leejunkim

Connecting local git repo to server

2 min read

Case 1: Existing repo

There is an existing git repo on your local machine

  • Create a new repo on Github (go to the website and do it manually!)
  • Connect your local repo (add a remote to your local machine)
# Checking if any existing repos exist in your repo
git remote
git remote -v
 
# Adding a new remote (somewhat common to have multiple remotes)
# the name origin is just a conventional name
git remote add <name> <url>
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo-name.git
 
# optional
git remote rename <old><new>
git remote remove <name> 
 
# Pushing to remote
git push <remote> <branch>
# if master doesn't exist, it will create master branch
# if it exists it will just push to the master branch
# Pushing master branch to github (you don't need to be in the branch)
git push origin master 
git branch -M main # it's convenient to rename your branch to main before pushing
 
# Once you’ve pushed once with the -u (upstream) flag, future pushes from that branch will automatically go to the same branch on the remote without needing to specify origin master
# the upstream tracks the local branch on the origin repo
git push -u origin main  
git push # you have to be on the branch
  • Push up your changes to Github
  • upstream tracking
    • When you use the -u flag (or —set-upstream), you are telling Git to set up an upstream tracking relationship between your local main branch and the main branch on GitHub (origin/main).
    • After this, Git remembers that when you’re on the local main branch, it should push to origin/main by default.

More about pushing

# pushing our local pancake branch up to a remote branch called waffle
git push <remote name> <local branch>:<remote branch>
git push origin pancake:waffle
git push -u origin pancake:waffle # possible, but not recommended

Case 2: Starting from scratch

  • Create a brand new repo on github
  • Clone it down to your local machine
  • Do some work locally
  • Push up your changes to github

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