How do I rename a repository on GitHub

Question

I wanted to rename one of my repositories on GitHub  but I got scared when a big red warning said         We will not set up any redirects from the old location   You will need to update your local repositories to point to the new location   Renaming may take a few minutes to complete      Does anyone have step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish  1 and  2 manually  Or what do I have to do locally

User · Answer

I see a lot of positive feedback to responses I don't find accurate/complete at all.

There are two things to have in mind:

Remote repository
Local copy of the repository

If you haven't cloned your repo in your machine yet, you just need to rename the Github repository and then proceed to clone the repo so you can have a local copy. In order to rename the Github repo, you just need to:

Go to the repository site (i.e https://github.com/userX/repositoryZ).
In the navigation bar, you will see a tab named "Settings". Click on it.
Just edit the current repository name with the desired one and press "Rename".
Clone the repository as usual (i.e git clone https://github.com/userX/repositoryU).

If you already have a local copy of the project, apart from following the steps above, you need to make sure your local repository (root folder) is renamed properly and it's pointing to the right remote url :) link. In order to achieve that, do the following:

You might want to use the new given name for your repo. To do so, rename the local folder either by using the OS GUI(Finder, Windows Explorer, etc.) or console:

mv -R current-repo-name new-repo-name

Change the remote url. From the root of the folder, use the following:

$ git remote set-url origin https://github.com/userX/repositoryU

or

$ git remote set-url origin [email protected]:userX/repositoryU.git

The second step is not mandatory, though. Github announced a while ago that they would redirect all requests from previous repository urls to the assigned ones. That means you don't need to use $ git remote set-url ..., but they still encourage you to do so to avoid confusion.

Hope it helped. If you have any questions or the post is not clear enough, let me know.

User · Answer

The simplest way I found    Go to your repo link for example - https   github com someuser someRepo git  Click on setting tab      the first thing you can see is your repo name  you can edit that   Note - If you have cloned repo on local so  change its folder name manually  that s all

User · Answer

Navigate to your repository path   Click on setting button which is there in right panne   Replace old repository name to new name   Click on Rename button

User · Answer

Note that since May 2013   quot Repository redirects are here  quot    you can rename your GitHub repo without breaking any links   We re happy to announce that starting today  we ll automatically redirect all requests for previous repository locations to their new home in these circumstances  There s nothing special you have to do  Just rename away and we ll take care of the rest  As a special bonus  we ll also be servicing all Git clone  fetch  and push requests from previous repository locations   That means you don t even have to git remote set-url  change the url of your remote GitHub repo  on your local cloned repo  Although Gabriel notes in the comments that the official GitHub help page strongly recommends that you do so   to reduce confusion  we strongly recommend updating any existing local clones to point to the new repository URL  You can do this by using git remote on the command line   git remote set-url origin new url  Beware though   GitHub Pages sites are not automatically redirected when their repositories are renamed at this time  Renaming a Pages repository will continue to break any existing links to content hosted on the github io domain or custom domains   Plus  the user still owns the namespace  if he she creates a new repo using the old name of the renamed repo  that redirection  for said renamed repo  will stop working

User · Answer

open this url  https   github com   from your browser Go to repositories at the Right end of the page Open the link of repository that you want to rename click Settings  you will find in the Navigation bar  At the top you will find a box Called  Repository name  where you write the new name Press Rename

User · Answer

I rename my own just by simply    going to github com on my repository Open Settings Tab The first setting you can see is the  quot Repository Name quot  Change the actual one and put the new name you want to give to your repository Click on  quot Rename quot  button   After this step  GitHub will make sure that  your online repository matches your local folder name  At this step your problem is solved  unless you also want to rename your local folder  Then do it manually and just use the Github client for windows to refind again your repository into your hard drive  and Github will match it again  That s all  Very simple

User · Answer

This answer is now obsolete  GitHub will forward to new locations now  See this answer for details     The reason this warning is there is because  1 can t be made manually   If you are the only person working on and linking to the repository  then you are fine with changing the remote in your local repo and in your webpages   However  the reason to have a public repository on github in the first place is that you can have others cloning your repository and linking to your github project page     The old url github com  lt username gt   lt repository gt  is owned by github  When they don t setup any redirects to the new url  nobody can  So things will break for everybody except the persons you are telling   How big of a problem that is  is up to you though  If you have an official project page on a different server  then the github url might not be much of a problem  If you advertised your project with the github url in mailing lists and directories  then you probably should not change the repo name     An alternative to changing the repo name is to create a new repository and leave notes in the old one  also as commits in the repo  about how to reach your new repo   If you wan t your new repo to be listed as a fork of your old repo you need to create a new github account  You can add your other account as a collaborator for both repositories

User · Answer

Simple solution   1  Open your project url  https   github com someuser project-name  2  in the top  aside of the project name  click EDIT

User · Answer

I have tried to rename the repository on the web page     Click on the top of the right pages that it s your avatar   you can look at the icon of setting  click it and then you can find the Repositories under the Personal setting   click the Repositories and enter your directories of Repositories  choose the Repository that you want to rename   Then you will enter the chosen Repository and you will find the icon of setting is added to the top line  just click it and enter the new name then click Rename     Done  so easy

User · Answer

This solution is for those users who use GitHub desktop    Rename your repository from setting on GitHub com Now from your desktop click on sync    Done

User · Answer

It is worth noting that if you fork a GitHub project and then rename the newly spawned copy  the new name appears in the members network graph of the parent project   The complementary relationship is preserved as well   This should address any reservations associated with the first point in the original question related to redirects  i e  you can still get here from there  so to speak   I  too  was hesitant because of the irrevocability implied by the warning  so hopefully this will save others that delay

User · Answer

If you are the only person working on the project  it s not a big problem  because you only have to do  2   Let s say your username is someuser and your project is called someproject   Then your project s URL will be1  git github com someuser someproject git   If you rename your project  it will change the someproject part of the URL  e g   git github com someuser newprojectname git    see footnote if your URL does not look like this    Your working copy of Git uses this URL when you do a push or pull   So after you rename your project  you will have to tell your working copy the new URL   You can do that in two steps   Firstly  cd to your local Git directory  and find out what remote name s  refer to that URL     git remote -v origin  git github com someuser someproject git   Then  set the new URL    git remote set-url origin git github com someuser newprojectname git   Or in older versions of Git  you might need     git remote rm origin   git remote add origin git github com someuser newprojectname git    origin is the most common remote name  but it might be called something else    But if there are lots of people who are working on your project  they will all need to do the above steps  and maybe you don t even know how to contact them all to tell them  That s what  1 is about   Further reading    GitHub - working with remotes Git Reference - remotes Git Book - Distributed Workflows   Footnotes   1 The exact format of your URL depends on which protocol you are using  e g    SSH   git github com someuser someproject git HTTPS   https   someuser github com someuser someproject git GIT   git   github com someuser someproject git

[git] How do I rename a repository on GitHub?

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