git pull generates "fatal: No remote repository specified." error

Question

I want to start contributing to a project hosted on Github. I have taken the following steps:

1. git init
2. git pull https://github.com/PrincetonUniversity/EVCM.git

The pull command succeeded and the files where copied to my local directory. But when I try git pull again, then I get the following error

"fatal: No remote repository specified. Please, specify either a URL or a remote name from which new revisions should be fetched."

I did not get this error when I pulled from and pushed to other Github repositories in the past. What is the problem and how can I fix it? Could it be because I have pulled the same repository to a different local directory in the past? In either case, what should I do to fix the problem?

Answer 1

You need to follow the correct steps.

You already did git init, then add remote by doing this.

git remote add origin https://github.com/PrincetonUniversity/EVCM.git

Now the working tree can recognize origin so

git pull origin master

That's all and I hope it would be helpful to you.

Thanks

Answer 2

You should always start with a git clone (and I'd suggest you do that), but if you want to continue from here, here's the way:

You can use git remote add origin https://github.com/PrincetonUniversity/EVCM.git to add a remote, and set its name to origin. You can check this tutorial if you want to know more. This, I hope, will fix your problem. If you encounter other problems, just do a git clone.

Answer 3

According to git's command line:

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

git branch --set-upstream-to=<remote>/<branch> <local branch>

This would allow you to simply run "git pull" instead of "git pull origin branch"