Working with Remotes

Deleting a Remote Branch

To delete a remote branch in Git:

git push [remote-name] --delete [branch-name]

or

git push [remote-name] :[branch-name]

Changing Git Remote URL

Check existing remote

git remote -v
# origin https://github.com/username/repo.git (fetch)
# origin https://github.com/usernam/repo.git (push)

Changing repository URL

git remote set-url origin https://github.com/username/repo2.git
# Change the 'origin' remote's URL

Verify new remote URL

git remote -v
# origin  https://github.com/username/repo2.git (fetch)
# origin  https://github.com/username/repo2.git (push)

Updating from Upstream Repository

Assuming you set the upstream (as in the “setting an upstream repository”)

git fetch remote-name
git merge remote-name/branch-name

The pull command combines a fetch and a merge.

git pull

The pull with --rebase flag command combines a fetch and a rebase instead of merge.

git pull --rebase remote-name branch-name

ls-remote

git ls-remote is one unique command allowing you to query a remote repo without having to clone/fetch it first.

It will list refs/heads and refs/tags of said remote repo.

You will see sometimes refs/tags/v0.1.6 and refs/tags/v0.1.6^{}: the ^{} to list the dereferenced annotated tag (ie the commit that tag is pointing to)

Since git 2.8 (March 2016), you can avoid that double entry for a tag, and list directly those dereferenced tags with:

git ls-remote --ref

It can also help resolve the actual url used by a remote repo when you have “url.<base>.insteadOf” config setting.
If git remote --get-url <aremotename> returns https://server.com/user/repo, and you have set git config url.ssh://git@server.com:.insteadOf https://server.com/:

git ls-remote --get-url <aremotename>
ssh://git@server.com:user/repo

Removing Local Copies of Deleted Remote Branches

If a remote branch has been deleted, your local repository has to be told to prune the reference to it.

To prune deleted branches from a specific remote:

git fetch [remote-name] --prune

To prune deleted branches from all remotes:

git fetch --all --prune

List Existing Remotes

List all the existing remotes associated with this repository:

git remote

List all the existing remotes associated with this repository in detail including the fetch and push URLs:

git remote --verbose

or simply

git remote -v

Adding a New Remote Repository

git remote add upstream git-repository-url

Adds remote git repository represented by git-repository-url as new remote named upstream to the git repository

Getting Started

Syntax for pushing to a remote branch

git push <remote_name> <branch_name>

Example

git push origin master

Set Upstream on a New Branch

You can create a new branch and switch to it using

git checkout -b AP-57

After you use git checkout to create a new branch, you will need to set that upstream origin to push to using

git push --set-upstream origin AP-57

After that, you can use git push while you are on that branch.

Show information about a Specific Remote

Output some information about a known remote: origin

git remote show origin

Print just the remote’s URL:

git config --get remote.origin.url

With 2.7+, it is also possible to do, which is arguably better than the above one that uses the config command.

git remote get-url origin

Changing a Remote Repository

To change the URL of the repository you want your remote to point to, you can use the set-url option, like so:

git remote set-url <remote_name> <remote_repository_url>

Example:

git remote set-url heroku https://git.heroku.com/fictional-remote-repository.git

Renaming a Remote

To rename remote, use command git remote rename

The git remote rename command takes two arguments:

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

Get existing remote name

git remote
# origin

Check existing remote with URL

git remote -v
# origin https://github.com/username/repo.git (fetch)
# origin https://github.com/usernam/repo.git (push)

Rename remote

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

Verify new name

git remote -v
# destination https://github.com/username/repo.git (fetch)
# destination https://github.com/usernam/repo.git (push)

=== Posible Errors ===

Could not rename config section 'remote.[old name]' to 'remote.[new name]' This error means that the remote you tried the old remote name (**origin**) doesn't exist.

Remote [new name] already exists. Error message is self explanatory.

Set the URL for a Specific Remote

You can change the url of an existing remote by the command

git remote set-url remote-name url

Get the URL for a Specific Remote

You can obtain the url for an existing remote by using the command

git remote get-url <name>

By default, this will be

git remote get-url origin

Syntax

• git remote [-v | --verbose]
• git remote add [-t <branch>] [-m <master>] [-f] [--[no-]tags] [--mirror=<fetch|push>] <name> <url>
• git remote rename <old> <new>
• git remote remove <name>
• git remote set-head <name> (-a | --auto | -d | --delete | <branch>)
• git remote set-branches [--add] <name> <branch>…​
• git remote get-url [--push] [--all] <name>
• git remote set-url [--push] <name> <newurl> [<oldurl>]
• git remote set-url --add [--push] <name> <newurl>
• git remote set-url --delete [--push] <name> <url>
• git remote [-v | --verbose] show [-n] <name>…​
• git remote prune [-n | --dry-run] <name>…​
• git remote [-v | --verbose] update [-p | --prune] [(<group> | <remote>)…​]