upstream in git and use of -u flags in push

Question

what is use of -u flag while pushing commits to some git repo? I mean what is differnece between git push origin master and git push -u origin master ? Can anyone please describe its usage ?

possible duplicate of [What exactly does the "u" do? "git push -u origin master" vs "git push origin master"](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5697750/what-exactly-does-the-u-do-git-push-u-origin-master-vs-git-push-origin-ma) — Kyle Trauberman, Jul 31 '12 at 18:58
@KyleTrauberman it is indeed. Would you mind voting to close it. — Matti Lyra, Nov 09 '12 at 10:19
Does this answer your question? [What exactly does the "u" do? "git push -u origin master" vs "git push origin master"](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5697750/what-exactly-does-the-u-do-git-push-u-origin-master-vs-git-push-origin-ma) — Uri Meirav, Mar 04 '21 at 09:26

score 36 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 24 '12 at 04:38

The git(1) manual page says:

-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..merge in git-config(1).

Basically, you use this flag when you want to set origin as the upstream remote for a branch. This is needed if you don't want to manually specify the remote every time you use git pull.

upstream in git and use of -u flags in push

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