clone git repo into a new project

Question

this may seem like a simple question, can I and how do i clone an existing repository for a new project, without changing / effecting that existing project?

I have two starter projects that I use as templates both include a few submodules, When I start a new project I'd like to clone that repository, and then get going with in my new repo with beanstalk or bitBuket.

any help would be appreciated.

note :

• I'm not a terminal pro so.....
• I use Tower for Git repo management with beanstalk and bitBucket

EDIT :

I'd be happy to take a crack at this with terminal if thats the way it needs to be done, to clarify my objective - I need to :

• clone a local repository
• initialize its submodules
• share it with my team via bitbucket or beanstalk (ideally the second)

from whats been posted essentially I need to mimic the fork functionality and then be able to push that to one of the services mentioned.

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with "Tower" you mentioned, so if you don't find a 'fork' option there (and if you don't want to try TortoiseGit or something else...) try this in the command line:

cd nameofdirectory
git init
git clone forkedURL

taken from this thread : "How to use Github using terminal commands?"

Answer 2

You can fork the repo and you can develop both of them independently

https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo

Answer 3

Fork it :)

and then you'll have 2 repositories to work on.

I don't really familiar with bitbucket, but you can see in their features there's a 'fork' option, as many other git applications: