# What is closing these PRs, and why?

**URL:** <https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423>\
**Category:** Core Workflow\
**Created:** [May 2, 2022, 11:43am UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423 "2022-05-02T11:43:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nedbat](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/nedbat/32/8744_2.png) [@nedbat](https://discuss.python.org/u/nedbat)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 11:43am UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423/1 "2022-05-02T11:43:54Z")

</div>

Shouldn’t the closing be attributed to something, ideally with a message explaining why?

> <https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/91908>

> <https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/92121>

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![storchaka](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/storchaka/32/217_2.png) [@storchaka](https://discuss.python.org/u/storchaka)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 12:39pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423/2 "2022-05-02T12:39:00Z")

</div>

Seems the author removed his repository.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yiannis-had](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/yiannis-had/32/7085_2.png) [@yiannis-had](https://discuss.python.org/u/yiannis-had)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 12:48pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423/3 "2022-05-02T12:48:51Z")

</div>

But the commit is still there in the pull request, why does it need the forked repo to keep the PR open?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hugovk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/hugovk/32/14505_2.png) [@hugovk](https://discuss.python.org/u/hugovk)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 1:43pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423/4 "2022-05-02T13:43:42Z")

</div>

I believe GitHub creates copies of PRs, so the original forks can be safely deleted and the PRs preserved.

So these PRs can be re-opened. The strange thing is these both say:

> This pull request was **closed**.

Rather than saying who closed them (like the author, another user, or a bot, ([for example](https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/31844))):

> [user] closed this [time] ago.

@yiannis-had To clear up the mystery and help understand how GitHub works better 🙂 did you close the PRs before or after deleting your fork? Or did GitHub close them automatically? Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yiannis-had](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/yiannis-had/32/7085_2.png) [@yiannis-had](https://discuss.python.org/u/yiannis-had)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423/5 "2022-05-02T14:04:21Z")

</div>

Hi, I had nothing to do with closing the PR, I guess it was done automatically.

I have been deleting forks after opening PRs in other repositories but never had this happen. For example, see: [assert on replace\_separators to enforce a string by yiannis-had · Pull Request #80 · amirziai/flatten · GitHub](https://github.com/amirziai/flatten/pull/80)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hugovk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/hugovk/32/14505_2.png) [@hugovk](https://discuss.python.org/u/hugovk)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/what-is-closing-these-prs-and-why/15423/6 "2022-05-02T14:23:34Z")

</div>

Thanks, that’s strange. I’ve asked about this on the [GitHub discourse](https://github.community/t/should-i-delete-my-fork-after-my-pr-has-been-approved/238420/3?u=hugovk).

(In the meantime, I’ll re-open your PRs, and we can skip a news entry for for typos.)