How do I push a new local branch to a remote Git repository and track it too?

Question

I want to be able to do the following:

1. Create a local branch based on some other (remote or local) branch (via git branch or git checkout

Answer 1

Building slightly upon the answers here, I've wrapped this process up as a simple Bash script, which could of course be used as a Git alias as well.

The important addition to me is that this prompts me to run unit tests before committing and passes in the current branch name by default.

$ git_push_new_branch.sh

  Have you run your unit tests yet? If so, pass OK or a branch name, and try again

  usage: git_push_new_branch {OK|BRANCH_NAME}

  e.g.

  git_push_new_branch           -> Displays prompt reminding you to run unit tests
  git_push_new_branch OK        -> Pushes the current branch as a new branch to the origin
  git_push_new_branch MYBRANCH  -> Pushes branch MYBRANCH as a new branch to the origin

git_push_new_branch.sh

function show_help()
{
  IT=$(cat < Displays prompt reminding you to run unit tests
  git_push_new_branch.sh OK        -> Pushes the current branch as a new branch to the origin
  git_push_new_branch.sh MYBRANCH  -> Pushes branch MYBRANCH as a new branch to the origin

  )
  echo "$IT"
  exit
}

if [ -z "$1" ]
then
  show_help
fi

CURR_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
if [ "$1" == "OK" ]
then
  BRANCH=$CURR_BRANCH
else
  BRANCH=${1:-$CURR_BRANCH}
fi

git push -u origin $BRANCH