How to avoid having to do “git branch –set-upstream”, and instead default to automatically setup remote tracking?

Git v2.37.1 and above

If you are using the mentioned version or above you can use this new config entry to automatically setup remote tracking:

git config --global push.autoSetupRemote true

After that, when you do git push tracking is setup automatically. No need for git push -u origin my_branch

A shortcut, which doesn’t depend on remembering the syntax for git branch --set-upstream ¹ is to do:

git push -u origin my_branch

… the first time that you push that branch. Or, to push to the current branch from a branch of the same name (handy for an alias):

git push -u origin HEAD

You only need to use -u once, and that sets up the association between your branch and the one at origin in the same way as git branch --set-upstream does.

Personally, I think it’s a good thing to have to set up that association between your branch and one on the remote explicitly. It’s just a shame that the rules are different for git push and git pull.

¹ It may sound silly, but I very frequently forget to specify the current branch, assuming that’s the default – it’s not, and the results are most confusing.

Update 2012-10-11: Apparently I’m not the only person who found it easy to get wrong! Thanks to VonC for pointing out that git 1.8.0 introduces the more obvious git branch --set-upstream-to, which can be used as follows, if you’re on the branch my_branch:

git branch --set-upstream-to origin/my_branch

… or with the short option:

git branch -u origin/my_branch

This change, and its reasoning, is described in the release notes for git 1.8.0, release candidate 1:

It was tempting to say git branch --set-upstream origin/master, but that tells Git to arrange the local branch origin/master to integrate with the currently checked out branch, which is highly unlikely to be what the user meant. The option is deprecated; use the new --set-upstream-to (with a short-and-sweet -u) option instead.