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You will not have write permission to github apache mirror, you need to
fork https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans to your own repositories.

You need to clone the forked repository and setup name and mail. This also may help git rebase to fullfil its task.

git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config --global user.email "john@doe.org"

--global  can be removed if you want to setup only the current repository.

Uses branches

It's more confortable to use branches for doing PR because the  PR will have it's own lifecycle on his dedicated branch.

You now want to create a Pull Request for a fix or a new feature.Pull Request are not fixed in time. I you change your history the PR will be impacted.

 A PR will be reviewed by commiters and they may ask you additionnal work.To easy your work it's better to create a branches per feature you want to submit as Pull Request.

creating and pointing at  a new creating a branch from master required 3 steps

1. git checkout master
2. git branch mywork
3. git checkout mywork

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You can then code and , commit and push . to your forked repository. You can then use the github UI to create a Pull request from your branche

https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request/

You will need an ICLA (Individual Contributor License Agreement) for important modifications.

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