Cannot search code on forked repos.

[alvin-c-shih]

Bug Report

Steps to Reproduce:

Attempted to search code for:

• https://github.com/finos/kdb-studio
• https://github.com/finos/qPython

Expected Result:

Search results. eg. Searching for _writer_map in qPython should include:

• https://github.com/finos/qPython/blob/main/qpython/qwriter.py#L54

Actual Result:

GitHub returns, "Sorry, forked repositories are not currently searchable."

Environment:

Searched using Google Chrome.

Additional Context:

These kdb-studio and qPython were forked into FINOS because:

1. The original maintainers were no longer active.
2. These projects are still used at FINOS member organizations and required updating.

In a way, these forks are the new de-facto mainline. Not being able to search is added friction for the developer experience and makes the the projects seem less official than the unmaintained repositories.

[alvin-c-shih]

@mcleo-d suggested that @pholleran and/or @Moose0621 could opine.

[pholleran]

This is as expected. We presently don't index forks for search.

A while back we announced work on a new code search engine for GitHub. The tech preview is open and users can register to participate. We plan to integrate this experience into GitHub later this year.

Searching within the forks linked above with the new experience returns the results below. At this time I can't say whether or not all forks will be included when this becomes the default GitHub search experience later this year, but it is promising.