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Lately, I jumped into an e-commerce UI template from Algolia. According to GitHub, I can either fork the repository or use it as a template. The difference seems to be that a template is not made for fetching the upstream of the original repository. I am a bit confused about why I should use it as a template when I pretty much lose access to future updates. Should I not just fork the repository instead and potentially get some neat updates?

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    Did you read e.g. docs.github.com/en/repositories/…, which explains the differences?
    – jonrsharpe
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 19:30
  • I understand that it is convenient to have a fresh commit history and all that, but why does using a template restrict the user from fetching the upstream of the original repository? It would seem handy to me to get some updates. I guess that it would mess up the fresh commit history?
    – user9808476
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 19:35
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    You can't have both. Nothing would stop you adding the upstream remote and cherry-picking applicable commits, but how long are you going to keep the your repo close enough to the template for them to apply cleanly anyway?
    – jonrsharpe
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 19:40
  • Thanks for your answer. I feel like I know enough now. It might indeed be a total nightmare to adapt to a completely new version of the template.
    – user9808476
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 19:44
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    The reason you cannot have both is a technical issue that is intimately tied to Git's internal structure for commits. I myself would almost always use a fork (I see little value to GitHub's peculiar template system) and where I didn't use a fork I'd probably clone the original repository, use filter-branch or filter-repo, and turn that into my clone rather than using GitHub's peculiar template system.
    – torek
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 19:44

1 Answer 1

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The difference between a fork and a template is that when you fork it's meant to contribute to the parent repository. Here are some of the pros/cons of each

Fork

Pros

  • Be able to fetch upstream
  • Able to open PRs to contribute to the head repository.

Cons

  • Some features like visibility are unable to be changed.

Templates

Pros

  • Can change all settings

Cons

  • Unable to fetch upstream
  • Able to open PRs to contribute to the head repository.
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    Note that this isn't actually true though. A fork is not "meant to contribute to the parent", it's just a fork, so it lets you send PRs to the parent. Also, because fetching is a git opreation, not a github-specific thing, you can always fetch from any upstream as long as you added their repo as a remote.
    – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans
    Commented Aug 9, 2022 at 22:17
  • @Mike'Pomax'Kamermans I do know that fetching is not specific to Github but there wasn't a point including making the head repo a remote since the OP is talking specifically about Github.
    – Ethan
    Commented Aug 9, 2022 at 22:29