project again and find the SSH clone URL and use it to create the new remote (upstream) by running the command below.

$ git remote add upstream git@github.com:AccountName/NameOfTheProject.git

If you followed all the steps above, you now have two remotes for this project.

• (1) origin: This remote points to your GitHub fork of the project. You can read and write to this remote.
• (2) upstream: This remote points to the original project’s GitHub repository. You can only read from this remote.

Create a Pull Request

First and foremost, make sure the branch that you make a new branch from is up-to-date.
For instance, if you want to create a new branch from the master branch for your PR, you can run commands below.

$ git checkout master
// Pull from the original project's repository and push it to the clone on your account.
$ git pull upstream master && git push origin master
$ git checkout -b NameOfNewBranch

After your work on your new branch, commit your work and push it to the origin remote.

$ git push origin NameOfNewBranch

Lastly, you can create a PR by pressing the green button saying Compare & pull request.

If you need more information regarding this matter, check Here

Resources

• firstcontributions
• The beginner’s guide to contributing to a github-project