Command to list people who forked a repo

Question

Is there any command or an API through which I can know who forked my git repository (Present on github.com). I know this is simple using UI (of github.com) but I would prefer to do it command line (using git bash or through any other command line utility).

@BeginnersSake - the idea of "forking" is not a git term - it is only related to github (or other services that manage version control). The only way you'd be able to get that info is to ask github - its not stored as part of your version controlled code. — Lix, Feb 27 '17 at 12:55

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

This is possible using the GitHub API.

To get a list of forks for a given repository, issue a GET request to https://api.github.com/repos/<user>/<repository>/forks. The result is a JSON document containing, among lots of other information, the users who forked the repository.

From a Linux shell:

$ curl https://api.github.com/repos/<user>/<repository>/forks

Parsing the resulting JSON can be done, for example, with a simple Python script (using Python 3):

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from urllib.request import urlopen
import json

def fork_users(user, repo):
    url = 'http://api.github.com/repos/{u}/{r}/forks'.format(u=user, r=repo)
    with urlopen(url) as r:
        forks = json.loads(r.read().decode('utf8'))
    return [f['owner']['login'] for f in forks]

if __name__ == '__main__':
    from sys import argv
    user, repo = argv[1:3]
    for user in sorted(fork_users(user, repo)):
        print(user)

For other options, see for example this question.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 27 '17 at 13:19

3

Forking is not a part of the official git language but rather of github, and therefore it is not possible using git bash.

answered Feb 27 '17 at 13:19

Englund

1,067
7
13

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 27 '17 at 14:00

2

As mentioned by @Englund fork is not part of git, but if you are looking for a command line utility to identify all the forks - https://github.com/frost-nzcr4/find_forks which use the API - https://developer.github.com/v3/repos/forks/

answered Feb 27 '17 at 14:00

Libin Varghese

1,506
13
19

Command to list people who forked a repo

3 Answers3