If you have an existing codebase and it's already in a git repository there's a number of ways to get it into github (or any other remote git repository). Many of these involve losing your branch history and creating a brand new repository.
This is where the git remote add command comes in handy.
$ git remote add origin [email protected]:ajbonner/foo.git
You can see the remotes associated with your branch:
$ git remote -v
>> origin [email protected]:ajbonner/foo.git (fetch)
>> origin [email protected]:ajbonner/foo.git (push)
To push the existing code to the remote:
$ git push origin master
You now have set up the remote and pushed your master branch into it. From here it gets tricky because subsequent git pull requests will give you an ugly error
$ git pull
>> You asked me to pull without telling me which branch you
want to merge with, and 'branch.master.merge' in
your configuration file does not tell me, either. Please
specify which branch you want to use on the command line and
try again (e.g. 'git pull <repository> <refspec>').
See git-pull(1) for details.
If you often merge with the same branch, you may want to
use something like the following in your configuration file:
[branch "master"]
remote = <nickname>
merge = <remote-ref>
[remote "<nickname>"]
url = <url>
fetch = <refspec>
See git-config(1) for details.
There a few ways to get around this:
- Follow the directions given by git and edit your gitconfig
- Clone a fresh copy of the master branch from the remote
When defining the remote add the --track option and give it the name of the master branch
$ git remote add --track master origin [email protected]:ajbonner/foo.git
4 Refer to the remote branch using --set-upstream
$ git branch --set-upstream master origin/master
Personally I find option number 4 the best with the least amount of work.
You can also use:
$ git config --global branch.autosetupmerge true
To avoid having to do this.