Setting upstream branch to remote with different name than your local

Question

I created a new branch off an existing PR on github using the browse branches dropdown...typed in an new branch name so it would create a new one based off the PR I was looking at.

I then went locally and did a git checkout -b myBranch

How do I sync up my branch with the remote? I did not name my local branch as the same name as the remote.

git push -u origin my_branch - I assume that's if you already have things synced AND that the local and remote branch names are exactly the same.

So what about my situation?

I tried this but got an error

▶ git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/feature/WA-3 WA-3 error: the requested upstream branch 'origin/feature/WA-3' does not exist

More info to help

The remote branch's name is feature/WA-3 while my local is named W3

▶ git remote show origin

* remote origin
  Fetch URL: https://github.com/xxxx.git
  Push  URL: https://github.com/xxxx.git
  HEAD branch: develop
  Remote branches:
    develop                         tracked
    feature/WA-3                    new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
    master                          tracked
    refs/remotes/origin/w9-homepage stale (use 'git remote prune' to remove)
    w1-log-in              tracked
    wa-9                  tracked
  Local branches configured for 'git pull':
    develop            merges with remote develop
    w1-log-in merges with remote w1-user-can-log-in
    w9-homepage        merges with remote wa-9-homepage
  Local refs configured for 'git push':
    develop            pushes to develop            (up to date)
    w1-log-in pushes to w1-log-in (up to date)

`new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)` sounds weird. Have you tried to fetch? — choroba, Jun 01 '17 at 22:13
Does this answer your question? [How can I push a local Git branch to a remote with a different name easily?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5738797/how-can-i-push-a-local-git-branch-to-a-remote-with-a-different-name-easily) — pkamb, May 19 '20 at 07:24

choroba · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-06T18:39:29.270

36

Use the colon notation:

git push -u origin local_branch:remote_branch

edited Apr 06 '18 at 18:39

answered Jun 01 '17 at 21:44

choroba

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▶ git branch -u feature/WA-3:WA-3 error: the requested upstream branch 'feature/WA-3:WA-3' does not exist – PositiveGuy Jun 01 '17 at 21:46
is that a bad name I gave it in github? why can't it find it? – PositiveGuy Jun 01 '17 at 21:46
I literally named the remote branch as `feature/WA-3` – PositiveGuy Jun 01 '17 at 21:47
how weird, I see the branch on github yet when I do this it's not listing that particular branch:" `▶ git branch -r origin/HEAD -> origin/develop origin/develop origin/master origin/w1-log-in origin/w9 origin/wa-9-homepage` – PositiveGuy Jun 01 '17 at 21:49
I really can't believe this. I deleted the remote and re-created a new branch off that PR called simply `W3` and same deal it doesn't even see it when I do a `git branch -r` – PositiveGuy Jun 01 '17 at 21:53
ok yours works ▶ git push -u origin WA-3:WA-3 Branch WA-3 set up to track remote branch WA-3 from origin. – PositiveGuy Jun 01 '17 at 21:54

questionto42 · Answer 2 · 2022-09-02T12:12:57.287

Not sure whether I am missing something here, I always fall back to being a beginner when it comes to this.

You can just easily rename your branch, for example using lazygit that makes it a one button step, or just check out a new branch from your given one with the right name.

Trying at first just with push:

$ git push
fatal: The upstream branch of your current branch does not match
the name of your current branch.  To push to the upstream branch
on the remote, use

    git push origin HEAD:master

To push to the branch of the same name on the remote, use

    git push origin HEAD

To choose either option permanently, see push.default in 'git help config'.

You see here two options, choose the latter.

Thus, at first, rename your branch to the name that it has to have in the repository. As soon as your local branch name is the one that you want to see in the repository, you only need to run

git push -f origin HEAD

so that the new local branch (HEAD) would be pushed on top of the remote master (origin). It pushes to the remote.

Looks like:

$ git push -f origin HEAD
Enumerating objects: 21, done.
Counting objects: 100% (21/21), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (9/9), done.
Writing objects: 100% (11/11), 1019 bytes | 1019.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 11 (delta 4), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
remote:
remote: To create a merge request for my_new_remote_branch_name_that_is_now_the_name_of_HEAD, visit:
remote:   https://gitlab.com/my_URL_to_the_repo
remote:
To gitlab.com:my_URL_to_the_repo
 * [new branch]        HEAD -> my_new_remote_branch_name_that_is_now_the_name_of_HEAD

The command git origin HEAD is just short for
git push -u origin HEAD:my_new_remote_branch_name_that_is_now_the_name_of_HEAD
Which is the same as:
git push --set-upstream origin HEAD:my_new_remote_branch_name_that_is_now_the_name_of_HEAD

Only if you want to choose a remote name that is not the one of HEAD, you need the long command of the answer.

Setting upstream branch to remote with different name than your local

2 Answers2