How to contribute to someone else's repository?

Question

I have a friend who has a repository in his GitHub account. I want to contribute (pull/push) to the master branch (the only branch) on that repo directly.

How would I go about doing this directly on the command line using git?

Answer 1

Since you specified that you want to push directly to your friend's repo, your friend needs to add you as a collaborator in the repo settings.

However, given your inexperience with git, it would be better to take the indirect approach: fork the repo and use pull requests to move your changes into the main repo.

Answer 2

The right way would be to fork his repository, do your work and then create a pull request. Then he could review it and decide to merge it into his work. Here's a good description: https://guides.github.com/introduction/flow/index.html

Edit: added a link to github.

Answer 3

I'm summing up everyone's answer.

1. Fork your friend's repository.
2. Fire up your terminal and type git clone {URL}.
3. Use this command to create a branch: git checkout -b new_branch.
4. Create a new remote for the upstream repo i.e. the link of original repo with the command: git remote add upstream {URL}
5. Do whatever changes you want in your local machine.
6. Fire up your terminal again and type git add {file name} or git add . if you want to add all files.
7. Then type a message git commit -m "message"
8. Create a branch: git remote add upstream {URL of friend's repository that you have forked}
9. For confirmation: git remote -v
10. git push Here you have to give your username and password.