How do I clean up my Github fork so I can make clean pull requests?

Question

I forked a repository on Github. I\'ve made some minor changes and submitted pull requests to the upstream, but along the way my fork has become so mangled I\'m unable to ge

Answer 1

Step 1: Pull upstream changes
It's recommended to add the upstream repo as "upstream" as explained on the Fork a Repo page:

git pull --rebase upstream master

The --rebase option places your changes on top of the latest commit without merges.

Step 2: (Optional) Merge your commits into 1 commit

git reset --soft upstream/master

This command will "undo" all your commits, but won't change the files. So you can commit all your changes in a single commit.

git commit -a

Step 3: Check & test your changes

To show the changes use a GUI like the built-in gitk, Sourcetree, TortoiseGit or Tower (paid), etc.

Step 4: Push

git push will throw an error, because the push would change the target repository's history.
If you're confident the changes shown in step 3 are correct then push with "-f"

git push -f origin master

Additional information
The command to add a remote is:

git remote add upstream git://github.com/[username]/[project].git

You can also also pull from a direct URL:

git pull --rebase  git://github.com/[username]/[project].git

But then you'll need the hash of the latest upstream commit instead of "upstream/master" in the other steps.