Why do I need to do `--set-upstream` all the time?

Question

I create a new branch in Git:

git branch my_branch

Push it:

git push origin my_branch

Now say someone made some changes on the server and I want to pull from origin/my_branch. I do:

git pull

But I get:

You asked me to pull without telling me which branch you
want to merge with, and 'branch.my_branch.merge' in
your configuration file does not tell me, either. Please
specify which branch you want to use on the command line and
try again (e.g. 'git pull <repository> <refspec>').
See git-pull(1) for details.

If you often merge with the same branch, you may want to
use something like the following in your configuration file:

    [branch "my_branch"]
    remote = <nickname>
    merge = <remote-ref>

    [remote "<nickname>"]
    url = <url>
    fetch = <refspec>

See git-config(1) for details.

I learned that I can make it work with:

git branch --set-upstream my_branch origin/my_branch

But why do I need to do this for every branch I create? Isn't it obvious that if I push my_branch into origin/my_branch, then I would want to pull origin/my_branch into my_branch? How can I make this the default behavior?

Answer 1

By the way, the shortcut to pushing the current branch to a remote with the same name:

$ git push -u origin HEAD

Answer 2

I use this Git alias instead of copy/pasting the suggestion from Git every time: https://gist.github.com/ekilah/88a880c84a50b73bd306

Source copied below (add this to your ~/.gitconfig file):

[alias]
  pushup = "!gitbranchname() { git symbolic-ref --short HEAD; }; gitpushupstream() { git push --set-upstream origin `gitbranchname`; }; gitpushupstream"

Answer 3

You can also explicitly tell git pull what remote branch to pull (as it mentions in the error message):

git pull <remote-name> <remote-branch>

Be careful with this, however: if you are on a different branch and do an explicit pull, the refspec you pull will be merged into the branch you're on!

Answer 4

You can use:

git config --global branch.autosetupmerge always

which will link the upstream branch each time you create or checkout a new branch.

See https://felipec.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/advanced-git-concepts-the-upstream-tracking-branch/

This also works with autosetuprebase, if you follow a more rebase focused workflow, but don't use this unless you know what you're doing, as it will default your pull behavior to rebase, which can cause odd results.

Answer 5

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master<branch_name>

Answer 6

For what it is worth, if you are trying to track a branch that already exists on the remote (eg. origin/somebranch) but haven't checked it out locally yet, you can do:

$ git checkout --track origin/somebranch

Note: '-t' is the shortened version of '--track' option.

This sets up the same association right off the bat.