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

I suppose that you have already cloned a project like:

git clone http://github.com/myproject.git

1. Then in your local copy, create a new branch and check it out:

   git checkout -b <newbranch>
   

2. Supposing that you made a "git bare --init" on your server and created the myapp.git, you should:

   git remote add origin ssh://example.com/var/git/myapp.git
   git push origin master
   

3. After that, users should be able to

   git clone http://example.com/var/git/myapp.git
   

NOTE: I'm assuming that you have your server up and running. If it isn't, it won't work. A good how-to is here.

ADDED

Add a remote branch:

git push origin master:new_feature_name

Check if everything is good (fetch origin and list remote branches):

git fetch origin
git branch -r

Create a local branch and track the remote branch:

git checkout -tb new_feature_name origin/new_feature_name

Update everything:

git pull

Answer 2

For GitLab version prior to 1.7, use:

git checkout -b name_branch

(name_branch, ex: master)

To push it to the remote repository, do:

git push -u origin name_new_branch

(name_new_branch, example: feature)

Answer 3

If you are not sharing your repo with others, this is useful to push all your branches to the remote, and --set-upstream tracking correctly for you:

git push --all -u

(Not exactly what the OP was asking for, but this one-liner is pretty popular)

If you are sharing your repo with others this isn't really good form as you will clog up the repo with all your dodgy experimental branches.