Repository Access

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Overview

Questions

• What levels of repository permissions are there?

Objectives

• Know how to give a collaborator access to your repository.

To be able to contribute to the git-training-demo repository your instructors will have to give you access. They are going to showcase this now. The steps are:

In the repository page on GitHub, click the “Settings” button on the right, select “Collaborators”, click “Add people”, and enter a username/s.

A screenshot of the GitHub Collaborators settings page for a public personal repository, which is accessed by clicking “Settings” then “Collaborators”.

To accept access to the repository, you will need to go to https://github.com/notifications or check for an email notification. Once there you can accept access to the repository.

Permission Levels

---

Personal Repositories

Repositories on personal accounts only have two levels of permissions, the Owner and Collaborators¹. To use the branching model in this lesson you would need adding as a collaborator. You can still contribute to a public repository without being added as a collaborator by using the forking model.

Checking Access

As a collaborator you will be able to edit files on GitHub.

1. Go to the GitHub repository.
2. Scroll down to the top of the rendered README.
3. In the top right corner of the README click on the Edit file pencil icon.

If you aren’t a collaborator you will see the message:

You need to fork this repository to propose changes. Sorry, you’re not able to edit this repository directly

Or if you have made a fork of the repository already you may see the GitHub editor and a banner message stating:

You’re making changes in a project you don’t have write access to…

If you are a collaborator, GitHub’s online editor will appear.

Organisational Repositories

Repositories in organisations have more levels of permissions². Team members require at least write access to use the branching model. For all lower levels of access use the forking model.

Checking Access for Organisational Repositories

Read

Triage

Write

Maintain and Admin

If you can see the repository on GitHub you have read access (or higher).

If you click on a link to a repository and get GitHub’s 404 not found page:

1. Check if you have SSO (Single Sign On) to the relevant organisation.
2. Ask the repository admins for read access.

If you can add labels and assign yourself to Issues and PRs you have triage access (or higher).

With write access you will be able to edit files on GitHub.

1. Go to the GitHub repository.
2. Scroll down to the top of the rendered README.
3. In the top right corner of the README click on the Edit file pencil icon.

If you don’t have write access this message is displayed in a banner:

You need to fork this repository to propose changes. You’re making changes in a project you don’t have write access to.

If you have write access (or higher), GitHub’s online editor will appear.

If you have Maintain or Admin privileges you can edit the repositories settings. Navigate to the top right Settings tab from the repository homepage.

See the GitHub documentation for the differences between Maintainers and Admins.

Add a comment to the Confirm Access Issue

Your instructors have set up an Issue on the git-training-demo repository with the title Confirm Access.

Navigate to the Issue and add a comment saying: I’m here!.

Key Points

• On a repository you own or are an admin on navigate to https://github.com/<organisation>/<repository>/settings/access to control access for collaborators.
• You can give individuals or teams access to a repository.

---

1. The GitHub documentation has more information on permissions for a repository on a personal account.↩︎

2. The GitHub documentation has more information on the different permission levels for repositories in organisations.↩︎