Change default base repository for pull requests on forks #11729
Replies: 121 comments 79 replies
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More discussion at https://github.community/t/changing-the-default-pr-target-when-creating-a-pr-from-a-fork/2842/2 |
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GitHub has a default branch setting. The page says:
Unless I am missing something, that setting is not respected for PRs on a fork, given that the default branch of the upstream repo seems to be taken as the base branch for the PR. How about adding a
When creating a PR, these settings could be used to give the current behavior. Then users could change the settings to fit their needs. I'd be happy to learn about any implications I might be missing 😁 |
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Has anyone got an update on how to change the base repo? |
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To change this behaviour you'd have to change the Compare page URL by external add-ons.
I'm talking a green pull request button. |
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The current developer experience is really hard to work with -- I've incorrectly opened (and then closed) PRs to upstream several times at this point and I'm going to have to just remove my upstream association which is a real shame. Would love a solution to this for future projects! |
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Same problem here! Just today I closed a PR just clicks before merging it to master on the wrong repository. |
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I can attest - this is very annoying. |
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same experience here. My solution was finally to create fork form the fork: |
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The output of |
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Why is this not a setting? One of the main use cases for Forking a repository is to take over a project that is out of maintenance - where the previous owner is ignoring all PRs. Please @github-staff consider just making it a setting so we don't have to click 3 times on every PR to avoid accidentally PR'ing the fork. Thanks. |
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This behavior is so frustrating. As a workaround, to detach a repository you can request a ticket here: https://support.github.com/contact?tags=rr-forks&subject=Detach%20Fork&flow=detach_fork |
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Please provide this setting. |
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Same situation here, we want to work mainly in our fork and contribute some PRs upstream, so we don't want to detach. We had some accidental PRs already, and it's embarrassing. Please let us configure the default |
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I maintain a website template that people fork to use. The fact that the github UI for pull requests defaults to the upstream repo instead of the base repo has caused so many people (including me!) to open accidental PRs (against the template itself instead of their own main branch) that I had to create a label specifically for it (22 and counting): |
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This starts to suck. The thread is over a year old and as far as I could see has gotten no reaction from GitHub. There are two aspects to this that make this very annoying: first, it's bothering lots of people and second, as I pointed out in my earlier post, this should be relatively easy to fix. One option to potentially get some traction with this, is for someone with an appropriate account type (Pro, Enterprise etc.) to open a support ticket and point this out. I've had success doing that with Atlassian but I only have a free GitHub account myself. |
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+1 this needs to be a priority. Surprised it still isn't an option |
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Here is a really solid workaround I've been using for a while. Instead of creating your PR from the web, create it from the command line, like so:
(Of course you'll need to install the Background |
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just here to throw another log on the fires of annoyance that are so well explained by previous commenters |
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I have miraculously managed not to open a wrong PR so far, but the same useless clicks every time annoy me nonetheless. |
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It seems absurd that in 2024, GitHub still can't handle the basic feature of setting a default base repository for pull requests. This oversight surely causes constant frustration and increases the risk of errors in many teams. How can such a fundamental functionality be missing from a platform as advanced as GitHub? |
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This is very frustrating, is github trying to disuade forking or what |
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Here's another request for GitHub to address this. |
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Adding another voice to the chorus. |
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+1, this is a pain. |
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Please provide this option or at least any reasoning not to |
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+1, ran into the same issue |
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+1 this is dumb. you've basically made fork'd repos a nightmare to make/maintain PRs from. forking has been around since day 1 and we really can't set a default repo to reference for PRs? especially bad considering the default is the external repo, which is usually some repo i most likely don't own nor have anything to do with. bad user experience all around, i'm not able to understand who that default behavior was geared towards. i'm not detaching my fork using customer service as that defeats the original purpose, and i'm certainly not re-forking the fork as that also defeats the original purpose -- those are "solves" proposed above which don't solve the actual problem. i can't feasibly ask every OS contributor and engineer on my team to use y'all have to fix this in the UX. i got engineers constantly opening up PRs against the wrong repo, and i've got OS projects where people keep accidentally opening PRs in my repo instead of their fork (just like this comment above). i myself have even opened a PR or two against the wrong repo because it's so easy to do so, and i've been using github for 10+ years. this is not the expected behavior for any poweruser of github. |
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I've forked a repository which has been archived by the owner, so there won't be any prs accepted to the original repository.
Therefore I'd like to change the base repository for all PRs made from to my repository but this seems not possible.
Is there a recommended way to deal with this situation other than (re)creating the repository without forking?
Thanks a lot!
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