Git Push

git push sends commits from your local repository to a remote. It is the one command here that can lose work, so it is worth knowing what it will refuse to do before you need it to.

By default it pushes your current branch to the branch of the same name on the upstream. If your branch has no upstream yet, Git tells you and prints the command to set one — copy that rather than guessing.

Push changes

git push

for a specific branch

example:main branch

git push origin main

This command pushes the local changes to the remote

First push of a branch

A new branch has no upstream, so the first push needs one spelled out. Set it once and afterwards plain git push is enough.

git push -u origin feature-search

When a push is rejected

"rejected — non-fast-forward" means someone pushed to that branch after you last synced. Nothing was lost; Git simply will not overwrite commits you have not seen. Fetch and integrate, then push again:

git fetch
git rebase origin/main
git push

Pushing tags

Tags are not pushed by a plain git push. See Pushing Tags.

Force, and when not to

--force overwrites the remote branch with your version, discarding anything that is only there. --force-with-lease does the same but refuses if the remote has moved since you last looked, which catches the case where a colleague pushed in the meantime.

Prefer --force-with-lease whenever you are rewriting a branch other people might be using. Plain --force on a shared branch is how commits get lost. See Git Push --force. repository. It updates the 'remote' repository with the changes you made locally.

Free Resources