9 ms·

5 minute fork

151 points by dave1010uk 14y ago

dimadima 14y ago
This is great for https://github.com/fat/slow-flying-pizza https://github.com/fat/slow-flying-pizza
dave1010uk 14y ago
Remy's block post about the idea and development: http://remysharp.com/2013/03/18/quick-dirty-forking/ http://remysharp.com/2013/03/18/quick-dirty-forking/
- rplnt 14y ago
  Wouldn't it be more efficient to extract just the "working directory" without all the .git mess? That is if github supports git archive.
reidrac 14y ago
Tried it with the only repo I have with plain html/js* and works like a charm. Pretty neat! *http://5minfork.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting http://5minfork.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting
- dschep 14y ago
  I understand users' need for this, but as a this is your code, why don't you also push it to the gh-pages branch? That would make the exact same thing available at http://reidrac.github.com/canvas-raycasting http://reidrac.github.com/canvas-raycasting (and then add a link to your README)
  - remysharp 14y ago
    I used to try to do that with my projects, but I found keeping the gh-pages branch in sync with my master just enough of a pain that it quickly got neglected. I'm not saying you shouldn't, and personally, I'd rather there be a hosted example of the repo - I just made 5minfork for those ones that (I often found) didn't have the live example.
    - benpickles 14y ago
      I never bother with an orphan branch, just create a gh-pages branch from master and fast-forward it when you want to "deploy".
  - reidrac 14y ago
    I actually hosted a demo for that repo in a different server. I'm not saying it's useful to host your own demo (although it could be a temporarily demo deployed on demand). I think 5minfork is cool if you want to try a project and the repo owner didn't put a demo website, that's the problem the author wants to solve and I think it's a great idea specially if you can't get the code and try it locally (mobile browsing?).
- siddboots 14y ago
  I tried to find the exit :(
  - reidrac 14y ago
    Sorry, it's just a demo and not a real game :)
nvr219 14y ago
This is great for me. Thank you so much.
terhechte 14y ago
Great idea. I guess one could even do this with rails / django / node projects as long as they're being run in a sandbox, but that's probably way more work. Nevertheless, great. It happens so often that I see something on Github that simply lacks a live demo. Thanks!
- shmageggy 14y ago
  And one could maybe even extend this to resolve external dependencies that are also hosted on Github, but that would also be way more work.
gelisam 14y ago
What this project does really wasn't clear to me until I tried reidrac's canvas-raycasting URL, so here is a (hopefully more clear) explanation: If a github repo has an index.html file and you click on it, github will show you the source instead of the webpage. 5minfork shows you the webpage so that you can have an idea of what the repo is about.
- remysharp 14y ago
  If you don't mind, I'll pinch that and whack it on the index.html page.
  - gelisam 14y ago
    I certainly don't mind! I'm glad I could be useful.
SanderMak 14y ago
I've found http://htmlpreview.github.com http://htmlpreview.github.com to be pretty useful as well. Any notable differences?
- mcrittenden 14y ago
  Apparently, 5 Minute Fork clones the whole repo and serves it up at its own subdomain and htmlpreview doesn't, so for example some single page JS apps (the one I tried is my own https://github.com/mikecrittenden/toogles https://github.com/mikecrittenden/toogles) will work in 5 min fork and not htmlpreview.
andyhmltn 14y ago
Ah you beat me to this idea! Nice one :)
RegEx 14y ago
I like this a lot. I hate dealing with the gh-pages orphan branch, so this is definitely something I'll look at implementing.
bulatb 14y ago
Obligatory bookmarklet: javascript:void(document.location='http://5minfork.com'+document.location.pathname)
- Hello71 14y ago
  document.location is deprecated^Wcannot be assigned to in Internet Explorer. javascript:void location='http://5minfork.com'+location.pathname
  - bulatb 14y ago
    Whups! Thanks.
michaelbuckbee 14y ago
Is there a generally accepted term for the Domain Swap as User Interface that this uses? I've come across the same idea [1] on several different sites/services and was just curious. 1. youtube.com -> youtuberepeater.com and reddit.com/r/aww -> imgur.com/r/aww
- awj 14y ago
  If I had to invent a name I'd call it "path compatibility", but I've never seen anything mentioned.
bink-lynch 14y ago
This is great! Thank you.
cbhl 14y ago
Unfortunately, I found that 5 minute fork doesn't initialize git submodules for https://github.com/Khan/khan-exercises https://github.com/Khan/khan-exercises. :(
- remysharp 14y ago
  File an issue, and I'll add that - and yeah, even better, if you can do a pull request it saves me writing it :)
justhw 14y ago
As an alternative, there's also a chrome/firefox extension that does this discussed here on HN a while ago. http://ryt.github.com/githtml/ http://ryt.github.com/githtml/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4198064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4198064
semicolondev 14y ago
Liked it. For ease of use it'd be more handy when one does't swap but adds: (the way you PWN YouTube) Eg. https://github.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting https://github.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting (repo) https://5mgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting https://5mgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting (Doable??) Or just 'f' for fork: https://fgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting https://fgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting (Doable??)
bogdanvancea 14y ago
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. It's a great idea, I needed something like this 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks.
Metapony 14y ago
I can see the value in this, but I probably wouldn't use it. I run a WAMP server on my desktop and have made an Alias in my httpd.conf to my Github Repos directory, allowing me to cruise in and see example html pages very easily. I just clone the repo in windows, and then I can use /git/REPO/coolthing.js in a script tag. I use a chrome extension for rendering README.md (markdown) files. I use Apaxy (http://adamwhitcroft.com/apaxy/ http://adamwhitcroft.com/apaxy/ ) to get a better folder view. The instructions for setting up an Alias are here: http://serverfault.com/questions/7323/httpd-conf-and-setting-up-an-alias http://serverfault.com/questions/7323/httpd-conf-and-setting... Hope this helps someone out there. It's really simple to do.
- Metapony 14y ago
  *actually, I may use it, but I do my own, similar, thing!
akozak 14y ago
Out of curiosity, how would you think about security when running a service like this? Anything could be in those repos, no?
- remysharp 14y ago
  It's something I did give a little thought to, but it's simply that all new subdomains create a new router that only allow for static content and directory listings. So nothing's being executed server side. A gave a little thought outside of that, but not much. I'm all ears if I've accidentally opened up a bag of worms!

151 points by dave1010uk 14y ago

This is great for https://github.com/fat/slow-flying-pizza https://github.com/fat/slow-flying-pizza

Remy's block post about the idea and development: http://remysharp.com/2013/03/18/quick-dirty-forking/ http://remysharp.com/2013/03/18/quick-dirty-forking/

rplnt 14y ago
Wouldn't it be more efficient to extract just the "working directory" without all the .git mess? That is if github supports git archive.

reidrac 14y ago

Tried it with the only repo I have with plain html/js* and works like a charm. Pretty neat! *http://5minfork.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting http://5minfork.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting

dschep 14y ago
I understand users' need for this, but as a this is your code, why don't you also push it to the gh-pages branch? That would make the exact same thing available at http://reidrac.github.com/canvas-raycasting http://reidrac.github.com/canvas-raycasting (and then add a link to your README)
- remysharp 14y ago
  I used to try to do that with my projects, but I found keeping the gh-pages branch in sync with my master just enough of a pain that it quickly got neglected. I'm not saying you shouldn't, and personally, I'd rather there be a hosted example of the repo - I just made 5minfork for those ones that (I often found) didn't have the live example.
  - benpickles 14y ago
    I never bother with an orphan branch, just create a gh-pages branch from master and fast-forward it when you want to "deploy".
- reidrac 14y ago
  I actually hosted a demo for that repo in a different server. I'm not saying it's useful to host your own demo (although it could be a temporarily demo deployed on demand). I think 5minfork is cool if you want to try a project and the repo owner didn't put a demo website, that's the problem the author wants to solve and I think it's a great idea specially if you can't get the code and try it locally (mobile browsing?).
siddboots 14y ago
I tried to find the exit :(
- reidrac 14y ago
  Sorry, it's just a demo and not a real game :)

nvr219 14y ago

This is great for me. Thank you so much.

terhechte 14y ago

Great idea. I guess one could even do this with rails / django / node projects as long as they're being run in a sandbox, but that's probably way more work. Nevertheless, great. It happens so often that I see something on Github that simply lacks a live demo. Thanks!

shmageggy 14y ago
And one could maybe even extend this to resolve external dependencies that are also hosted on Github, but that would also be way more work.

gelisam 14y ago

What this project does really wasn't clear to me until I tried reidrac's canvas-raycasting URL, so here is a (hopefully more clear) explanation: If a github repo has an index.html file and you click on it, github will show you the source instead of the webpage. 5minfork shows you the webpage so that you can have an idea of what the repo is about.

remysharp 14y ago
If you don't mind, I'll pinch that and whack it on the index.html page.
- gelisam 14y ago
  I certainly don't mind! I'm glad I could be useful.

SanderMak 14y ago

I've found http://htmlpreview.github.com http://htmlpreview.github.com to be pretty useful as well. Any notable differences?

mcrittenden 14y ago
Apparently, 5 Minute Fork clones the whole repo and serves it up at its own subdomain and htmlpreview doesn't, so for example some single page JS apps (the one I tried is my own https://github.com/mikecrittenden/toogles https://github.com/mikecrittenden/toogles) will work in 5 min fork and not htmlpreview.

andyhmltn 14y ago

Ah you beat me to this idea! Nice one :)

RegEx 14y ago

I like this a lot. I hate dealing with the gh-pages orphan branch, so this is definitely something I'll look at implementing.

bulatb 14y ago

Obligatory bookmarklet: javascript:void(document.location='http://5minfork.com'+document.location.pathname)

Hello71 14y ago
document.location is deprecated^Wcannot be assigned to in Internet Explorer. javascript:void location='http://5minfork.com'+location.pathname
- bulatb 14y ago
  Whups! Thanks.

michaelbuckbee 14y ago

Is there a generally accepted term for the Domain Swap as User Interface that this uses? I've come across the same idea [1] on several different sites/services and was just curious. 1. youtube.com -> youtuberepeater.com and reddit.com/r/aww -> imgur.com/r/aww

awj 14y ago
If I had to invent a name I'd call it "path compatibility", but I've never seen anything mentioned.

bink-lynch 14y ago

This is great! Thank you.

cbhl 14y ago

Unfortunately, I found that 5 minute fork doesn't initialize git submodules for https://github.com/Khan/khan-exercises https://github.com/Khan/khan-exercises. :(

remysharp 14y ago
File an issue, and I'll add that - and yeah, even better, if you can do a pull request it saves me writing it :)

justhw 14y ago

As an alternative, there's also a chrome/firefox extension that does this discussed here on HN a while ago. http://ryt.github.com/githtml/ http://ryt.github.com/githtml/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4198064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4198064

semicolondev 14y ago

Liked it. For ease of use it'd be more handy when one does't swap but adds: (the way you PWN YouTube) Eg. https://github.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting https://github.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting (repo) https://5mgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting https://5mgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting (Doable??) Or just 'f' for fork: https://fgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting https://fgithub.com/reidrac/canvas-raycasting (Doable??)

bogdanvancea 14y ago

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. It's a great idea, I needed something like this 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks.

Metapony 14y ago

I can see the value in this, but I probably wouldn't use it. I run a WAMP server on my desktop and have made an Alias in my httpd.conf to my Github Repos directory, allowing me to cruise in and see example html pages very easily. I just clone the repo in windows, and then I can use /git/REPO/coolthing.js in a script tag. I use a chrome extension for rendering README.md (markdown) files. I use Apaxy (http://adamwhitcroft.com/apaxy/ http://adamwhitcroft.com/apaxy/ ) to get a better folder view. The instructions for setting up an Alias are here: http://serverfault.com/questions/7323/httpd-conf-and-setting-up-an-alias http://serverfault.com/questions/7323/httpd-conf-and-setting... Hope this helps someone out there. It's really simple to do.

Metapony 14y ago
*actually, I may use it, but I do my own, similar, thing!

akozak 14y ago

Out of curiosity, how would you think about security when running a service like this? Anything could be in those repos, no?

remysharp 14y ago
It's something I did give a little thought to, but it's simply that all new subdomains create a new router that only allow for static content and directory listings. So nothing's being executed server side. A gave a little thought outside of that, but not much. I'm all ears if I've accidentally opened up a bag of worms!