{"id":187,"date":"2021-03-03T18:05:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T18:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/?p=187"},"modified":"2022-04-11T20:24:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:24:24","slug":"deleting-unwanted-forks-from-github","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/devops\/deleting-unwanted-forks-from-github\/","title":{"rendered":"Deleting unwanted forks from GitHub"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@yancymin?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Yancy Min<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/github?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At some point in my life I thought it would be a good idea to start forking git repos in GitHub instead of just starring them. I guess it started with a fear the repos might not exist in some point in the future and that I would like to have a copy for reference. But really how many times do I ever go back to stored bookmarks, or saved copies of things. Guess I am a digital hoarder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deleting forks you no longer want from GitHub is a real PITA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enter this repo <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/yangshun\/delete-github-forks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/github.com\/yangshun\/delete-github-forks<\/a> to save the day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Setup a GitHub token to be used by <code>delete-github-forks<\/code><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Go to <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/settings\/tokens\/new\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/github.com\/settings\/tokens\/new<\/a> and create a new token. I used delete-github-forks as the Note field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Set the public_repo and delete_repo permissions for the token.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generate the token and then <strong>make sure you copy the token and store it securely<\/strong> (I use 1Password).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/make_a_token_copy-1024x100.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/make_a_token_copy-1024x100.png 1024w, https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/make_a_token_copy-300x29.png 300w, https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/make_a_token_copy-768x75.png 768w, https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/make_a_token_copy.png 1494w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Configure delete-github-forks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Clone the repo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>$ cd &#91;some directory you want the repo to be stored]\n$ git clone https:\/\/github.com\/yangshun\/delete-github-forks.git\n$ cd delete-github-forks<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Install dependencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>$ npm install<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"309\" src=\"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/npm_install-1024x309.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/npm_install-1024x309.png 1024w, https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/npm_install-300x91.png 300w, https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/npm_install-768x232.png 768w, https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/npm_install-1536x464.png 1536w, https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/npm_install.png 1619w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Configure the credentials to be used against GitHub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>$ cp src\/config.json.example src\/config.json\n$ vim src\/config.json   &#91;I like TextMate, so normally I am lazy and just use the mate command]<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Specify your GitHub username and the token you generated earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fetch the list of forks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>$ cd src\n$ node fetch-repos.js\n\n...\nForked repos found: 50\n^^ Geez!<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>This creates a file called <code>repos.json<\/code> and you need to remove all the forks that you actually want to keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is worth reiterating from the repo&#8217;s documentation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong>The repositories that remain inside <code>repos.json<\/code> will be deleted on the next command. It is an irreversible operation. Use with great caution!.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>See the last section on how I did a quick verification on each fork to see if I wanted to keep it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Deleting the unwanted forks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>See the warning above. Make sure you only keep the forks in <code>repos.json<\/code> that you actually want to delete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Delete the forks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>$ node delete-repos.js<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Amazing in less than 2 seconds this deleted 68 forks I was no longer needing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Miscellaneous<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I wanted to visit the GitHub page for each of the forks. So I thought I would open all the tabs in bulk from the command line<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>$ sed -e 's|\"andrejacobs|open \"https:\/\/github.com\/andrejacobs|' repos.json | sed -e 's\/\",\/\"\/' | awk '{$1=$1};1' | bash<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Breakdown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Replace &#8220;andrejacobs with: open &#8220;https:\/\/github.com\/andrejacobs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>sed -e 's|\"andrejacobs|open \"https:\/\/github.com\/andrejacobs|'<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Replace &#8220;, with: &#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>sed -e 's\/\",\/\"\/'<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Trim whitespace<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>awk '{$1=$1};1'<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>This is by far not the most optimized or best way but it did open 50+ tabs in my browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The process was pretty simple. I check what the fork is about and even visit the repo it was forked from to see if it still exists etc. and then made an informed decision if I wanted to keep my fork or not. Also now was a good time to start starring repos I cared about and NOT fork them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Yancy Min on Unsplash At some point in my life I thought it would be a good idea to start forking git repos in GitHub instead of just starring them. I guess it started with a fear the repos might not exist in some point in the future and that I would like [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/devops\/deleting-unwanted-forks-from-github\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[33],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Deleting unwanted forks from GitHub - Andr\u00e9 Jacobs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this post I show you how to delete all of your unwanted GitHub forks in a flash. 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