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What do you call the original repo from which a fork is made?


What do you call the original repo from which a fork is made?

I know the "origin" is a shorthand name for the remote repository that a project was originally cloned from.

Is the repo from which a fork is made also called the origin?


Solution

  • According to GitHub glossary, it is simply called the "original repository"

    Fork

    A fork is a personal copy of another user's repository that lives on your account. > Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without affecting the original. Forks remain attached to the original, allowing you to submit a pull request to the original's author to update with your changes. You can also keep your fork up to date by pulling in updates from the original.

    Source: https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-glossary#fork

    Edit (28/10/2021)

    As mentioned by @ADTC's comment, the original repository is now called "upstream repository" :

    Upstream

    When talking about a branch or a fork, the primary branch on the original repository is often referred to as the "upstream", since that is the main place that other changes will come in from. The branch/fork you are working on is then called the "downstream". Also called origin.

    Source: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/github-glossary#upstream