Modify a GitHub pull request 100% online, without having to install Git

Question

GitHub allows me to send a pull request entirely online. This is very useful to casually fix typos or grammar errors or broken URLs in a README, for instance.

While such pull requests most often get merged without any problem, some other times the maintainer asks me to modify something slightly before they merge.

In such a case, I would have to pull the entire repository, get my pull request branch, and throw a bunch of git commands. This is quite bothersome for changing just a few characters of text.

Is there a way to modify my pull request online?

Answer 1

First, look at the URL of your pull request, it will be like:

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/pull/1234

1) On the Github page showing your repositories, find your clone of that repository, if will be something like https://github.com/nic/linux and click it.

2) By default the branch is set to master, change it to patch-1 like this:

3) Now you can edit and commit like you want. All of your commits will be automatically made a part of the existing pull request.

Answer 2

Switch from the Conversation tab to Files changed. There, you can edit every file that already has changes in your patch branch with the online editor by clicking the pencil icon on the upper right side of its entry.

If you need to add a new file or change a different one, you can either follow @nic's description or mine above and then immediately cancel the edit. Some people also like to alter the URL directly:

• https://github.com/{my account name}/{repository name}/blob/{branch name}/{file path/filename.ext}