Forks get deleted if they are recreated immediately after deleting the original fork

[rsynnest]

Steps:

1. Fork a repo via Web UI
2. Delete the fork via the Web UI
3. Fork the same repo again via the web UI
4. Push some commits to the new fork
5. Come back an hour later and the new fork has been deleted

[AraHaan]

here is how I would fix this:

1. add the repository you forked from as upstream on your local clone of the fork.
2. When the fork gets out of date and you want it updated run git pull upstream.
3. When updated from upstream locally run git push to update the fork's remote.

Doing this avoids the need to delete the fork, and as such the need to refork it.

[rsynnest]

Thats how I normally use forks as well. I had a messy fork I needed to delete as an easy way to "reset" it and start over. Github deleted my old fork, but then Github also deleted the new fork after i recreated it, with no input from me tellingit to delete. I suspect some caching issue where Github saw the same repo name as the deleted one, and Github thought it hadn't been deleted. It's possible this could affect non-forks as well. Deleting a repo isn't a common occurence, but Github deleting the wrong repo without user input seems like a major bug to me.

[AraHaan]

Thats how I normally use forks as well. I had a messy fork I needed to delete as an easy way to "reset" it and start over. Github deleted my old fork, but then Github also deleted the new fork after i recreated it, with no input from me tellingit to delete. I suspect some caching issue where Github saw the same repo name as the deleted one, and Github thought it hadn't been deleted. It's possible this could affect non-forks as well. Deleting a repo isn't a common occurence, but Github deleting the wrong repo without user input seems like a major bug to me.

To reset I usually run git rebase -i HEAD~<# of commits> and then when it says each of the commits change the first word to drop and drop them that are not from the original repository. Then force push it to your fork.