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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | GIT URLS | REMOTES | UPSTREAM BRANCHES | OUTPUT | PUSH RULES | NOTE ABOUT FAST-FORWARDS | EXAMPLES | SECURITY | CONFIGURATION | GIT | COLOPHON |
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GIT-PUSH(1) Git Manual GIT-PUSH(1)
git-push - Update remote refs along with associated objects
git push [--all | --branches | --mirror | --tags] [--follow-tags] [--atomic] [-n | --dry-run] [--receive-pack=<git-receive-pack>]
[--repo=<repository>] [-f | --force] [-d | --delete] [--prune] [-q | --quiet] [-v | --verbose]
[-u | --set-upstream] [-o <string> | --push-option=<string>]
[--[no-]signed | --signed=(true|false|if-asked)]
[--force-with-lease[=<refname>[:<expect>]] [--force-if-includes]]
[--no-verify] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
Updates one or more branches, tags, or other references in a
remote repository from your local repository, and sends all
necessary data that isn’t already on the remote.
The simplest way to push is git push <remote> <branch>. git push
origin main will push the local main branch to the main branch on
the remote named origin.
The <repository> argument defaults to the upstream for the current
branch, or origin if there’s no configured upstream.
To decide which branches, tags, or other refs to push, Git uses
(in order of precedence):
1. The <refspec> argument(s) (for example main in git push origin
main) or the --all, --mirror, or --tags options
2. The remote.<name>.push configuration for the repository being
pushed to
3. The push.default configuration. The default is
push.default=simple, which will push to a branch with the same
name as the current branch. See the CONFIGURATION section
below for more on push.default.
git push may fail if you haven’t set an upstream for the current
branch, depending on what push.default is set to. See the UPSTREAM
BRANCHES section below for more on how to set and use upstreams.
You can make interesting things happen to a repository every time
you push into it, by setting up hooks there. See documentation for
git-receive-pack(1).
<repository>
The "remote" repository that is the destination of a push
operation. This parameter can be either a URL (see the section
GIT URLS below) or the name of a remote (see the section
REMOTES below).
<refspec>...
Specify what destination ref to update with what source
object.
The format for a refspec is [+]<src>[:<dst>], for example
main, main:other, or HEAD^:refs/heads/main.
The <src> is often the name of the local branch to push, but
it can be any arbitrary "SHA-1 expression" (see
gitrevisions(7)).
The <dst> determines what ref to update on the remote side. It
must be the name of a branch, tag, or other ref, not an
arbitrary expression.
The + is optional and does the same thing as --force.
You can write a refspec using the fully expanded form (for
example refs/heads/main:refs/heads/main) which specifies the
exact source and destination, or with a shorter form (for
example main or main:other). Here are the rules for how
refspecs are expanded, as well as various other special
refspec forms:
• <src> without a :<dst> means to update the same ref as the
<src>, unless the remote.<repository>.push configuration
specifies a different <dst>. For example, if main is a
branch, then the refspec main expands to
main:refs/heads/main.
• If <dst> unambiguously refers to a ref on the <repository>
remote, then expand it to that ref. For example, if v1.0
is a tag on the remote, then HEAD:v1.0 expands to
HEAD:refs/tags/v1.0.
• If <src> resolves to a ref starting with refs/heads/ or
refs/tags/, then prepend that to <dst>. For example, if
main is a branch, then main:other expands to
main:refs/heads/other
• The special refspec : (or +: to allow non-fast-forward
updates) directs Git to push "matching" branches: for
every branch that exists on the local side, the remote
side is updated if a branch of the same name already
exists on the remote side.
• <src> may contain a * to indicate a simple pattern match.
This works like a glob that matches any ref matching the
pattern. There must be only one * in both the <src> and
<dst>. It will map refs to the destination by replacing
the * with the contents matched from the source. For
example, refs/heads/*:refs/heads/* will push all branches.
• A refspec starting with ^ is a negative refspec. This
specifies refs to exclude. A ref will be considered to
match if it matches at least one positive refspec, and
does not match any negative refspec. Negative refspecs can
be pattern refspecs. They must only contain a <src>. Fully
spelled out hex object names are also not supported. For
example, git push origin 'refs/heads/*'
'^refs/heads/dev-*' will push all branches except for
those starting with dev-
• If <src> is empty, it deletes the <dst> ref from the
remote repository. For example, git push origin :dev will
delete the dev branch.
• tag <tag> expands to refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>. This
is technically a special syntax for git push and not a
refspec, since in git push origin tag v1.0 the arguments
tag and v1.0 are separate.
• If the refspec can’t be expanded unambiguously, error out
with an error indicating what was tried, and depending on
the advice.pushUnqualifiedRefname configuration (see
git-config(1)) suggest what refs/ namespace you may have
wanted to push to.
Not all updates are allowed: see PUSH RULES below for the details.
--all, --branches
Push all branches (i.e. refs under refs/heads/); cannot be
used with other <refspec>.
--prune
Remove remote branches that don’t have a local counterpart.
For example a remote branch tmp will be removed if a local
branch with the same name doesn’t exist any more. This also
respects refspecs, e.g. git push --prune remote
refs/heads/*:refs/tmp/* would make sure that remote
refs/tmp/foo will be removed if refs/heads/foo doesn’t exist.
--mirror
Instead of naming each ref to push, specifies that all refs
under refs/ (which includes but is not limited to refs/heads/,
refs/remotes/, and refs/tags/) be mirrored to the remote
repository. Newly created local refs will be pushed to the
remote end, locally updated refs will be force updated on the
remote end, and deleted refs will be removed from the remote
end. This is the default if the configuration option
remote.<remote>.mirror is set.
-n, --dry-run
Do everything except actually send the updates.
--porcelain
Produce machine-readable output. The output status line for
each ref will be tab-separated and sent to stdout instead of
stderr. The full symbolic names of the refs will be given.
-d, --delete
All listed refs are deleted from the remote repository. This
is the same as prefixing all refs with a colon.
--tags
All refs under refs/tags are pushed, in addition to refspecs
explicitly listed on the command line.
--follow-tags
Push all the refs that would be pushed without this option,
and also push annotated tags in refs/tags that are missing
from the remote but are pointing at commit-ish that are
reachable from the refs being pushed. This can also be
specified with configuration variable push.followTags. For
more information, see push.followTags in git-config(1).
--signed, --no-signed, --signed=(true|false|if-asked)
GPG-sign the push request to update refs on the receiving
side, to allow it to be checked by the hooks and/or be logged.
Possible values are:
false, --no-signed
no signing will be attempted.
true, --signed
the push will fail if the server does not support signed
pushes.
if-asked
sign if and only if the server supports signed pushes. The
push will also fail if the actual call to gpg --sign
fails. See git-receive-pack(1) for the details on the
receiving end.
--atomic, --no-atomic
Use an atomic transaction on the remote side if available.
Either all refs are updated, or on error, no refs are updated.
If the server does not support atomic pushes the push will
fail.
-o <option>, --push-option=<option>
Transmit the given string to the server, which passes them to
the pre-receive as well as the post-receive hook. The given
string must not contain a NUL or LF character. When multiple
--push-option=<option> are given, they are all sent to the
other side in the order listed on the command line. When no
--push-option=<option> is given from the command line, the
values of configuration variable push.pushOption are used
instead.
--receive-pack=<git-receive-pack>, --exec=<git-receive-pack>
Path to the git-receive-pack program on the remote end.
Sometimes useful when pushing to a remote repository over ssh,
and you do not have the program in a directory on the default
$PATH.
--force-with-lease, --no-force-with-lease,
--force-with-lease=<refname>,
--force-with-lease=<refname>:<expect>
Usually, git push refuses to update a remote ref that is not
an ancestor of the local ref used to overwrite it.
This option overrides this restriction if the current value of
the remote ref is the expected value. git push fails
otherwise.
Imagine that you have to rebase what you have already
published. You will have to bypass the "must fast-forward"
rule in order to replace the history you originally published
with the rebased history. If somebody else built on top of
your original history while you are rebasing, the tip of the
branch at the remote may advance with their commit, and
blindly pushing with --force will lose their work.
This option allows you to say that you expect the history you
are updating is what you rebased and want to replace. If the
remote ref still points at the commit you specified, you can
be sure that no other people did anything to the ref. It is
like taking a "lease" on the ref without explicitly locking
it, and the remote ref is updated only if the "lease" is still
valid.
--force-with-lease alone, without specifying the details, will
protect all remote refs that are going to be updated by
requiring their current value to be the same as the
remote-tracking branch we have for them.
--force-with-lease=<refname>, without specifying the expected
value, will protect <refname> (alone), if it is going to be
updated, by requiring its current value to be the same as the
remote-tracking branch we have for it.
--force-with-lease=<refname>:<expect> will protect <refname>
(alone), if it is going to be updated, by requiring its
current value to be the same as the specified value <expect>
(which is allowed to be different from the remote-tracking
branch we have for the refname, or we do not even have to have
such a remote-tracking branch when this form is used). If
<expect> is the empty string, then the named ref must not
already exist.
Note that all forms other than
--force-with-lease=<refname>:<expect> that specifies the
expected current value of the ref explicitly are still
experimental and their semantics may change as we gain
experience with this feature.
--no-force-with-lease will cancel all the previous
--force-with-lease on the command line.
A general note on safety: supplying this option without an
expected value, i.e. as --force-with-lease or
--force-with-lease=<refname> interacts very badly with
anything that implicitly runs git fetch on the remote to be
pushed to in the background, e.g. git fetch origin on your
repository in a cronjob.
The protection it offers over --force is ensuring that
subsequent changes your work wasn’t based on aren’t clobbered,
but this is trivially defeated if some background process is
updating refs in the background. We don’t have anything except
the remote tracking info to go by as a heuristic for refs
you’re expected to have seen & are willing to clobber.
If your editor or some other system is running git fetch in
the background for you a way to mitigate this is to simply set
up another remote:
git remote add origin-push $(git config remote.origin.url)
git fetch origin-push
Now when the background process runs git fetch origin the
references on origin-push won’t be updated, and thus commands
like:
git push --force-with-lease origin-push
Will fail unless you manually run git fetch origin-push. This
method is of course entirely defeated by something that runs
git fetch --all, in that case you’d need to either disable it
or do something more tedious like:
git fetch # update 'master' from remote
git tag base master # mark our base point
git rebase -i master # rewrite some commits
git push --force-with-lease=master:base master:master
I.e. create a base tag for versions of the upstream code that
you’ve seen and are willing to overwrite, then rewrite
history, and finally force push changes to master if the
remote version is still at base, regardless of what your local
remotes/origin/master has been updated to in the background.
Alternatively, specifying --force-if-includes as an ancillary
option along with --force-with-lease[=<refname>] (i.e.,
without saying what exact commit the ref on the remote side
must be pointing at, or which refs on the remote side are
being protected) at the time of "push" will verify if updates
from the remote-tracking refs that may have been implicitly
updated in the background are integrated locally before
allowing a forced update.
-f, --force
Usually, git push will refuse to update a branch that is not
an ancestor of the commit being pushed.
This flag disables that check, the other safety checks in PUSH
RULES below, and the checks in --force-with-lease. It can
cause the remote repository to lose commits; use it with care.
Note that --force applies to all the refs that are pushed,
hence using it with push.default set to matching or with
multiple push destinations configured with remote.<name>.push
may overwrite refs other than the current branch (including
local refs that are strictly behind their remote counterpart).
To force a push to only one branch, use a + in front of the
refspec to push (e.g git push origin +master to force a push
to the master branch). See the <refspec>... section above for
details.
--force-if-includes, --no-force-if-includes
Force an update only if the tip of the remote-tracking ref has
been integrated locally.
This option enables a check that verifies if the tip of the
remote-tracking ref is reachable from one of the "reflog"
entries of the local branch based in it for a rewrite. The
check ensures that any updates from the remote have been
incorporated locally by rejecting the forced update if that is
not the case.
If the option is passed without specifying --force-with-lease,
or specified along with --force-with-lease=<refname>:<expect>,
it is a "no-op".
Specifying --no-force-if-includes disables this behavior.
--repo=<repository>
This option is equivalent to the <repository> argument. If
both are specified, the command-line argument takes
precedence.
-u, --set-upstream
For every branch that is up to date or successfully pushed,
add upstream (tracking) reference, used by argument-less
git-pull(1) and other commands. For more information, see
branch.<name>.merge in git-config(1).
--thin, --no-thin
These options are passed to git-send-pack(1). A thin transfer
significantly reduces the amount of sent data when the sender
and receiver share many of the same objects in common. The
default is --thin.
-q, --quiet
Suppress all output, including the listing of updated refs,
unless an error occurs. Progress is not reported to the
standard error stream.
-v, --verbose
Run verbosely.
--progress
Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is
specified. This flag forces progress status even if the
standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
--no-recurse-submodules,
--recurse-submodules=(check|on-demand|only|no)
May be used to make sure all submodule commits used by the
revisions to be pushed are available on a remote-tracking
branch. Possible values are:
check
Git will verify that all submodule commits that changed in
the revisions to be pushed are available on at least one
remote of the submodule. If any commits are missing the
push will be aborted and exit with non-zero status.
on-demand
all submodules that changed in the revisions to be pushed
will be pushed. If on-demand was not able to push all
necessary revisions it will also be aborted and exit with
non-zero status.
only
all submodules will be pushed while the superproject is
left unpushed.
no
override the push.recurseSubmodules configuration variable
when no submodule recursion is required. Similar to using
--no-recurse-submodules.
When using on-demand or only, if a submodule has a
push.recurseSubmodules=(on-demand|only) or submodule.recurse
configuration, further recursion will occur. In this case,
only is treated as on-demand.
--verify, --no-verify
Toggle the pre-push hook (see githooks(5)). The default is
--verify, giving the hook a chance to prevent the push. With
--no-verify, the hook is bypassed completely.
-4, --ipv4
Use IPv4 addresses only, ignoring IPv6 addresses.
-6, --ipv6
Use IPv6 addresses only, ignoring IPv4 addresses.
In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol,
the address of the remote server, and the path to the repository.
Depending on the transport protocol, some of this information may
be absent.
Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp
and ftps can be used for fetching, but this is inefficient and
deprecated; do not use them).
The native transport (i.e. git:// URL) does no authentication and
should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
The following syntaxes may be used with them:
• ssh://[<user>@]<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>
• git://<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>
• http[s]://<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>
• ftp[s]://<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>
An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh
protocol:
• [<user>@]<host>:/<path-to-git-repo>
This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the
first colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a
colon. For example the local path foo:bar could be specified as an
absolute path or ./foo:bar to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh
url.
The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~<username>
expansion:
• ssh://[<user>@]<host>[:<port>]/~<user>/<path-to-git-repo>
• git://<host>[:<port>]/~<user>/<path-to-git-repo>
• [<user>@]<host>:~<user>/<path-to-git-repo>
For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the
following syntaxes may be used:
• /path/to/repo.git/
• file:///path/to/repo.git/
These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except when cloning,
when the former implies --local option. See git-clone(1) for
details.
git clone, git fetch and git pull, but not git push, will also
accept a suitable bundle file. See git-bundle(1).
When Git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol,
it attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one
exists. To explicitly request a remote helper, the following
syntax may be used:
• <transport>::<address>
where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being
invoked. See gitremote-helpers(7) for details.
If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories
and you want to use a different format for them (such that the
URLs you use will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can
create a configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual-url-base>"]
insteadOf = <other-url-base>
For example, with this:
[url "git://git.host.xz/"]
insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
insteadOf = work:
a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git"
will be rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
"git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual-url-base>"]
pushInsteadOf = <other-url-base>
For example, with this:
[url "ssh://example.org/"]
pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten
to "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will
still use the original URL.
The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as
<repository> argument:
• a remote in the Git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
• a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
• a file in the $GIT_DIR/branches directory.
All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command
line because they each contain a refspec which git will use by
default.
Named remote in configuration file
You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had
previously configured using git-remote(1), git-config(1) or even
by a manual edit to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this
remote will be used to access the repository. The refspec of this
remote will be used by default when you do not provide a refspec
on the command line. The entry in the config file would appear
like this:
[remote "<name>"]
url = <URL>
pushurl = <pushurl>
push = <refspec>
fetch = <refspec>
The <pushurl> is used for pushes only. It is optional and defaults
to <URL>. Pushing to a remote affects all defined pushurls or all
defined urls if no pushurls are defined. Fetch, however, will only
fetch from the first defined url if multiple urls are defined.
Named file in $GIT_DIR/remotes
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes.
The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The
refspec in this file will be used as default when you do not
provide a refspec on the command line. This file should have the
following format:
URL: one of the above URL formats
Push: <refspec>
Pull: <refspec>
Push: lines are used by git push and Pull: lines are used by git
pull and git fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be
specified for additional branch mappings.
Named file in $GIT_DIR/branches
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches.
The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This
file should have the following format:
<URL>#<head>
<URL> is required; #<head> is optional.
Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following
refspecs, if you don’t provide one on the command line. <branch>
is the name of this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults
to master.
git fetch uses:
refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
git push uses:
HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
Branches in Git can optionally have an upstream remote branch. Git
defaults to using the upstream branch for remote operations, for
example:
• It’s the default for git pull or git fetch with no arguments.
• It’s the default for git push with no arguments, with some
exceptions. For example, you can use the
branch.<name>.pushRemote option to push to a different remote
than you pull from, and by default with push.default=simple
the upstream branch you configure must have the same name.
• Various commands, including git checkout and git status, will
show you how many commits have been added to your current
branch and the upstream since you forked from it, for example
"Your branch and origin/main have diverged, and have 2 and 3
different commits each respectively".
The upstream is stored in .git/config, in the "remote" and "merge"
fields. For example, if main's upstream is origin/main:
[branch "main"]
remote = origin
merge = refs/heads/main
You can set an upstream branch explicitly with git push
--set-upstream <remote> <branch> but Git will often automatically
set the upstream for you, for example:
• When you clone a repository, Git will automatically set the
upstream for the default branch.
• If you have the push.autoSetupRemote configuration option set,
git push will automatically set the upstream the first time
you push a branch.
• Checking out a remote-tracking branch with git checkout
<branch> will automatically create a local branch with that
name and set the upstream to the remote branch.
Note
Upstream branches are sometimes referred to as "tracking
information", as in "set the branch’s tracking information".
The output of "git push" depends on the transport method used;
this section describes the output when pushing over the Git
protocol (either locally or via ssh).
The status of the push is output in tabular form, with each line
representing the status of a single ref. Each line is of the form:
<flag> <summary> <from> -> <to> (<reason>)
If --porcelain is used, then each line of the output is of the
form:
<flag> \t <from>:<to> \t <summary> (<reason>)
The status of up-to-date refs is shown only if --porcelain or
--verbose option is used.
<flag>
A single character indicating the status of the ref:
(space)
for a successfully pushed fast-forward;
+
for a successful forced update;
-
for a successfully deleted ref;
*
for a successfully pushed new ref;
!
for a ref that was rejected or failed to push; and
=
for a ref that was up to date and did not need pushing.
<summary>
For a successfully pushed ref, the summary shows the old and
new values of the ref in a form suitable for using as an
argument to git log (this is <old>..<new> in most cases, and
<old>...<new> for forced non-fast-forward updates).
For a failed update, more details are given:
rejected
Git did not try to send the ref at all, typically because
it is not a fast-forward and you did not force the update.
remote rejected
The remote end refused the update. Usually caused by a
hook on the remote side, or because the remote repository
has one of the following safety options in effect:
receive.denyCurrentBranch (for pushes to the checked out
branch), receive.denyNonFastForwards (for forced
non-fast-forward updates), receive.denyDeletes or
receive.denyDeleteCurrent. See git-config(1).
remote failure
The remote end did not report the successful update of the
ref, perhaps because of a temporary error on the remote
side, a break in the network connection, or other
transient error.
from
The name of the local ref being pushed, minus its refs/<type>/
prefix. In the case of deletion, the name of the local ref is
omitted.
to
The name of the remote ref being updated, minus its
refs/<type>/ prefix.
reason
A human-readable explanation. In the case of successfully
pushed refs, no explanation is needed. For a failed ref, the
reason for failure is described.
As a safety feature, the git push command only allows certain
kinds of updates to prevent you from accidentally losing data on
the remote.
Because branches and tags are intended to be used differently, the
safety rules for pushing to a branch are different from the rules
for pushing to a tag. In the following rules "update" means any
modifications except deletions and creations. Deletions and
creations are always allowed, except when forbidden by
configuration or hooks.
1. If the push destination is a branch (refs/heads/*): only
fast-forward updates are allowed, which means the destination
must be an ancestor of the source commit. The source must be a
commit.
2. If the push destination is a tag (refs/tags/*): all updates
will be rejected. The source can be any object.
3. If the push destination is not a branch or tag:
• If the source is a tree or blob object, any updates will
be rejected
• If the source is a tag or commit object, any fast-forward
update is allowed, even in cases where what’s being
fast-forwarded is not a commit, but a tag object which
happens to point to a new commit which is a fast-forward
of the commit the last tag (or commit) it’s replacing.
Replacing a tag with an entirely different tag is also
allowed, if it points to the same commit, as well as
pushing a peeled tag, i.e. pushing the commit that
existing tag object points to, or a new tag object which
an existing commit points to.
You can override these rules by passing --force or by adding the
optional leading + to a refspec. The only exceptions are that no
amount of forcing will make a branch accept a non-commit object,
and forcing won’t make the remote repository accept a push that
it’s configured to deny.
Hooks and configuration can also override or amend these rules,
see e.g. receive.denyNonFastForwards and receive.denyDeletes in
git-config(1) and pre-receive and update in githooks(5).
When an update changes a branch (or more in general, a ref) that
used to point at commit A to point at another commit B, it is
called a fast-forward update if and only if B is a descendant of
A.
In a fast-forward update from A to B, the set of commits that the
original commit A built on top of is a subset of the commits the
new commit B builds on top of. Hence, it does not lose any
history.
In contrast, a non-fast-forward update will lose history. For
example, suppose you and somebody else started at the same commit
X, and you built a history leading to commit B while the other
person built a history leading to commit A. The history looks like
this:
B
/
---X---A
Further suppose that the other person already pushed changes
leading to A back to the original repository from which you two
obtained the original commit X.
The push done by the other person updated the branch that used to
point at commit X to point at commit A. It is a fast-forward.
But if you try to push, you will attempt to update the branch
(that now points at A) with commit B. This does not fast-forward.
If you did so, the changes introduced by commit A will be lost,
because everybody will now start building on top of B.
The command by default does not allow an update that is not a
fast-forward to prevent such loss of history.
If you do not want to lose your work (history from X to B) or the
work by the other person (history from X to A), you would need to
first fetch the history from the repository, create a history that
contains changes done by both parties, and push the result back.
You can perform "git pull", resolve potential conflicts, and "git
push" the result. A "git pull" will create a merge commit C
between commits A and B.
B---C
/ /
---X---A
Updating A with the resulting merge commit will fast-forward and
your push will be accepted.
Alternatively, you can rebase your change between X and B on top
of A, with git pull --rebase, and push the result back. The rebase
will create a new commit D that builds the change between X and B
on top of A.
B D
/ /
---X---A
Again, updating A with this commit will fast-forward and your push
will be accepted.
There is another common situation where you may encounter
non-fast-forward rejection when you try to push, and it is
possible even when you are pushing into a repository nobody else
pushes into. After you push commit A yourself (in the first
picture in this section), replace it with git commit --amend to
produce commit B, and you try to push it out, because forgot that
you have pushed A out already. In such a case, and only if you are
certain that nobody in the meantime fetched your earlier commit A
(and started building on top of it), you can run git push --force
to overwrite it. In other words, git push --force is a method
reserved for a case where you do mean to lose history.
git push
Works like git push <remote>, where <remote> is the current
branch’s remote (or origin, if no remote is configured for the
current branch).
git push origin
Without additional configuration, pushes the current branch to
the configured upstream (branch.<name>.merge configuration
variable) if it has the same name as the current branch, and
errors out without pushing otherwise.
The default behavior of this command when no <refspec> is
given can be configured by setting the push option of the
remote, or the push.default configuration variable.
For example, to default to pushing only the current branch to
origin use git config remote.origin.push HEAD. Any valid
<refspec> (like the ones in the examples below) can be
configured as the default for git push origin.
git push origin :
Push "matching" branches to origin. See <refspec> in the
OPTIONS section above for a description of "matching"
branches.
git push origin master
Find a ref that matches master in the source repository (most
likely, it would find refs/heads/master), and update the same
ref (e.g. refs/heads/master) in origin repository with it. If
master did not exist remotely, it would be created.
git push origin HEAD
A handy way to push the current branch to the same name on the
remote.
git push mothership master:satellite/master dev:satellite/dev
Use the source ref that matches master (e.g.
refs/heads/master) to update the ref that matches
satellite/master (most probably refs/remotes/satellite/master)
in the mothership repository; do the same for dev and
satellite/dev.
See the section describing <refspec>... above for a discussion
of the matching semantics.
This is to emulate git fetch run on the mothership using git
push that is run in the opposite direction in order to
integrate the work done on satellite, and is often necessary
when you can only make connection in one way (i.e. satellite
can ssh into mothership but mothership cannot initiate
connection to satellite because the latter is behind a
firewall or does not run sshd).
After running this git push on the satellite machine, you
would ssh into the mothership and run git merge there to
complete the emulation of git pull that were run on mothership
to pull changes made on satellite.
git push origin HEAD:master
Push the current branch to the remote ref matching master in
the origin repository. This form is convenient to push the
current branch without thinking about its local name.
git push origin master:refs/heads/experimental
Create the branch experimental in the origin repository by
copying the current master branch. This form is only needed to
create a new branch or tag in the remote repository when the
local name and the remote name are different; otherwise, the
ref name on its own will work.
git push origin :experimental
Find a ref that matches experimental in the origin repository
(e.g. refs/heads/experimental), and delete it.
git push origin +dev:master
Update the origin repository’s master branch with the dev
branch, allowing non-fast-forward updates. This can leave
unreferenced commits dangling in the origin repository.
Consider the following situation, where a fast-forward is not
possible:
o---o---o---A---B origin/master
\
X---Y---Z dev
The above command would change the origin repository to
A---B (unnamed branch)
/
o---o---o---X---Y---Z master
Commits A and B would no longer belong to a branch with a
symbolic name, and so would be unreachable. As such, these
commits would be removed by a git gc command on the origin
repository.
The fetch and push protocols are not designed to prevent one side
from stealing data from the other repository that was not intended
to be shared. If you have private data that you need to protect
from a malicious peer, your best option is to store it in another
repository. This applies to both clients and servers. In
particular, namespaces on a server are not effective for read
access control; you should only grant read access to a namespace
to clients that you would trust with read access to the entire
repository.
The known attack vectors are as follows:
1. The victim sends "have" lines advertising the IDs of objects
it has that are not explicitly intended to be shared but can
be used to optimize the transfer if the peer also has them.
The attacker chooses an object ID X to steal and sends a ref
to X, but isn’t required to send the content of X because the
victim already has it. Now the victim believes that the
attacker has X, and it sends the content of X back to the
attacker later. (This attack is most straightforward for a
client to perform on a server, by creating a ref to X in the
namespace the client has access to and then fetching it. The
most likely way for a server to perform it on a client is to
"merge" X into a public branch and hope that the user does
additional work on this branch and pushes it back to the
server without noticing the merge.)
2. As in #1, the attacker chooses an object ID X to steal. The
victim sends an object Y that the attacker already has, and
the attacker falsely claims to have X and not Y, so the victim
sends Y as a delta against X. The delta reveals regions of X
that are similar to Y to the attacker.
Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
what’s found there:
push.autoSetupRemote
If set to true assume --set-upstream on default push when no
upstream tracking exists for the current branch; this option
takes effect with push.default options simple, upstream, and
current. It is useful if by default you want new branches to
be pushed to the default remote (like the behavior of
push.default=current) and you also want the upstream tracking
to be set. Workflows most likely to benefit from this option
are simple central workflows where all branches are expected
to have the same name on the remote.
push.default
Defines the action git push should take if no refspec is given
(whether from the command-line, config, or elsewhere).
Different values are well-suited for specific workflows; for
instance, in a purely central workflow (i.e. the fetch source
is equal to the push destination), upstream is probably what
you want. Possible values are:
nothing
do not push anything (error out) unless a refspec is
given. This is primarily meant for people who want to
avoid mistakes by always being explicit.
current
push the current branch to update a branch with the same
name on the receiving end. Works in both central and
non-central workflows.
upstream
push the current branch back to the branch whose changes
are usually integrated into the current branch (which is
called @{upstream}). This mode only makes sense if you are
pushing to the same repository you would normally pull
from (i.e. central workflow).
tracking
this is a deprecated synonym for upstream.
simple
push the current branch with the same name on the remote.
If you are working on a centralized workflow (pushing to
the same repository you pull from, which is typically
origin), then you need to configure an upstream branch
with the same name.
This mode is the default since Git 2.0, and is the safest
option suited for beginners.
matching
push all branches having the same name on both ends. This
makes the repository you are pushing to remember the set
of branches that will be pushed out (e.g. if you always
push maint and master there and no other branches, the
repository you push to will have these two branches, and
your local maint and master will be pushed there).
To use this mode effectively, you have to make sure all
the branches you would push out are ready to be pushed out
before running git push, as the whole point of this mode
is to allow you to push all of the branches in one go. If
you usually finish work on only one branch and push out
the result, while other branches are unfinished, this mode
is not for you. Also this mode is not suitable for pushing
into a shared central repository, as other people may add
new branches there, or update the tip of existing branches
outside your control.
This used to be the default, but not since Git 2.0 (simple
is the new default).
push.followTags
If set to true, enable --follow-tags option by default. You
may override this configuration at time of push by specifying
--no-follow-tags.
push.gpgSign
May be set to a boolean value, or the string if-asked. A true
value causes all pushes to be GPG signed, as if --signed is
passed to git-push(1). The string if-asked causes pushes to be
signed if the server supports it, as if --signed=if-asked is
passed to git push. A false value may override a value from a
lower-priority config file. An explicit command-line flag
always overrides this config option.
push.pushOption
When no --push-option=<option> argument is given from the
command line, git push behaves as if each <option> of this
variable is given as --push-option=<option>.
This is a multi-valued variable, and an empty value can be
used in a higher priority configuration file (e.g.
.git/config in a repository) to clear the values inherited
from a lower priority configuration files (e.g.
$HOME/.gitconfig).
Example:
/etc/gitconfig
push.pushoption = a
push.pushoption = b
~/.gitconfig
push.pushoption = c
repo/.git/config
push.pushoption =
push.pushoption = b
This will result in only b (a and c are cleared).
push.recurseSubmodules
May be check, on-demand, only, or no, with the same behavior
as that of push --recurse-submodules. If not set, no is used
by default, unless submodule.recurse is set (in which case a
true value means on-demand).
push.useForceIfIncludes
If set to true, it is equivalent to specifying
--force-if-includes as an option to git-push(1) in the command
line. Adding --no-force-if-includes at the time of push
overrides this configuration setting.
push.negotiate
If set to true, attempt to reduce the size of the packfile
sent by rounds of negotiation in which the client and the
server attempt to find commits in common. If false, Git will
rely solely on the server’s ref advertisement to find commits
in common.
push.useBitmaps
If set to false, disable use of bitmaps for git push even if
pack.useBitmaps is true, without preventing other git
operations from using bitmaps. Default is true.
Part of the git(1) suite
This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
system) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual
page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2026-01-16. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2026-01-15.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Git 2.53.0.rc0 2026-01-15 GIT-PUSH(1)
Pages that refer to this page: git(1), git-config(1), git-fetch(1), git-pull(1), git-push(1), git-receive-pack(1), git-send-pack(1), git-svn(1), githooks(5), giteveryday(7), gitglossary(7), gitrevisions(7), gittutorial(7), gitworkflows(7)
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