Renaming a remote

The git remote rename command takes two arguments:

• An existing remote name, for example, origin
• A new name for the remote, for example, destination

Example

These examples assume you're cloning using HTTPS, which is recommended.

$ git remote -v
# View existing remotes
> origin  https://hostname/OWNER/REPOSITORY.git (fetch)
> origin  https://hostname/OWNER/REPOSITORY.git (push)

$ git remote rename origin destination
# Change remote name from 'origin' to 'destination'

$ git remote -v
# Verify remote's new name
> destination  https://hostname/OWNER/REPOSITORY.git (fetch)
> destination  https://hostname/OWNER/REPOSITORY.git (push)

Troubleshooting

You may encounter these errors when trying to rename a remote.

Could not rename config section 'remote.[old name]' to 'remote.[new name]'

This error means that the remote you tried the old remote name you typed doesn't exist.

You can check which remotes currently exist with the git remote -v command:

$ git remote -v
# View existing remotes
> origin  https://hostname/OWNER/REPOSITORY.git (fetch)
> origin  https://hostname/OWNER/REPOSITORY.git (push)

Remote [new name] already exists.

This error means that the remote name you want to use already exists. To solve this, either use a different remote name, or rename the original remote.

Further reading

• "Working with Remotes" from the Pro Git book