What is Fork?
The process of taking a copy of an existing software project and starting to make independent new modifications on it.
Overview
A fork allows you to copy a complete project written by someone else into your own account or space in the open-source world. After taking this copy, you can modify it however you like, add new features, or take it in your own direction without being tied to the original project.
How it works
By clicking the relevant button on code hosting platforms, you copy all the current history and files of the project to your own space.
Where it is used
It is used when contributing to open-source projects or when you want to customize existing software for a different purpose.
Commonly confused with
It should not be confused with the clone operation, which is simply downloading the project to a computer to examine it; the fork operation creates a new and independent ownership on the server side.
Questions and answers
Will updates made to the original project come to me after forking?
They do not come automatically, but you can explicitly pull the innovations from the original project into your own copy.
Related terms
Related tools
This explanation was written in plain language for TreScout with AI and machine-translated from the Turkish original · the Turkish version prevails. If something looks wrong or missing, write to hello@trescout.com. Read in Turkish →