How do I undo tracking a remote branch in git?

Question

I've accidentally unhitched my master branch from tracking origin master I think. It used to be that I could run git pull and git push and it would know that I meant git push origin master but now it does not, and I think it's tracking a different branch because git push origin master works fine (everything up to date) and git push tells me it can't fast-forward changes.

Here's what my git branch -a looks like:

ianstormtaylor:nib Storm$ git branch -a
* master
  original
  transforms
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/sizing
  remotes/origin/transforms

Not sure if that remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master is the part that is messed up.

I think this all resulted from a git merge origin sizing call when i meant to do git merge sizing (while on master).

Anyone know what's going on and is able to help? I'd just like to get back to the default remote-tracking setup that git clone creates.

Answer 1

All you need in you git config (do git config -e to edit) is the following:

[remote "origin"]
   fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
   url = /Users/me/test.git
[branch "master"]
   remote = origin
   merge = refs/heads/master

If it is there, git push from master, will be equivalent to git push origin master

The remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master part just says that HEAD of remote origin is master branch ( of origin) and is fine.

Answer 2

I've had this happen a few times - and while I'm not sure of the exact cause I don't believe it's from a mistake that you've made. Rather it's simply that git pull is a shortcut to the most recent remote branch and it's forgotten what the most recent branch is.

Executing a git pull origin master usually updates the setting and resets everything.

Answer 3

I suppose you could edit the .git/config file or set the config using

git config branch.master.remote origin
git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master

Alternatively, recreate the master branch using the -t ( --tracking ) option

Both should result in a section similar to this in your .git/config :

[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master

Answer 4

You can use

git branch --set-upstream my_branch origin/my_branch

Alternatively

git push -u origin my_branch

See Git: Why do I need to do --set-upstream all the time? for more detail.