Fork from a branch in github

I don’t know a native way yet, but you can do it following this recipe:

1. Fork the repository in question (called ‘upstream’) on the GitHub website to your workspace there.
2. Run the GitHub desktop application and clone the repository onto your PC.
3. Use the GitHub desktop application to open a shell in the repository. (The git commands are not available from the default PowerShell unless you configure that manually.)

4. Set the source repository as upstream:

   git remote add upstream https://github.com/{user}/{source-repo}.git 

5. Fetch the full upstream repository. (Right now, you only have a copy of its master branch.)

   git fetch upstream 

6. Make your file system copy the branch you want and give it any name:

   git checkout upstream/{branch-in-question} git checkout -b temporary 

7. Publish your repo using the GitHub desktop application.

8. On the GitHub website, open your repository and click ‘settings’.
9. Change the “Default branch” to ‘temporary’. (Just change the drop-down menu, you don’t need to click the “Rename” button.)
10. Go back to your repository, go to the ‘branches’ tab, now you can delete the “master” branch.

11. Delete the master branch on your shell and make a new master branch:

    git branch -d master git branch master git checkout master git -d temporary 

12. Once more, publish your repo using the GitHub desktop application.

13. On the GitHub website, open your repository and click ‘settings’.
14. Change the “Default branch” back to the (new) ‘master’ branch.
15. Go back to your repository, go to the ‘branches’ tab, now you can delete the “temporary” branch.

This should be what you were looking for. Perhaps GitHub will provide a more convenient way to do this in future (e.g., clicking “Fork” from a project’s branch results in exactly this behaviour).

NO COMMAND LINE NEEDED.

Just create a new branch in your forked repository in GitHub (1), and GitHub will ask you if you want this new branch to be a clone/mirror from any branch in the upstream repository (2). You can give any name to the new branch.

Cloning means that you create a copy of the whole repository in your account including all branches and tags. However you are free to switch and track branches however you like.

Yes, you can clone the single branch. For example, you have a branch named release1.0. If you would like to clone this branch into your pc then use the following line of code:

$ git clone [email protected]:git_username/git_repository_example -b release1.0 --single-branch 

For those who don't like working with command-line. Here is a simple guide using the desktop client for GitHub:

1. Click the fork button of the repo on GitHub.com:

2. Make sure you have the desktop client installed

3. Click this button:

4. Clone the repo

5. In the desktop client, select the desired branch

6. Select the branch you'd like to work on and you're done

I'm posting here the method I've used. Like the OP I wanted to only copy/fork one branch. But couldn't find an easy way.

• in your repo create a new branch. It doesn't need to have the same name as the branch you want to fork
• once created, verify that it is the selected branch, and click "Compare"
• reverse the order of comparison (I have a userscript for that, see my profile if it's something you want to test).
• the "base" repository must be yours, with the branch you've created
• the "head" repository is the original, and the branch is the branch you want to fork
• hit "create pull request" and continue until the PR is applied

That's it. You have the branch forked.

I'm using bitbucket but I'm sure this would work for GitHub as well.

1. Create a new repository
2. Checkout the branch using GitExtensions
3. Click Push to open the Push dialog
4. Set the destination URL to the new repository
5. Set the destination branch to "master"
6. Push

Your new repository will have the full history of the one branch only (not all branches like forking will have).

A fast, alternative approach is to create your own new repo.

Go to https://github.com/new and make a new repo. Do not initialize with README.

Scroll down to get your git remote

Then:

git remote rm origin git config master.remote origin git config master.merge refs/heads/master // Run code from above image git push --set-upstream origin yourbranchname 

You will have a new repo with the original repo's code and a branch that can be made into a pull request.

SOLUTION:

For remote repository on GitHub and local repository

After fork all branches to your GitHub repository, you can delete Redundant branches in your GitHub repository.

And then you can only clone the branches you need to local.

Step One

Step Two

Only For local repository

git clone -b <branch name> --single-branch <repository> 

If you want to further save your disk space, you can clone remote repository without history:

git clone -b <branch name> --depth 1 <repository> 

notice: --depth implies --single-branch unless --no-single-branch is given.

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-clone