Getting existing git branches to track remote branches

Question

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?

Answer 1

Use the set-upstream arg:

git branch --set-upstream local-branch-name origin/remote-branch-name 

Running the above command updates your .git/config file correctly and even verifies with this output:

"Branch local-branch-name set up to track remote branch remote-branch-name from origin."

EDIT: As martijn said: "In version Git v1.8.0, --set-upstream is deprecated. Use --set-upstream-to instead."

git branch --set-upstream-to local-branch-name origin/remote-branch-name 

See this for more information.

Answer 2

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.