I want to be able to do the following:

1. Create a local branch based on some other (remote or local) branch (via git branch or git checkout -b)

2. Push the local branch to the remote repository (publish), but make it trackable so git pull and git push will work immediately.

How do I do that?

I know about --set-upstream in Git 1.7, but that is a post-creation action. I want to find a way to make a similar change when pushing the branch to the remote repository.

17 Answers

In Git 1.7.0 and later, you can checkout a new branch:

git checkout -b <branch> 

Edit files, add and commit. Then push with the -u (short for --set-upstream) option:

git push -u origin <branch> 

Git will set up the tracking information during the push.

If you are not sharing your repo with others, this is useful to push all your branches to the remote, and --set-upstream tracking correctly for you:

git push --all -u 

(Not exactly what the OP was asking for, but this one-liner is pretty popular)

If you are sharing your repo with others this isn't really good form as you will clog up the repo with all your dodgy experimental branches.

Prior to the introduction of git push -u, there was no git push option to obtain what you desire. You had to add new configuration statements.

If you create a new branch using:

$ git checkout -b branchB $ git push origin branchB:branchB 

You can use the git config command to avoid editing directly the .git/config file:

$ git config branch.branchB.remote origin $ git config branch.branchB.merge refs/heads/branchB 

Or you can edit manually the .git/config file to add tracking information to this branch:

[branch "branchB"] remote = origin merge = refs/heads/branchB 

Simply put, to create a new local branch, do:

git branch <branch-name> 

To push it to the remote repository, do:

git push -u origin <branch-name> 

A slight variation of the solutions already given here:

1. Create a local branch based on some other (remote or local) branch:

   git checkout -b branchname 

2. Push the local branch to the remote repository (publish), but make it trackable so git pull and git push will work immediately

   git push -u origin HEAD 

   Using HEAD is a "handy way to push the current branch to the same name on the remote". Source: In Git terms, HEAD (in uppercase) is a reference to the top of the current branch (tree).

   The -u option is just short for --set-upstream. This will add an upstream tracking reference for the current branch. you can verify this by looking in your .git/config file:

   

I simply do

git push -u origin localBranch:remoteBranchToBeCreated 

over an already cloned project.

Git creates a new branch named remoteBranchToBeCreated under my commits I did in localBranch.

Edit: this changes your current local branch's (possibly named localBranch) upstream to origin/remoteBranchToBeCreated. To fix that, simply type:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/localBranch 

or

git branch -u origin/localBranch 

So your current local branch now tracks origin/localBranch back.

edit Outdated, just use git push -u origin $BRANCHNAME

Use git publish-branch from William's miscellaneous Git tools.

OK, no Ruby, so - ignoring the safeguards! - take the last three lines of the script and create a bash script, git-publish-branch:

#!/bin/bash REMOTE=$1 # Rewrite this to make it optional... BRANCH=$2 # Uncomment the following line to create BRANCH locally first #git checkout -b ${BRANCH} git push ${ORIGIN} ${BRANCH}:refs/heads/${BRANCH} && git config branch.${BRANCH}.remote ${REMOTE} && git config branch.${BRANCH}.merge refs/heads/${BRANCH} 

Then run git-publish-branch REMOTENAME BRANCHNAME, where REMOTENAME is usually origin (you may modify the script to take origin as default, etc...)

I suppose that you have already cloned a project like:

git clone 

1. Then in your local copy, create a new branch and check it out:

   git checkout -b <newbranch> 

2. Supposing that you made a "git bare --init" on your server and created the myapp.git, you should:

   git remote add origin ssh:// git push origin master 

3. After that, users should be able to

   git clone 

NOTE: I'm assuming that you have your server up and running. If it isn't, it won't work. A good how-to is here.

ADDED

Add a remote branch:

git push origin master:new_feature_name 

Check if everything is good (fetch origin and list remote branches):

git fetch origin git branch -r 

Create a local branch and track the remote branch:

git checkout -tb new_feature_name origin/new_feature_name 

Update everything:

git pull 

To create a new branch by branching off from an existing branch

git checkout -b <new_branch> 

and then push this new branch to repository using

git push -u origin <new_branch> 

This creates and pushes all local commits to a newly created remote branch origin/<new_branch>

Complete Git work flow for pushing local changes to anew feature branch looks like this

Pull all remote branches

git pull --all 

List all branches now

git branch -a 

Checkout or create branch(replace <feature branch> with your branch name):

git checkout -b <feature branch> 

shows current branch. Must show with * In front of it

git branch 

Add your local changes (. is on purpose here)

git add . 

Now commit your changes:

git commit -m "Refactored/ Added Feature XYZ" 

Important: Take update from master:

git pull origin feature-branch 

Now push your local changes:

git push origin feature-branch 

For GitLab version prior to 1.7, use:

git checkout -b name_branch 

(name_branch, ex: master)

To push it to the remote repository, do:

git push -u origin name_new_branch 

(name_new_branch, example: feature)

I made an alias so that whenever I create a new branch, it will push and track the remote branch accordingly. I put following chunk into the .bash_profile file:

# Create a new branch, push to origin and track that remote branch publishBranch() { git checkout -b $1 git push -u origin $1 } alias gcb=publishBranch 

Usage: just type gcb thuy/do-sth-kool with thuy/do-sth-kool is my new branch name.

You can do it in 2 steeps:

1. Use the checkout for create the local branch:

git checkout -b yourBranchName 

Work with your Branch as you want.

2. Use the push command to autocreate the branch and send the code to the remote repository:

git push -u origin yourBanchName 

There are mutiple ways to do this but I think that this way is really simple.

Building slightly upon the answers here, I've wrapped this process up as a simple Bash script, which could of course be used as a Git alias as well.

The important addition to me is that this prompts me to run unit tests before committing and passes in the current branch name by default.

$ git_push_new_branch.sh Have you run your unit tests yet? If so, pass OK or a branch name, and try again usage: git_push_new_branch {OK|BRANCH_NAME} e.g. git_push_new_branch -> Displays prompt reminding you to run unit tests git_push_new_branch OK -> Pushes the current branch as a new branch to the origin git_push_new_branch MYBRANCH -> Pushes branch MYBRANCH as a new branch to the origin 

git_push_new_branch.sh

function show_help() { IT=$(cat <<EOF Have you run your unit tests yet? If so, pass OK or a branch name, and try again usage: git_push_new_branch {OK|BRANCH_NAME} e.g. git_push_new_branch.sh -> Displays prompt reminding you to run unit tests git_push_new_branch.sh OK -> Pushes the current branch as a new branch to the origin git_push_new_branch.sh MYBRANCH -> Pushes branch MYBRANCH as a new branch to the origin ) echo "$IT" exit } if [ -z "$1" ] then show_help fi CURR_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD) if [ "$1" == "OK" ] then BRANCH=$CURR_BRANCH else BRANCH=${1:-$CURR_BRANCH} fi git push -u origin $BRANCH 

I think this is the simplest alias, add to your ~/.gitconfig

[alias] publish-branch = !git push -u origin $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD) 

You just run

git publish-branch 

and... it publishes the branch

For greatest flexibility, you could use a custom Git command. For example, create the following Python script somewhere in your $PATH under the name git-publish and make it executable:

#!/usr/bin/env python3 import argparse import subprocess import sys def publish(args): return subprocess.run(['git', 'push', '--set-upstream', args.remote, args.branch]).returncode def parse_args(): parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Push and set upstream for a branch') parser.add_argument('-r', '--remote', default='origin', help="The remote name (default is 'origin')") parser.add_argument('-b', '--branch', help='The branch name (default is whatever HEAD is pointing to)', default='HEAD') return parser.parse_args() def main(): args = parse_args() return publish(args) if __name__ == '__main__': sys.exit(main()) 

Then git publish -h will show you usage information:

usage: git-publish [-h] [-r REMOTE] [-b BRANCH] Push and set upstream for a branch optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit -r REMOTE, --remote REMOTE The remote name (default is 'origin') -b BRANCH, --branch BRANCH The branch name (default is whatever HEAD is pointing to) 

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