how to address Git error “the requested upstream branch 'upstream/master' does not exist”

Question

I am attempting to follow some steps to contribute to a repository on GitHub and one of the steps is not working. The steps are here: https://github.com/wdbm/qTox/blob/master/CO

Answer 1

I had a similar problem, however git fetch didn't solve my problem. Also, in my case I found that git config --get remote.origin.fetch didn't return anything while it is suppose to

My problem was that there was a typo in the .git/config file in the fetch line of the respective remote block (probably something I added by mistake previously). So, check if your remote entry in the .git/config file is correct, e.g.:

[remote "origin"]
    url = https://[server]/[user or organization]/[repo].git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

You can also directly remove and re-add the remote entry

Answer 2

git fetch upstream master:master: this work only when you are not on master. If you are on master, a simple git fetch upstream is enough.

Then you can link your local master to the remote tracking branch upstream/master (which has just been fetched)

git branch -u upstream/master master

Then you can use git pull to update master.
Again, if you are not on master, then yes, git fetch upstream master:master will work.

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Luh_ mentions also a typo issue in the refspec: see "git fetch doesn't fetch all branches".

Answer 3

Try this

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