24/06/2016 Git - Working with Remotes

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RelatedMaterial

gitremoteinReference
gitpullinReference
gitpushinReference
gitfetchinReference
gitcloneinReference

Chapters

1.1.GettingStarted

1.1.1AboutVersionControl
2.1.2AShortHistoryofGit
3.1.3GitBasics
4.1.4TheCommandLine
5.1.5InstallingGit
6.1.6FirstTimeGitSetup
7.1.7GettingHelp
8.1.8Summary

2.2.GitBasics

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24/06/2016 Git - Working with Remotes

1.2.1GettingaGitRepository
2.2.2RecordingChangestotheRepository
3.2.3ViewingtheCommitHistory
4.2.4UndoingThings
5.2.5WorkingwithRemotes
6.2.6Tagging
7.2.7GitAliases
8.2.8Summary

3.3.GitBranching

1.3.1BranchesinaNutshell
2.3.2BasicBranchingandMerging
3.3.3BranchManagement
4.3.4BranchingWorkflows
5.3.5RemoteBranches
6.3.6Rebasing
7.3.7Summary

4.4.GitontheServer

1.4.1TheProtocols
2.4.2GettingGitonaServer
3.4.3GeneratingYourSSHPublicKey
4.4.4SettingUptheServer
5.4.5GitDaemon
6.4.6SmartHTTP
7.4.7GitWeb
8.4.8GitLab
9.4.9ThirdPartyHostedOptions
10.4.10Summary

5.5.DistributedGit

1.5.1DistributedWorkflows
2.5.2ContributingtoaProject
3.5.3MaintainingaProject
4.5.4Summary

1.6.GitHub

1.6.1AccountSetupandConfiguration
2.6.2ContributingtoaProject
3.6.3MaintainingaProject
4.6.4Managinganorganization
5.6.5ScriptingGitHub
6.6.6Summary

2.7.GitTools

1.7.1RevisionSelection
2.7.2InteractiveStaging
3.7.3StashingandCleaning
4.7.4SigningYourWork
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24/06/2016 Git - Working with Remotes

5.7.5Searching
6.7.6RewritingHistory
7.7.7ResetDemystified
8.7.8AdvancedMerging
9.7.9Rerere
10.7.10DebuggingwithGit
11.7.11Submodules
12.7.12Bundling
13.7.13Replace
14.7.14CredentialStorage
15.7.15Summary

3.8.CustomizingGit

1.8.1GitConfiguration
2.8.2GitAttributes
3.8.3GitHooks
4.8.4AnExampleGitEnforcedPolicy
5.8.5Summary

4.9.GitandOtherSystems

1.9.1GitasaClient
2.9.2MigratingtoGit
3.9.3Summary

5.10.GitInternals

1.10.1PlumbingandPorcelain
2.10.2GitObjects
3.10.3GitReferences
4.10.4Packfiles
5.10.5TheRefspec
6.10.6TransferProtocols
7.10.7MaintenanceandDataRecovery
8.10.8EnvironmentVariables
9.10.9Summary

1.A1.GitinOtherEnvironments

1.A1.1GraphicalInterfaces
2.A1.2GitinVisualStudio
3.A1.3GitinEclipse
4.A1.4GitinBash
5.A1.5GitinZsh
6.A1.6GitinPowershell
7.A1.7Summary

2.A2.EmbeddingGitinyourApplications

1.A2.1CommandlineGit
2.A2.2Libgit2
3.A2.3JGit

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24/06/2016 Git - Working with Remotes

3.A3.GitCommands

1.A3.1SetupandConfig
2.A3.2GettingandCreatingProjects
3.A3.3BasicSnapshotting
4.A3.4BranchingandMerging
5.A3.5SharingandUpdatingProjects
6.A3.6InspectionandComparison
7.A3.7Debugging
8.A3.8Patching
9.A3.9Email
10.A3.10ExternalSystems
11.A3.11Administration
12.A3.12PlumbingCommands

2ndEdition

2.5GitBasicsWorkingwithRemotes
WorkingwithRemotes
TobeabletocollaborateonanyGitproject,youneedtoknowhowtomanageyourremoterepositories.
RemoterepositoriesareversionsofyourprojectthatarehostedontheInternetornetworksomewhere.You
canhaveseveralofthem,eachofwhichgenerallyiseitherreadonlyorread/writeforyou.Collaborating
withothersinvolvesmanagingtheseremoterepositoriesandpushingandpullingdatatoandfromthem
whenyouneedtosharework.Managingremoterepositoriesincludesknowinghowtoaddremote
repositories,removeremotesthatarenolongervalid,managevariousremotebranchesanddefinethemas
beingtrackedornot,andmore.Inthissection,wellcoversomeoftheseremotemanagementskills.

ShowingYourRemotes

Toseewhichremoteserversyouhaveconfigured,youcanrunthegit remotecommand.Itliststhe
shortnamesofeachremotehandleyouvespecified.Ifyouveclonedyourrepository,youshouldatleastsee
originthatisthedefaultnameGitgivestotheserveryouclonedfrom:
$ git clone https://github.com/schacon/ticgit
Cloning into 'ticgit'...
remote: Reusing existing pack: 1857, done.
remote: Total 1857 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (1857/1857), 374.35 KiB | 268.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (772/772), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
$ cd ticgit
$ git remote
origin

Youcanalsospecify-v,whichshowsyoutheURLsthatGithasstoredfortheshortnametobeusedwhen
readingandwritingtothatremote:

$ git remote -v
origin https://github.com/schacon/ticgit (fetch)
origin https://github.com/schacon/ticgit (push)

Ifyouhavemorethanoneremote,thecommandliststhemall.Forexample,arepositorywithmultiple
remotesforworkingwithseveralcollaboratorsmightlooksomethinglikethis.
$ cd grit
$ git remote -v
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24/06/2016 Git - Working with Remotes
bakkdoor https://github.com/bakkdoor/grit (fetch)
bakkdoor https://github.com/bakkdoor/grit (push)
cho45 https://github.com/cho45/grit (fetch)
cho45 https://github.com/cho45/grit (push)
defunkt https://github.com/defunkt/grit (fetch)
defunkt https://github.com/defunkt/grit (push)
koke git://github.com/koke/grit.git (fetch)
koke git://github.com/koke/grit.git (push)
origin git@github.com:mojombo/grit.git (fetch)
origin git@github.com:mojombo/grit.git (push)

Thismeanswecanpullcontributionsfromanyoftheseusersprettyeasily.Wemayadditionallyhave
permissiontopushtooneormoreofthese,thoughwecanttellthathere.

NoticethattheseremotesuseavarietyofprotocolswellcovermoreaboutthisinGettingGitonaServer.

AddingRemoteRepositories
Wevementionedandgivensomedemonstrationsofhowtheclonecommandimplicitlyaddstheorigin
remoteforyou.Hereshowtoaddanewremoteexplicitly.ToaddanewremoteGitrepositoryasa
shortnameyoucanreferenceeasily,rungit remote add <shortname> <url>:

$ git remote
origin
$ git remote add pb https://github.com/paulboone/ticgit
$ git remote -v
origin https://github.com/schacon/ticgit (fetch)
origin https://github.com/schacon/ticgit (push)
pb https://github.com/paulboone/ticgit (fetch)
pb https://github.com/paulboone/ticgit (push)

NowyoucanusethestringpbonthecommandlineinlieuofthewholeURL.Forexample,ifyouwantto
fetchalltheinformationthatPaulhasbutthatyoudontyethaveinyourrepository,youcanrungit fetch
pb:

$ git fetch pb
remote: Counting objects: 43, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (36/36), done.
remote: Total 43 (delta 10), reused 31 (delta 5)
Unpacking objects: 100% (43/43), done.
From https://github.com/paulboone/ticgit
* [new branch] master -> pb/master
* [new branch] ticgit -> pb/ticgit

Paulsmasterbranchisnowaccessiblelocallyaspb/masteryoucanmergeitintooneofyourbranches,or
youcancheckoutalocalbranchatthatpointifyouwanttoinspectit.(Wellgooverwhatbranchesareand
howtousetheminmuchmoredetailinGitBranching.)

FetchingandPullingfromYourRemotes

Asyoujustsaw,togetdatafromyourremoteprojects,youcanrun:
$ git fetch [remote-name]

Thecommandgoesouttothatremoteprojectandpullsdownallthedatafromthatremoteprojectthatyou
donthaveyet.Afteryoudothis,youshouldhavereferencestoallthebranchesfromthatremote,whichyou
canmergeinorinspectatanytime.

Ifyouclonearepository,thecommandautomaticallyaddsthatremoterepositoryunderthenameorigin.
So,git fetch originfetchesanynewworkthathasbeenpushedtothatserversinceyoucloned(orlast
fetchedfrom)it.Itsimportanttonotethatthegit fetchcommandonlydownloadsthedatatoyourlocal
repositoryitdoesntautomaticallymergeitwithanyofyourworkormodifywhatyourecurrently

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24/06/2016 Git - Working with Remotes

workingon.Youhavetomergeitmanuallyintoyourworkwhenyoureready.

Ifyourcurrentbranchissetuptotrackaremotebranch(seethenextsectionandGitBranchingformore
information),youcanusethegit pullcommandtoautomaticallyfetchandthenmergethatremotebranch
intoyourcurrentbranch.Thismaybeaneasierormorecomfortableworkflowforyouandbydefault,the
git clonecommandautomaticallysetsupyourlocalmasterbranchtotracktheremotemasterbranch(or
whateverthedefaultbranchiscalled)ontheserveryouclonedfrom.Runninggit pullgenerallyfetches
datafromtheserveryouoriginallyclonedfromandautomaticallytriestomergeitintothecodeyoure
currentlyworkingon.

PushingtoYourRemotes
Whenyouhaveyourprojectatapointthatyouwanttoshare,youhavetopushitupstream.Thecommand
forthisissimple:git push [remote-name] [branch-name].Ifyouwanttopushyourmasterbranchto
youroriginserver(again,cloninggenerallysetsupbothofthosenamesforyouautomatically),thenyou
canrunthistopushanycommitsyouvedonebackuptotheserver:
$ git push origin master

Thiscommandworksonlyifyouclonedfromaservertowhichyouhavewriteaccessandifnobodyhas
pushedinthemeantime.Ifyouandsomeoneelsecloneatthesametimeandtheypushupstreamandthen
youpushupstream,yourpushwillrightlyberejected.Youllhavetofetchtheirworkfirstandincorporateit
intoyoursbeforeyoullbeallowedtopush.SeeGitBranchingformoredetailedinformationonhowtopush
toremoteservers.

InspectingaRemote

Ifyouwanttoseemoreinformationaboutaparticularremote,youcanusethegit remote show [remote-

name]command.Ifyourunthiscommandwithaparticularshortname,suchasorigin,yougetsomething
likethis:
$ git remote show origin
* remote origin
Fetch URL: https://github.com/schacon/ticgit
Push URL: https://github.com/schacon/ticgit
HEAD branch: master
Remote branches:
master tracked
dev-branch tracked
Local branch configured for 'git pull':
master merges with remote master
Local ref configured for 'git push':
master pushes to master (up to date)

ItliststheURLfortheremoterepositoryaswellasthetrackingbranchinformation.Thecommandhelpfully
tellsyouthatifyoureonthemasterbranchandyourungit pull,itwillautomaticallymergeinthemaster
branchontheremoteafteritfetchesalltheremotereferences.Italsolistsalltheremotereferencesithas
pulleddown.

Thatisasimpleexampleyourelikelytoencounter.WhenyoureusingGitmoreheavily,however,youmay
seemuchmoreinformationfromgit remote show:
$ git remote show origin
* remote origin
URL: https://github.com/my-org/complex-project
Fetch URL: https://github.com/my-org/complex-project
Push URL: https://github.com/my-org/complex-project
HEAD branch: master
Remote branches:
master tracked
dev-branch tracked
markdown-strip tracked
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24/06/2016 Git - Working with Remotes

issue-43 new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)

issue-45 new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
refs/remotes/origin/issue-11 stale (use 'git remote prune' to remove)
Local branches configured for 'git pull':
dev-branch merges with remote dev-branch
master merges with remote master
Local refs configured for 'git push':
dev-branch pushes to dev-branch (up to date)
markdown-strip pushes to markdown-strip (up to date)
master pushes to master (up to date)

Thiscommandshowswhichbranchisautomaticallypushedtowhenyourungit pushwhileoncertain
branches.Italsoshowsyouwhichremotebranchesontheserveryoudontyethave,whichremotebranches
youhavethathavebeenremovedfromtheserver,andmultiplelocalbranchesthatareabletomerge
automaticallywiththeirremotetrackingbranchwhenyourungit pull.

RemovingandRenamingRemotes
Youcanrungit remote renametochangearemotesshortname.Forinstance,ifyouwanttorenamepbto
paul,youcandosowithgit remote rename:

$ git remote rename pb paul

$ git remote
origin
paul

Itsworthmentioningthatthischangesallyourremotetrackingbranchnames,too.Whatusedtobe
referencedatpb/masterisnowatpaul/master.

Ifyouwanttoremovearemoteforsomereasonyouvemovedtheserverorarenolongerusinga
particularmirror,orperhapsacontributorisntcontributinganymoreyoucanusegit remote rm:
$ git remote rm paul
$ git remote
origin

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