git-remote(1)

SYNOPSIS

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 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>)…]

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. NOTE: This must be placed between remote and subcommand.

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 --tags option, git fetch <name> imports every tag from the remote repository.

With --no-tags option, git fetch <name> does not import tags from the remote repository.

With -t <branch> option, instead of the default glob refspec for the remote to track all branches under the refs/remotes/<name>/ namespace, 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, a symbolic-ref refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD is set up to point at remote’s <master> branch. See also the set-head command.

When a fetch mirror is created with --mirror=fetch, the refs will not be stored in the refs/remotes/ namespace, but rather everything in refs/ on the remote will be directly mirrored into refs/ in the local repository. This option only makes sense in bare repositories, because a fetch would overwrite any local commits.

When a push mirror is created with --mirror=push, then 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.
remove
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 (i.e. the target of the symbolic-ref refs/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 or --delete, the symbolic ref refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD is deleted.

With -a or --auto, the remote is queried to determine its HEAD, then the symbolic-ref refs/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 the symbolic-ref 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 the symbolic-ref refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD explicitly. e.g., "git remote set-head origin master" will set the symbolic-ref 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.
set-branches: Changes the list of branches tracked by the named remote. This can be used to track a subset of the available remote branches after the initial setup for a remote.

The named branches will be interpreted as if specified with the -t option on the git remote add command line.

With --add, instead of replacing the list of currently tracked branches, adds to that list.
set-url: Changes URL remote points to. Sets first URL remote points to matching regex <oldurl> (first URL if no <oldurl> is given) to <newurl>. If <oldurl> doesn’t match any URL, error occurs and nothing is changed.

With --push, push URLs are manipulated instead of fetch URLs.

With --add, instead of changing some URL, new URL is added.

With --delete, instead of changing some URL, all URLs matching regex <url> are deleted. Trying to delete all non-push URLs is an error.
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 remote-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 not 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 be 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

$ git remote
origin
$ git branch -r
  origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  origin/master
$ git remote add staging git://git.kernel.org/.../gregkh/staging.git
$ git remote
origin
staging
$ git fetch staging
...
From git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging
 * [new branch]      master     -> staging/master
 * [new branch]      staging-linus -> staging/staging-linus
 * [new branch]      staging-next -> staging/staging-next
$ git branch -r
  origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  origin/master
  staging/master
  staging/staging-linus
  staging/staging-next
$ git checkout -b staging staging/master
...

Imitate git clone but track only selected branches

$ 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

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

git-remote(1) Manual Page

NAME