What does "This branch is 0 commits ahead and 0 commits behind master" mean on GitHub?

Question

GitHub screenshot:

There's only one branch, master. git status says there's nothing to commit. How is that branch zero commits ahead and behind itself?

I see this on GitHub forks. Is it just a confusing status message?

Answer 1

This is not a bug.

Once you fork a repo, each of your branch is compared to the branch which is common between the fork and the original repo.
That gives you a clear indication about you can or not make a pull request.

In this instance, your branch is master, which is means it is compared with itself, since master is also in the original repo.
Hence the "0 commit ahead and 0 commit behind" (with itself) message.

If you had done a commit of your own on, as I mention in "couple of tips on pull request", on a dedicated branch made from master, then your branch would have been a commit ahead of master.
You could then have made a pull request, from the owner of the first repo to consider.

In any case, the purpose of that message is to remind you that the main goal of a fork is to collaborate and contribute back:

• if your dedicated branch is behind, you want to rebase it against origin/branch (which you are supposed to keep in sync with the original repo, in other words, you are not supposed to work directly on master) in order to make sure your own work is compatible with the latest commits of the first repo,
• if your branch is ahead, you could consider making a pull request and giving back.