Make an existing Git branch track a remote branch?

Question

I know how to make a new branch that tracks remote branches, but how do I make an existing branch track a remote branch?

I know I can just edit the

Answer 1

You can do the following (assuming you are checked out on master and want to push to a remote branch master):

Set up the 'remote' if you don't have it already

git remote add origin ssh://...

Now configure master to know to track:

git config branch.master.remote origin
git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master

And push:

git push origin master

Answer 2

In very short

git branch --set-upstream yourLocalBranchName origin/develop

This will make your yourLocalBranchName track the remote branch called develop.

Answer 3

Given a branch foo and a remote upstream:

As of Git 1.8.0:

git branch -u upstream/foo

Or, if local branch foo is not the current branch:

git branch -u upstream/foo foo

Or, if you like to type longer commands, these are equivalent to the above two:

git branch --set-upstream-to=upstream/foo

git branch --set-upstream-to=upstream/foo foo

As of Git 1.7.0 (before 1.8.0):

git branch --set-upstream foo upstream/foo

Notes:

• All of the above commands will cause local branch foo to track remote branch foo from remote upstream.
• The old (1.7.x) syntax is deprecated in favor of the new (1.8+) syntax. The new syntax is intended to be more intuitive and easier to remember.
• Defining an upstream branch will fail when run against newly-created remotes that have not already been fetched. In that case, run git fetch upstream beforehand.

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See also: Why do I need to do `--set-upstream` all the time?

Answer 4

Here, using github and git version 2.1.4, just do:

$ git clone git@github.com:user/repo.git

And remotes come by itelsef, even if not linked locally:

$ git remote show origin

* remote origin
  Fetch URL: git@github.com:user/repo.git
  Push  URL: git@github.com:user/repo.git
  HEAD branch: master
  Remote branches:
    develop tracked         <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
    master  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)

But of course, still no local branch:

$ git branch
* master                  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

See? Now if you just checkout develp, it will do the magic automatically:

$ git checkout develop
Branch develop set up to track remote branch develop from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'develop'

So easy!

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Summary. Just run this 2 commands:

$ git clone git@github.com:user/repo.git
$ git checkout develop