Delete repository that forked from mine [closed]

Question

this is serious issue for me. First of all, I am very newbie in github. I thought that I uploaded my school project and assignment files as private. However, I realized that it was public. I check the number of forks. and One people forked mine. I made mine as private, but it seems that he/she still has my repo. Is there anyway that I can delete it? I dont want my homework code to spread into all over the world. if I can't, is there any way for me to ask GITHUB company?

Answer 1

When a public repository is forked and that public repository is made private or deleted, the forked repository still exists but is migrated/moved/owned to one of the fork repositories. See:

https://help.github.com/en/articles/what-happens-to-forks-when-a-repository-is-deleted-or-changes-visibility#changing-a-public-repository-to-a-private-repository

There is little point asking Github to assist. A fork means that someone took a copy of your repository AND created a new repository that is logically linked to your original repository. A fork is not the same as a clone. Anyone could have cloned your repository and they would have a disconnected copy of it and there isn't a thing Github could do to delete that disconnected copy.

By creating a repository with public access, you implicitly agreed to have your code copied. Maybe you can prevent re-distribution but that would be a case between you and the persons who copied it ... but now we are into the murky waters of code copyright compliance. This assumes that there was a license file as part of the repository.

Answer 2

Please keep in mind that:

• Deleting a private repository will delete all of its forks.
• Deleting a public repository will not delete its forks.

Deleting a private repository

When you delete a private repository, all of its private forks are also deleted.

Deleting a public repository

When you delete a public repository, one of the existing public forks is chosen to be the new parent repository. All other repositories are forked off of this new parent and subsequent pull requests go to this new parent.

If a private repository is made public and then deleted, its private forks will continue to exist as standalone private repositories in separate networks.

Please go here and here for more details:

I found one NPM package to remove-github-forks. May it helpful for you

In last

In last,you can contact github support and ask them to switch your repository to "normal mode".

Answer 3

The best you can do is politely contact the person who forked your repository, explain that you published it by mistake and ask if they would make their fork private also.

You can do this by opening a new issue on their fork, which will send a notification to their email.