GIT-REMOTE(1)

NAME
git-remote - manage set of tracked repositories

SYNOPSIS

git remote [-v | --verbose]
git remote add [-t <branch>] [-m <master>] [-f] [--mirror] <name> <url>
git remote rename <old> <new>
git remote rm <name>
git remote set-head <name> [-a | -d | <branch>]
git remote show [-n] <name>
git remote prune [-n | --dry-run] <name>
git remote update [-p | --prune] [group | remote]...

DESCRIPTION

Manage the set of repositories ("remotes") whose branches you track.

OPTIONS

-v, --verbose
    Be a little more verbose and show remote url after name.

COMMANDS

With no arguments, shows a list of existing remotes. Several subcommands are available to perform operations on the remotes.

add
    Adds a remote named <name> for the repository at <url>. The command git fetch <name> can then be used to create and update remote-tracking branches <name>/<branch>.

    With -f option, git fetch <name> is run immediately after the remote information is set up.

    With -t <branch> option, instead of the default glob refspec for the remote to track all branches under $GIT_DIR/remotes/<name>/, a refspec to track only <branch> is created. You can give more than one -t <branch> to track multiple branches without grabbing all branches.

    With -m <master> option, $GIT_DIR/remotes/<name>/HEAD is set up to point at remote’s <master> branch. See also the set-head command.

    In mirror mode, enabled with \--mirror, the refs will not be stored in the refs/remotes/ namespace, but in refs/heads/. This option only makes sense in bare repositories. If a remote uses mirror mode, furthermore, git push will always behave as if \--mirror was passed.

rename
    Rename the remote named <old> to <new>. All remote tracking branches and configuration settings for the remote are updated.

    In case <old> and <new> are the same, and <old> is a file under $GIT_DIR/remotes or $GIT_DIR/branches, the remote is converted to the configuration file format.

rm
    Remove the remote named <name>. All remote tracking branches and configuration settings for the remote are removed.

set-head
    Sets or deletes the default branch ($GIT_DIR/remotes/<name>/HEAD) for the named remote. Having a default branch for a remote is not required, but allows the name of the remote to be specified in lieu of a specific branch. For example, if the default branch for origin is set to master, then origin may be specified wherever you would normally specify origin/master.

    With -d, $GIT_DIR/remotes/<name>/HEAD is deleted.

    With -a, the remote is queried to determine its HEAD, then $GIT_DIR/remotes/<name>/HEAD is set to the same branch. e.g., if the remote HEAD is pointed at next, "git remote set-head origin -a" will set $GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD to refs/remotes/origin/next. This will only work if refs/remotes/origin/next already exists; if not it must be fetched first.

    Use <branch> to set $GIT_DIR/remotes/<name>/HEAD explicitly. e.g., "git remote set-head origin master" will set $GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD to refs/remotes/origin/master. This will only work if refs/remotes/origin/master already exists; if not it must be fetched first.

show
    Gives some information about the remote <name>.

    With -n option, the remote heads are not queried first with git ls-remote <name>; cached information is used instead.

prune
    Deletes all stale tracking branches under <name>. These stale branches have already been removed from the remote repository referenced by <name>, but are still locally available in "remotes/<name>".

    With --dry-run option, report what branches will be pruned, but do no actually prune them.

update
    Fetch updates for a named set of remotes in the repository as defined by remotes.<group>. If a named group is not specified on the command line, the configuration parameter remotes.default will get used; if remotes.default is not defined, all remotes which do not have the configuration parameter remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate set to true will be updated. (See git-config(1)).

    With --prune option, prune all the remotes that are updated.

DISCUSSION

The remote configuration is achieved using the remote.origin.url and remote.origin.fetch configuration variables. (See git-config(1)).

EXAMPLES

    • Add a new remote, fetch, and check out a branch from it

        .ft C
        $ git remote
        origin
        $ git branch -r
        origin/master
        $ git remote add linux-nfs git://linux-nfs.org/pub/linux/nfs-2.6.git
        $ git remote
        linux-nfs
        origin
        $ git fetch
        * refs/remotes/linux-nfs/master: storing branch 'master' ...
          commit: bf81b46
        $ git branch -r
        origin/master
        linux-nfs/master
        $ git checkout -b nfs linux-nfs/master
        ...
        .ft

    • Imitate git-clone but track only selected branches

        .ft C
        $ mkdir project.git
        $ cd project.git
        $ git init
        $ git remote add -f -t master -m master origin git://example.com/git.git/
        $ git merge origin
        .ft

SEE ALSO

git-fetch(1) git-branch(1) git-config(1)

AUTHOR

Written by Junio Hamano

DOCUMENTATION

Documentation by J. Bruce Fields and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org[1]>.

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES

1.  git@vger.kernel.org
    mailto:git@vger.kernel.org