How can a pull request on github be cancelled?
Go to conversation tab then come down there is one "close pull request" button is there use that button to close pull request, Take ref of attached image
In the spirit of a DVCS (as in "Distributed"), you don't cancel something you have published:
Pull requests are essentially patches you have send (normally by email, here by GitHub webapp), and you wouldn't cancel an email either ;)
But since the GitHub Pull Request system also includes a discussion section, that would be there that you could voice your concern to the recipient of those changes, asking him/her to disregards 29 of your 30 commits.
Finally, remember:
That being said, since January 2011 ("Refreshed Pull Request Discussions"), and mentioned in the answer above, you can close a pull request in the comments.
Look for that "Comment and Close" button at the bottom of the discussion page:
GitHub now supports closing a pull request
Basically, you need to do the following steps:
Example (button on the very bottom):
This way the pull request gets closed (and ignored), without merging it.
Original Repository
where the pull request has been submitted to.Pull requests
tabClose Pull Request
buttonIf you sent a pull request on a repository where you don't have the rights to close it, you can delete the branch from where the pull request originated. That will cancel the pull request.
I wanted to comment, but since my reputation won't qualify for commenting, it had to be an answer. Github will actually let you not only cancel a pull request, but also delete it by simply deleting the fork you are trying to push. Hope this may help some others googling this.