How to: keep your fork in sync

docs/_sidebar_diataxis.json

@@ -68,6 +68,11 @@
             "type": "link",
             "label": "Rerender a feedstock",
             "href": "/docs/maintainer/updating_pkgs/#rerendering-feedstocks"
+          },
+          {
+            "type": "doc",
+            "label": "Keep your fork in sync",
+            "id": "how-to/basics/fork-sync"
           }
         ]
       },

docs/how-to/basics/fork-sync.md

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+---
+tags: [how-to, basic]
+---
+
+# How to keep your fork in sync
+
+The `conda-forge` workflow assumes that contributors will _always_ open their pull requests from their feedstock fork. Follow these best practices to make sure your branches are always up-to-date.
+
+## Terminology
+
+Given a `conda-forge/package-feedstock` repository, Github allows you to create a copy on your account, called _fork_. You have full rights over your forked repository, and it should be the place where you experiment with new branches and changes.
+
+The original repository is usually referred to as `upstream`.
+
+## How to fork a feedstock
+
+Forks are easily created from the Github UI:
+
+1. Go to the conda-forge feedstock
+2. Click on the Fork button in the top right corner
+3. Select on which account you want to create the fork. Choose your personal account, not an organization.
+
+## How to keep your fork in sync
+
+Never push directly to your fork's `main` branch. This branch should always be identical to upstream. This way your new branches will never start with merge conflicts.
+
+You can sync your fork `main` with upstream's via the Github UI. Look for an option named "Sync". Then, in your local copy of the forked repository, run: `git checkout main && git pull`.
+
+Locally, you can follow these steps:
+
+1. If not available on disk yet, clone your fork and change into its directory.
+2. Change the branch to `main`: `git checkout main`.
+3. Pull from upstream: `git pull --ff-only upstream main`.
+
+If this results in a "not possible to fast-forward" error, check [the section below](#how-to-resolve-conflicts-in-main).
+
+Once `main` is synced, you can create a new branch with `git checkout -b new-branch-name`.
+
+## How to resolve conflicts in `main`
+
+When pulling from `upstream`, you might run into merge conflicts or "not possible to fast-forward" errors. This can happen if you pushed to your fork's `main` branch instead of creating a new one.
+
+If you don't care about your local changes, you can simply do `git reset --hard upstream/main`.
+If you want to save your changes but still make your fork's `main` identical to `upstream`'s:
+
+1. If you just tried to `pull` and got merge conflicts, abort with `git merge --abort`. Otherwise, check the info in `git status` and make sure you are you are in the `main` branch: `git checkout main`.
+2. Park your local `main` in separate branch, as a backup: `git checkout -b parked-changes`.
+3. Ensure your remotes are fresh: `git fetch upstream`.
+4. Go back to `main` and reset it to `upstream`'s: `git checkout main && git reset --hard upstream/main`.
+
+Alternatively, create a backup of your `main` branch with `git checkout main && git checkout -b parked-changes`
+and then try to pull with a rebase strategy with `git rebase -i upstream/main`.
+The idea here is to keep only the commits from `upstream` and drop the ones you added yourself.
+[Gitlab's docs on `git rebase`](https://docs.gitlab.com/topics/git/git_rebase/) contain more details on this type of workflow.