multiple remotes

March 19, 2014

Somehow I had worked out in my head that there could be only one remote. Origin. Turns out you can set and push to a (presumably) infinite number of remote repositories :

$ git config --list
push.default=nothing
alias.hist=log --pretty=format:"%h %ad | %s%d [%an]" --graph --date=short
user.name=Katie Leonard
…
remote.origin.url=git@github.com:keighty/thorfiles.git
remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
branch.master.remote=origin
branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master

(On a side note, I am not sure I remember putting alias.hist in my git config, but I find it to be wickedly useful.)

Setting a new remote is as easy as:

$ git remote add new_destination git@github.com:otheruser/thorfiles.git

Standing back to admire the results:

$ git config --list
push.default=nothing
alias.hist=log --pretty=format:"%h %ad | %s%d [%an]" --graph --date=short
user.name=Katie Leonard
…
remote.origin.url=git@github.com:keighty/thorfiles.git
remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
branch.master.remote=origin
branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master
remote.new_destination.url=git@github.com:otheruser/thorfiles.git
remote.new_destination.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/new_destination/*

Fast-forward through some excellent and brilliant feature work on my_branch, and I naturally want to save it for posterity:

$ git push origin my_branch
Counting objects: 611, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (263/263), done.
Writing objects: 100% (375/375), 63.40 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 375 (delta 280), reused 189 (delta 105)
To git@github.com:keighty/thorfiles.git
 * [new branch]      my_branch -> my_branch

I can also share it with my friend’s repo, presuming I have write access, and knowing full well he will want to use my new feature:

$ git push new_destination my_branch
Counting objects: 611, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (263/263), done.
Writing objects: 100% (375/375), 63.40 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 375 (delta 280), reused 189 (delta 105)
To git@github.com:otheruser/thorfiles.git
 * [new branch]      my_branch -> my_branch

Git is so awesome.