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I'm apparently terrible at using git, despite my best attempts to understand it.

From kernel.org for git push:




Here's branch.<name>.merge from git config:


Defines, together with branch.<name>.remote, the upstream branch for the given branch. It tells git fetch/git pull which branch to merge and can also affect git push (see push.default). When in branch <name>, it tells git fetch the default refspec to be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value is handled like the remote part of a refspec, and must match a ref which is fetched from the remote given by "branch.<name>.remote". The merge information is used by git pull (which at first calls git fetch) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without this option, git pull defaults to merge the first refspec fetched. Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge. If you wish to setup git pull so that it merges into <name> from another branch in the local repository, you can point branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting . (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.

I successfully set up a remote repository with github, and I successfully pushed my first commit to it with:

git push -u origin master

Then, I unwittingly successfully pushed my second commit to my remote repository using:

git commit -m '[...]'

However, incorrectly thinking I would have to push again to origin from master, I ran:

# note: no -u
git push origin master

What did that do? It didn't seem to have any effect at all. Did I "undo" git push -u origin master?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 90 down vote accepted

The key is "argument-less git-pull". When you do a git pull from a branch, without specifying a source remote or branch, git looks at the branch.<name>.merge setting to know where to pull from. git push -u sets this information for the branch you're pushing.

To see the difference, let's use a new empty branch:

$ git checkout -b test

First, we push without -u:

$ git push origin test
$ git pull
You asked me to pull without telling me which branch you
want to merge with, and 'branch.test.merge' in
your configuration file does not tell me, either. Please
specify which branch you want to use on the command line and
See git-pull(1) for details.

use something like the following in your configuration file:

    [branch "test"]
    remote = <nickname>
    merge = <remote-ref>

    [remote "<nickname>"]
    url = <url>
    fetch = <refspec>

See git-config(1) for details.

Now if we add -u:

$ git push -u origin test
Branch test set up to track remote branch test from origin.
Everything up-to-date
$ git pull
Already up-to-date.

Note that tracking information has been set up so that git pull works as expected without specifying the remote or branch.

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@dahlbyk +1 Thank you! So when I ran git push origin master, I simply made things ambiguous for git pull if I had multiple branches? –  ClosureCowboy Apr 18 '11 at 2:08
git push <remote> <branch> makes things unambiguous. If you leave off the remote or branch git falls back on the branch config settings, which are set for you with git push -u. –  dahlbyk Apr 18 '11 at 2:12
@dahlbyk I've gone ahead and marked you as the answer, but that comment somewhat confuses me. In your answer, you demonstrated that git was confused after git push origin test (which doesn't have -u). You then showed that git push -u origin test removes the ambiguity. Is there a typo, or am I just being dense again? –  ClosureCowboy Apr 18 '11 at 2:30
@dahlbyk: Your answer is fine, but in your comments above you repeat a common misconception about git push - unless you set push.default yourself, git push only uses the upstream branch configuration to decide which remote to push to, not the remote branch to update. –  Mark Longair Apr 18 '11 at 5:20
The best practice for git is git push origin master and the same to other side IE. git pull origin master .. So If suppose branch change then you can git push origin branch_name and the same to other side IE. git pull origin branch_name –  hbdev ror Dec 3 '12 at 11:33
 git push -u origin master

Is the same as:

 git push origin master ; git branch --set-upstream master origin/master

Do the last statement if you forget the -u!

Or you could force it:

 git config branch.master.remote origin
 git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master

If you let the command do if for you it will pick your mistakes like if you typed a non-existent branch or you didn't git remote add, though that might be what you want :).

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BTW master is just an example :) –  sabgenton Apr 15 '13 at 14:51
Ok the second bit is now depreciated in newer versions for: git branch master -u origin/master details @ stackoverflow.com/a/2286030/790359 –  sabgenton Apr 22 '13 at 23:11
If you forget to use the -u option, type git push -u immediately will be OK. –  zeekvfu May 14 '14 at 11:09

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