starting a new remote branch
In the examples below, there is a shared repo (shared), a user1 (doing the branch changes), and a user2 (needs to pull the branch changes).
Method 1 may be better for you if the branch already exists locally, and you need that history pushed to the shared repo.
method 1: start a local branch and push it to the remote
- shared repo has one branch: master
- user1 creates a new local branch called dev
$ git checkout -b dev
- push the new local branch to the shared repo:
$ git push origin dev
- but wait - even though user1 created the branch and pushed it to the remote, the local branch is not yet tracking the shared branch
- option 1 - use --set-upstream
git branch --set-upstream dev origin/dev (output should be: Branch dev set up to track remote branch dev from origin.)
- option 2 - delete the local branch and create it again with --track
$ git checkout master $ git branch -D dev $ git checkout --track -b dev origin/dev
- option 3 - manually edit your .git/config by adding lines similar to the following (this is what --set-upstream does for you)
[branch "dev"] remote = origin merge = refs/heads/dev
- user2 can pull changes to see the new branch, then use the same command as user1 to create a local branch and track the remote branch:
$ git pull From /path/to/shared/repo * [new branch] dev -> origin/dev Already up-to-date. $ git checkout --track -b dev origin/dev $ git branch -a * dev master remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master remotes/origin/dev remotes/origin/master
method 2: push a new branch directly to the shared repo
- shared repo has one branch: master
- user1 pushes a new branch (dev) to the shared repo
$ git push origin origin:refs/heads/dev
- user1 now has the following branches locally:
$ git branch -a * master remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master remotes/origin/dev remotes/origin/master
- user1 now must create a local branch which is set to “track” the new remote branch:
$ git checkout --track -b dev origin/dev $ git branch -a * dev master remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master remotes/origin/dev remotes/origin/master
- user2 can pull changes to see the new branch, then use the same command as user1 to create a local branch and track the remote branch:
$ git pull From /path/to/shared/repo * [new branch] dev -> origin/dev Already up-to-date. $ git checkout --track -b dev origin/dev $ git branch -a * dev master remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master remotes/origin/dev remotes/origin/master
Advanced Topics
creating a new remote branch from a branch other than master
we want to create a new remote branch called foo2 from an existing remote branch called foo
$ git push origin origin/foo:refs/heads/foo2
remove a remote branch
git push origin :old_branch_to_be_deleted