Will deleting the parent Github repository affect children forks?

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22519508

  •  17-06-2023
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Question

I have a repository structure like this hosted on Github:

ParentRepo
|
-----ChildRepo
     |
     -----ChildOfChildRepo1
     |
     -----ChildOfChildRepo2
     |
     -----ChildOfChildRepo3

The ChildRepo is the "authoritative" repository, as far as where end users go for the latest code and to issue pull requests. This was forked from ParentRepo.

The ChildOfChildRepoN are forks made by end users, forked from the ChildRepo.

The ParentRepo is the parent of the ChildRepo authoritative repository fork. Occasionally I push commits from the ChildRepo fork up to the ParentRepo.

I control ParentRepo under one Github account, and ChildRepo under another Github account.

If I delete the ParentRepo repository, will that in any way affect ChildRepo and its child forks?

Was it helpful?

Solution

No, the child forks only know about ChildRepo, and ChildRepo will still be around if it is a public repo.

See "GitHub help: Deleting a repository"

Deleting a private repository also deletes all of its forks.
Deleting a public repository will not.

However, asking GitHub support for confirmation is a good idea.

That might affect any pending pull request from ChildRepo to ParentRepo though.

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