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Pushing commits to a remote repository

In this article

Use git push to push commits made on your local branch to a remote repository.

About git push

The git push command takes two arguments:

  • A remote name, for example, origin
  • A branch name, for example, main

For example:

git push REMOTE-NAME BRANCH-NAME

As an example, you usually run git push origin main to push your local changes to your online repository.

Renaming branches

To rename a branch, you'd use the same git push command, but you would add one more argument: the name of the new branch. For example:

git push REMOTE-NAME LOCAL-BRANCH-NAME:REMOTE-BRANCH-NAME

This pushes the LOCAL-BRANCH-NAME to your REMOTE-NAME, but it is renamed to REMOTE-BRANCH-NAME.

Dealing with "non-fast-forward" errors

If your local copy of a repository is out of sync with, or "behind," the upstream repository you're pushing to, you'll get a message saying non-fast-forward updates were rejected. This means that you must retrieve, or "fetch," the upstream changes, before you are able to push your local changes.

For more information on this error, see "Dealing with non-fast-forward errors."

Pushing tags

By default, and without additional parameters, git push sends all matching branches that have the same names as remote branches.

To push a single tag, you can issue the same command as pushing a branch:

git push REMOTE-NAME TAG-NAME

To push all your tags, you can type the command:

git push REMOTE-NAME --tags

Deleting a remote branch or tag

The syntax to delete a branch is a bit arcane at first glance:

git push REMOTE-NAME:BRANCH-NAME

Note that there is a space before the colon. The command resembles the same steps you'd take to rename a branch. However, here, you're telling Git to push nothing into BRANCH-NAME on REMOTE-NAME. Because of this, git push deletes the branch on the remote repository.

Remotes and forks

You might already know that you can "fork" repositories on GitHub.

When you clone a repository you own, you provide it with a remote URL that tells Git where to fetch and push updates. If you want to collaborate with the original repository, you'd add a new remote URL, typically called upstream, to your local Git clone:

git remote add upstream THEIR_REMOTE_URL

Now, you can fetch updates and branches from their fork:

git fetch upstream
# Grab the upstream remote's branches
> remote: Counting objects: 75, done.
> remote: Compressing objects: 100% (53/53), done.
> remote: Total 62 (delta 27), reused 44 (delta 9)
> Unpacking objects: 100% (62/62), done.
> From https://HOSTNAME/OCTOCAT/REPO
>  * [new branch]      main     -> upstream/main

When you're done making local changes, you can push your local branch to GitHub and initiate a pull request.

For more information on working with forks, see "Syncing a fork".

Further reading