How do I push a new local branch to a remote Git repository and track it too?

Question

I want to be able to do the following:

1. Create a local branch based on some other (remote or local) branch (via git branch or git checkout

Answer 1

I made an alias so that whenever I create a new branch, it will push and track the remote branch accordingly. I put following chunk into the .bash_profile file:

# Create a new branch, push to origin and track that remote branch
publishBranch() {
  git checkout -b $1
  git push -u origin $1
}
alias gcb=publishBranch

Usage: just type gcb thuy/do-sth-kool with thuy/do-sth-kool is my new branch name.