Working with remotes

This chapter follows Everyday Git commands.

A remote is a named URL (or path) where a copy of the project lives—GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or a colleague’s bare repo on disk. Your local repository holds the full object database; remotes are bookmarks plus refs you synchronize with fetch, pull, and push.

Clone and the default remote

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git clone https://github.com/org/project.git
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cd project

git clone downloads objects, checks out a working tree, and creates origin pointing at the URL. It usually creates a local branch that tracks origin/main (or origin/master on older repos).

Clone from a local path the same way:

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git clone /srv/git/project.git my-checkout

Adding and inspecting remotes

For a project you git init locally, create the empty repo on the host, then:

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git remote add origin https://github.com/you/project.git
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git remote -v
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git push -u origin main

-u sets upstream tracking so later git push and git pull know which remote branch to use.

List remote branches without checking them out:

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git ls-remote origin
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git fetch origin
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git branch -a

Fetch versus pull

git fetch downloads commits and updates remote-tracking refs (for example origin/main) without changing your current branch or working tree. You inspect with git log origin/main, git diff main origin/main, then merge or rebase locally.

git pull is fetch plus a merge (or rebase if configured) into your current branch:

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git pull origin main
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git pull --rebase origin main

Prefer fetch first when you want to see incoming changes before integrating them.

Push and publish a branch

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git push
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git push origin feature/login
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git push -u origin feature/login

Push fails if the remote has commits you lack—someone else pushed first. Integrate their work (pull, merge, or rebase), then push again.

Track a remote branch locally:

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git fetch origin feature/login
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git switch --track origin/feature/login

Connecting to GitHub step by step

After local commits exist:

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git init
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git add .
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git commit -m "Initial commit"
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git remote add origin https://github.com/you/repo.git
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git remote -v
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git push -u origin main

Use SSH URLs if your keys are configured: git@github.com:you/repo.git.

Pitfall: pull with dirty working tree

Pull only when the working tree is clean—changes committed, stashed, or discarded. Otherwise Git may refuse the merge or produce a messy conflict. Commit early, pull often when collaborating on one branch.

Pitfall: force push

--force rewrites the remote branch to match your local history. Teammates’ commits can vanish from the shared branch. Prefer git push --force-with-lease, which fails if the remote moved since your last fetch—safer, not risk-free.

Never force-push shared main unless your team explicitly allows it (and usually not even then).

What remotes do not store

Remotes hold Git objects and refs. Issues, pull request threads, and CI configuration live on the host. Your .git directory is portable; platform features are not.

Next: Undoing and moving changes.