We updated the web UI to make keeping forks in sync with their upstream repositories more intuitive. "Fetch upstream" has been renamed to "Sync fork," which better describes the button's behavior. If the sync causes a conflict, the web UI prompts users to contribute their changes to the upstream, discard their changes, or resolve the conflict.
Previously, when creating a fork all branches from the parent repository were copied to the new fork repository. There are several scenarios where this is unneeded, such as contributing to open-source projects. When all branches are copied, it could result in slow repo cloning and unnecessary disk usage. With this new feature, only the default branch is copied; no other branches or tags. This may result in faster clones because only reachable objects will be pulled down.
If you want to copy additional branches from the parent repository, you can do so from the Branches page.
When editing a Markdown file through the web interface, selecting the Preview tab will now automatically scroll to the place in the preview that you were just editing. The scroll location is based on the position of your cursor before you selected the Preview tab.
You can now require a successful deployment of a branch before its pull request can be merged. This is made possible by a new branch protection setting titled Require deployments to succeed before merging. To enable the setting, create a new branch protection rule for the target branch. Then, select the environments where deployments must succeed before a pull request can be merged, shown here:
This will allow you to ensure code is, for example, exercised in a staging or test environment before it's merged to your main branch.
Learn more about protected branches
Learn more about branch protection rules
Previously, GitHub's web UI did not allow deleting a branch that was associated with an open pull request. Now you can delete such a branch from the UI. However, doing so will close all open pull requests associated with the branch. Before the branch is deleted, you must confirm that the pull requests may be closed.
Previously, when you forked a repository the fork name would default to the same name as the parent repository. In some cases, that wasn't ideal because you wanted the fork to have a different name. Your only option was to rename the fork after it was created. Now you can customize the fork name at the same time you're creating it.
