Change "base repo" for GitHub pull requests

Question

For a GitHub pull request, you specify a base repo (where you want the changes to go) and a head repo (where they're coming from).

However, I would like to use a base repo that is not on the dropdown list. Is it possible to add a base repo to the list? There is a relationship between the two (they share the initial commits)

In the actual repo I want this for, the fork does not have the standard "forked from" that GitHub forks normally have below the name in the upper left. However, it is a fork; it just wasn't forked through the GitHub system. If you know how to add this metadata, I suspect that will also allow pull requests. (This question asks how to change the "forked from". but that part is not answered).

Answer 1

Is it possible to add a base repo to the list?

No, not by yourself.

Github only lets you do pull requests on forks it knows about, and offers no way to register two repos as forks of one another later on.

You have two options you could try:

1. Contact Github support at [email protected] and describe your situation (briefly), including your username and the two repos involved. If you ask them for it, they might be able to add the "fork" status to your repo and thereby allow you to generate a PR
2. Bypass Github for the addition of your changes: Git is not dependent on such things as pull requests, you can just contact the other project and ask them to merge in your changes. This can be done in several way, you could, for example, provide a patch of your changes, or they could add your Github repo and merge or rebase your changes.