How do I do an initial push to a remote repository with Git?

I've read through countless tutorials and I keep coming up short. Here's what I've got:

• I'm running RubyMine on my Windows desktop
• I've installed Git on my WebFaction hosting account per their instructions
• Git appears to be working fine on both machines

Here's what I'm doing:

1. On server:
   • mkdir project
   • git init
   • git add .
   • git commit #==> nothing to commit
2. On client:
   • Create new project in RubyMine
   • Git init in top directory of project
   • Push changes to server #==> failed to push some refs to...

What steps am I missing?

10 Answers

On server:

mkdir my_project.git cd my_project.git git --bare init 

On client:

mkdir my_project cd my_project touch .gitignore git init git add . git commit -m "Initial commit" git remote add origin :/path/to/my_project.git git push origin master 

Note that when you add the origin, there are several formats and schemas you could use. I recommend you see what your hosting service provides.

You can try this:

on Server:

adding new group to /etc/group like (example)

mygroup:1001:michael,nir 

create new git repository:

mkdir /srv/git cd /srv/git mkdir project_dir cd project_dir git --bare init (initial git repository ) chgrp -R mygroup objects/ refs/ (change owner of directory ) chmod -R g+w objects/ refs/ (give permission write) 

on Client:

mkdir my_project cd my_project touch .gitignore git init git add . git commit -m "Initial commit" git remote add origin :/path/to/my_project.git git push origin master 

(Thanks Josh Lindsey for client side)

after Client, do on Server this commands:

cd /srv/git/project_dir chmod -R g+w objects/ refs/ 

If got this error after git pull:

There is no tracking information for the current branch. Please specify which branch you want to merge with. See git-pull(1) for details git pull <remote> <branch> If you wish to set tracking information for this branch you can do so with: git branch --set-upstream new origin/<branch> 

try:

git push -u origin master 

It will help.

If your project doesn't have an upstream branch, that is if this is the very first time the remote repository is going to know about the branch created in your local repository the following command should work.

git push --set-upstream origin <branch-name> 

You have to add at least one file to the repository before committing, e.g. .gitignore.

@Josh Lindsey already answered perfectly fine. But I want to add some information since I often use ssh.

Therefore just change:

git remote add origin :/path/to/my_project.git 

to:

git remote add origin ssh://youruser@ 

Note that the colon between domain and path isn't there anymore.

You need to set up the remote repository on your client:

git remote add origin ssh:// 

I am aware there are existing answers which solves the problem. For those who are new to git, As of 02/11/2021, The default branch in git is "main" not "master" branch, The command will be

git push -u origin main 

Run below command

git config --local -e 

change entry of

url = :username/repo.git 

to

url = 

If you run into the incident as mentioned by @dangerous-dev but you have a local default branch called master and a remote one called main push it using:

git push -u origin master:main 

respectively using the long version:

git push --set-upstream origin master:main 

When you have a local git repo and want to add origin on this existing repo:

git remote add origin ssh:// git pull origin main --allow-unrelated-histories git push -u origin main