How do I push a new local branch to a remote Git repository and track it too?

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.

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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.

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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

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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>

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A slight variation of the solutions already given here:

Create a local branch based on some other (remote or local) branch: git checkout -b branchname 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: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push 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:

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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.

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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...)

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I suppose that you have already cloned a project like:

git clone http://github.com/myproject.git

Then in your local copy, create a new branch and check it out: git checkout -b Supposing that you made a "git bare --init" on your server and created the myapp.git, you should: git remote add origin ssh://example.com/var/git/myapp.git git push origin master After that, users should be able to git clone http://example.com/var/git/myapp.git

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

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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>

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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

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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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

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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)

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