Today I Learned

hashrocket A Hashrocket project

Set Git Tracking Branch on `push`

You hate this error, right?

$ git push
There is no tracking information for the current branch.

I especially hate git's recommendation at this stage:

$ git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/<branch> my-branch

You can check for tracking information in your config file with:

$ git config -l | grep my-branch
# returns exit code 1 (nothing)

Yep, no tracking info. The first time you push you should use the -u flag.

# assuming you are on my-branch
$ git push -u origin HEAD

No do you have tracking info?

# returns the tracking information stored in config!
$ git config -l | grep my-branch
branch.my-branch.remote=origin
branch.my-branch.merge=refs/heads/my-branch
branch.my-branch.rebase=true

Did you forget to set up tracking on the first push? Don't worry, this actually works anytime you push.

$ git push
There is no tracking information for the current branch.

$ git push -u origin HEAD
Branch 'my-branch' set up to track remote branch 'my-branch' from 'origin' by rebasing.

This is so more ergonomic than git's recommendation.

See More #git TILs