Automatically track remote branch with git

Question

When I'm using a local branch mybranch, I'd like to be able to push to and pull from origin mybranch using just git push and git pull. As it is, I have to tediously write out git push origin mybranch and git pull origin mybranch. If I try to use just git pull for example, I get:

There is no tracking information for the current branch.
Please specify which branch you want to merge with.
See git-pull(1) for details

    git pull <remote> <branch>

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

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

And if I enter git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/mybranch mybranch, then it works. But this is almost as tedious as the previous commands. Can I just have git do this as default behavior? I've seen similar questions asked and the answers tend to suggest that newer versions of git do this, but I'm using git version 2.1.3, which is fairly new, so it can't just be that.

Next time you push, use `git push -u origin mybranch`. From then on, when you're on `mybranch`, `git push` and `git pull` will be enough. — jub0bs, Apr 02 '15 at 20:55
With Git 2.37 (Q3 2022), a [`git config --global push.autoSetupRemote`](https://stackoverflow.com/a/72401899/6309) can help. — VonC, May 29 '22 at 10:32

score 32 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 29 '22 at 20:02

32

One possible solution is to modify your git push behavior to current (note that this will also have some other side affects). You can do that either by modifying your ~/.gitconfig directly (as a file and this assumes you are on Linux) or by executing:

git config --global push.default current

Now when you push, git will automatically push your current branch to a remote branch with the same name even if you don't specify it explicitly. In addition if your current branch does not have a remote equivalent, a remote branch will be created and your current branch will be set to track it (same as git push -u origin new_branch but with a single git push). Also have a look at this question where the git push behavior is described in detail.

edited Apr 29 '22 at 20:02

Iulian Onofrei

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answered Mar 09 '17 at 15:51

Ivaylo Strandjev

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And `git config --global pull.default current` for automatic pulling of branch with the same name as the current one from the origin. – Alexander Rodin Aug 18 '17 at 19:34
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@AlexanderRodin not working, still asking to set upstream with git `2.15.0` – Édouard Lopez Nov 17 '17 at 16:00
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@AlexanderRodin this configuration option is documented nowhere. Are you sure it exists? – xeruf Oct 16 '18 at 14:12
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Docs https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#Documentation/git-config.txt-pushdefault – Aurelio Mar 19 '19 at 11:21
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I have `push.default` set to `current`, but that doesn't set up remote tracking on the first push. `git config --global push.default upstream` will probably help. – phil pirozhkov Apr 03 '19 at 19:31
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@AlexanderRodin Can't find `pull.default` in `man git-config`. Are you sure? – phil pirozhkov Apr 03 '19 at 19:32
@Ivaylo I love you <3 I've always been annoyed by first having to run `--set-upstream`, but now I don't have to ever again. I've been far too dependent on Git GUIs apparently... – Lester Peabody Aug 14 '20 at 13:45

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 02 '15 at 21:00

It's not github, it's your local git, that does all this.

If you are creating mybranch locally with git checkout and it already exists as origin/mybranch in your local repository, you can simply git checkout mybranch and your local git will see that origin/mybranch exists and create local mybranch with origin/mybranch as its upstream.

On the other hand, if origin/mybranch does not exist yet and you're creating mybranch locally with git checkout -b or similar, you can't really set it to track the upstream branch that does not exist yet (you can configure it to track that branch but you'll get an occasional complaint that the upstream version is not there).

In this particular case, on the first push (the one that will create the branch upstream), you can use:

git push -u origin mybranch

which tells your local git to push mybranch to origin and, once that's done, set up origin/mybranch as the tracking-branch for mybranch.

Note that this is the same as running git branch --set-upstream-to: you do it once, after which it's set locally and you don't have to do it again. It's just more convenient since you can do it together with the push that creates the branch at origin. But you still have to remember to do it (once; you'll get reminded when you run git push without -u origin mybranch).

Ah, I thought I had avoided referencing github specifically but I typo'd. Will fix. Thanks for the info! I think I'll just make a bash alias to do this when I create the branch. — limp_chimp, Apr 02 '15 at 23:01

Automatically track remote branch with git

2 Answers2