Forks

Forking lets a user copy any repository they can read into their own namespace. It needs no configuration — no GITSHARK_* properties and no background jobs.

Schema

Migration V17__repository_fork.sql adds one column to repositories:

Column	Type	Notes
parent_repo_id	uuid NULL	FK → repositories(id), ON DELETE SET NULL, indexed (idx_repositories_parent)

ON DELETE SET NULL means deleting a source repository leaves its forks standing as independent repositories (their parent_repo_id is cleared) rather than cascading the deletion. No new tables.

Endpoints

Method & path	Auth	Effect
POST /api/v1/repos/{owner}/{name}/fork	Bearer token (required)	Fork into the caller's namespace; 201 with the new RepositoryView, 409 if the caller already has a repository of that name, 404 if the source is not readable, 401 without a token
POST /repos/{owner}/{name}/fork	Session (required)	Same, from the UI; 303 to the fork (or to the caller's existing repository of that name), 403 for anonymous callers

The RepositoryView payload gains two nullable fields, parentOwner and parentName. They are populated only when the repository is a fork and the caller can read the parent, so a source turned private after being forked is never disclosed through its forks. Listing endpoints omit them entirely.

Behavior

• The fork copies the source's name, visibility, and description, and clones the bare repository on disk with git clone --bare semantics (all branches, plus reachable tags) into the forking user's storage directory.
• Visibility is enforced up front: the caller must be able to read the source, so a private repository is never exposed through a fork. A private source produces a private fork.
• Storage grows by roughly the size of the source repository per fork — clones are independent copies, not shared object stores. Account for this in disk provisioning if forking is heavily used.

Storage

Forks live under the same gitshark.storage.root layout as any other repository (<owner-id>/<repo-id>.git); see Persistent data. Nothing fork-specific needs a separate volume.