Getting existing git branches to track remote branches

user_1577190 0
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My usual workflow when working with git, is something like this:

  1. create a local repository
  2. do some work in that repository, add/change files etc.
  3. decide that I want a central remote location for the repository, and create one
  4. push all the commits from my local repository to this new remote repository

Now, however, I want to be able to push and pull from this remote repository without having to specify where I'm pushing to or pulling from; I want my local master to track the remote master.

The proper way to do this isn't clear to me, and I've been unable to determine it from the documentation, even though it shouldn't really be more than one command.

Because it's something that's only ever done once per repository, I've generally employed one of two simple, but hacky, solutions:

  1. used git clone to make a new local repository, and deleted the old one. After git cloning, the new repository is setup to track the origin.
  2. manually edited .git/config to make master track origin.

I think I should be able to run a command, probably some form of git remote to setup an existing repository to have master track a remote master. Can anyone tell me what that command is?

git
7 Answers

git help remote should show you what you need to know. I think what you want is

git remote add [remote-name] [remote-url]

# Set a local branch to follow the remote
git config branch.[branch-name].remote [remote-name]

# Set it to automatically merge with a specific remote branch when you pull
git config branch.[branch-name].merge [remote-master]

You can also manually edit .git/config to set these up.

user_806440

You can also use this if you want to create a new local branch to track a remote branch:

git checkout --track -b [branch_name] --track origin[or other remote name]/[remote_branch_name]

or even better:

git checkout -t origin/branch_name
user_1112750

Fast forward three years (see what I did there :-) ), I tried to pull an untracked branch using Git Bash and received

If you wish to set tracking information for this branch you can do so with:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/<branch> develop

The following achieved what I needed:

$ git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/develop develop Branch 'develop' set up to track remote branch 'develop' from 'origin'.

user_48157720

Use this command:

git clone [<options>] [--] <repo> [<dir>]
user_135365490
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