title: Unable to merge fork of repository
body: <p>There is a project on GitHub that I follow (upstream):</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://github.com/adaptivecomputing/torque" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/adaptivecomputing/torque</a></p>
  
  <p>I have a fork of this repo (origin):</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://github.com/spudstud/torque" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/spudstud/torque</a></p>
  
  <p>New branches have been added to the upstream repository that I want to pull into origin, and then to my local machine.</p>
  
  <p>According to GitHub help, this should be easy. I should be able synchronise my fork with the following commands. <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/syncing-a-fork" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://help.github.com/articles/syncing-a-fork</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>git fetch upstream
  git merge upstream/master
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Unfortunately, the upstream branches that I want (4.2.3, 4.2.3.1,  4.2.3.h2, 4.2.3.h3), still do not appear in origin</p>
  
  <pre><code>git clone git@github.com:spudstud/torque.git
  cd torque/
  git remote add upstream https://github.com/adaptivecomputing/torque.git
  git remote -v
        origin    git@github.com:spudstud/torque.git (fetch)
        origin    git@github.com:spudstud/torque.git (push)
        upstream    https://github.com/adaptivecomputing/torque.git (fetch)
        upstream    https://github.com/adaptivecomputing/torque.git (push)
  git fetch upstream
  git checkout master
  git merge upstream/master
  
  git branch -a
  * master
    remotes/origin/2.5-dev
    remotes/origin/2.5.12
    remotes/origin/4.1-dev
    remotes/origin/4.1.0
    remotes/origin/4.1.4
    remotes/origin/4.1.4-1648
    remotes/origin/4.1.5
    remotes/origin/4.1.5.1
    remotes/origin/4.1.5.2
    remotes/origin/4.2.0
    remotes/origin/4.2.1
    remotes/origin/4.2.2
    **** 4.2.3,  4.2.3.1,  4.2.3.h2,  4.2.3.h3 should show up about here^ ****
    ...
    remotes/origin/HEAD -&gt; origin/master
    remotes/origin/master
    remotes/upstream/2.5-dev
    remotes/upstream/2.5.12
    remotes/upstream/4.1-dev
    remotes/upstream/4.1.0
    remotes/upstream/4.1.4
    remotes/upstream/4.1.4-1648
    remotes/upstream/4.1.5
    remotes/upstream/4.1.5.1
    remotes/upstream/4.1.6
    remotes/upstream/4.1.6.h1
    remotes/upstream/4.1.6.h2
    remotes/upstream/4.2-dev
    remotes/upstream/4.2.0
    remotes/upstream/4.2.1
    remotes/upstream/4.2.2
    remotes/upstream/4.2.2.ufl
    remotes/upstream/4.2.3
    remotes/upstream/4.2.3.1
    remotes/upstream/4.2.3.h2
    remotes/upstream/4.2.3.h3
    remotes/upstream/master
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Nothing I have read so far can explain what the issue might be:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><em><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14199286/what-is-the-correct-way-to-merge-upstream-without-losing-changes">What is the correct way to merge upstream without losing changes?</a></em></li>
  <li><em><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8196203/git-how-to-fetch-from-a-remote-branch-and-merge-into-local-branch">git: How to fetch from a remote branch and merge into local branch?</a></em></li>
  <li><em><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67699/how-do-i-clone-all-remote-branches-with-git?rq=1">How to clone all remote branches in Git?</a></em></li>
  <li><em><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1123344/merging-between-forks-in-github">Merging between forks in GitHub</a></em> &lt;- This seemed to have the most potential</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>SOLUTION</strong>
  Thanks to the answers, I figured this out.
  I was not understanding that I needed to push the changes back to the fork:</p>
  
  <pre><code>git push origin 4.2.4
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It appears that what I was trying to do was 'fast forward' my fork. GitHub used to have a fastforward button that would automatically bring your forked repository up to date with the upstream, <em><a href="https://github.com/blog/266-fast-forward-your-fork" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Fast Forward Your Fork</a></em>. It looks like GitHub got rid of the fast forward feature (as far as I can tell), so I'll have to repeat these steps for every branch.</p>