Setting upstream branch to remote with different name than your local

Question

I created a new branch off an existing PR on github using the browse branches dropdown...typed in an new branch name so it would create a new one based off the PR I was looking at.

I then went locally and did a git checkout -b myBranch

How do I sync up my branch with the remote? I did not name my local branch as the same name as the remote.

git push -u origin my_branch - I assume that's if you already have things synced AND that the local and remote branch names are exactly the same.

So what about my situation?

I tried this but got an error

▶ git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/feature/WA-3 WA-3 error: the requested upstream branch 'origin/feature/WA-3' does not exist

More info to help

The remote branch's name is feature/WA-3 while my local is named W3

▶ git remote show origin

* remote origin
  Fetch URL: https://github.com/xxxx.git
  Push  URL: https://github.com/xxxx.git
  HEAD branch: develop
  Remote branches:
    develop                         tracked
    feature/WA-3                    new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
    master                          tracked
    refs/remotes/origin/w9-homepage stale (use 'git remote prune' to remove)
    w1-log-in              tracked
    wa-9                  tracked
  Local branches configured for 'git pull':
    develop            merges with remote develop
    w1-log-in merges with remote w1-user-can-log-in
    w9-homepage        merges with remote wa-9-homepage
  Local refs configured for 'git push':
    develop            pushes to develop            (up to date)
    w1-log-in pushes to w1-log-in (up to date)

Answer 1

Use the colon notation:

git push -u origin local_branch:remote_branch