title: Git Merge with Remote Master
body: <p>I've contributed to many open source projects. Typically, as external contributors don't have write access to the repository they contribute to, the workflow is as follows:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Fork the repo and <code>clone</code> a private copy</li>
  <li><code>git checkout -b feature-branch</code> on the forked repo</li>
  <li>Push commits to this branch</li>
  <li>Open a pull request to merge <code>local:feature-branch</code> into <code>remote:master</code></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>This is all fine, but I've recently ran into a problem when there is a merge conflict forcing me to merge <code>master</code> into my feature branch so the pull request can be accepted.</p>
  
  <p>The command would typically be:</p>
  
  <pre><code>git checkout master
  git pull origin master
  git checkout feature-branch
  git merge master
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But when I go through these steps, <code>git</code> displays <code>Already up-to-date.</code>, which makes sense. Because I'm in a forked version of the repo, my copy will never be able to get the recent remote changes to <code>master</code>.</p>
  
  <p>So it looks like because I'm working on a forked copy that can't be merged, my PR is forever un-mergable.</p>
  
  <p>How can I fix his problem?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks so much for your help!</p>