Engineering Craft › Version Control (Git)

Remote

Another copy of the repository, usually "origin" on GitHub or GitLab.

Also known as: git remote, origin, upstream

A remote is another copy of your repository, usually hosted on a server such as GitHub or GitLab. Git remembers it under a short name. The one created when you clone is called origin.

git remote -v
# origin  git@github.com:acme/shop.git (fetch)
# origin  git@github.com:acme/shop.git (push)

git remote add upstream git@github.com:original/shop.git   # add a second one
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:acme/new-name.git  # change the address
git remote remove upstream

A remote is just a name for a URL, so you can have several. Typical uses:

• origin: where you cloned from, and where you push.
• upstream: the original project, when you work from a fork.

Remote-tracking branches

For each remote branch, Git keeps a read-only local bookmark, like origin/main. It shows where that branch was the last time you fetched. It doesn’t update by itself. git fetch refreshes it (push, pull, fetch).

git log main..origin/main      # commits on the remote that I don't have yet

A local branch can be set to track a remote one, so a plain git pull and git push know where to go.

Notes

• The remote isn’t magic. Everything in Git works offline. Remotes are for sharing.
• HTTPS vs SSH URLs: both reach the same repository, with different authentication.
• Don’t put passwords or tokens in the URL, since they end up in config files and logs (secrets in Git).
• Pushing needs permission on the remote. Without it, fork the project.