What does GitHub for Windows' "sync" do?

Question

With GitHub for Windows, you can "publish" a branch, and then "sync" that branch to GitHub.

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Is the sync basically a git pull and git push? Or is there more to it? If I wanted to do the exact same steps as "sync" from the command line, what should I do?

(It's not Open Source, or I'd just read that.)

score 53 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 21 '12 at 01:14

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Sync does git pull --rebase and then if there are local changes, it does git push.

From here: http://haacked.com/archive/2012/05/21/introducing-github-for-windows.aspx#87318

answered Dec 21 '12 at 01:14

Matt Rix

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What happens if there is a conflict during the rebase step? – Svante Feb 05 '13 at 15:17
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@Svante it just fails, and offers to open a shell for you to sort the mess out. Which is how I got to this page :-) – Andiih Feb 06 '13 at 09:48
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Is this still true? I just did a sync and ended up with a merge commit, which should never happen if the flow is: git pull --rebase; git push – Micah Zoltu Jun 20 '13 at 01:23
Any explanation for @Michas Caldwell's comment, I believe he is right? – benchuk Sep 23 '14 at 20:45
Can confirm hitting _Sync_ just now did a `git pull` rather than a `git pull --rebase`, thus creating an additional _Merge branch 'master' of ..._ commit. – Leo Sep 09 '16 at 14:33
What is a re-base? – Doug Kimzey Aug 25 '19 at 13:17

Ethan Yang · Answer 2 · 2016-11-09T01:21:05.820

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Since the above answer was more than two years ago, an updated answer to this question is: due to some bugs with rebase, the "sync" button does not do git pull --rebase anymore. Instead, it does git pull which will do merge if there are conflicts, according to this release notes (see release 1.3.0).

The link above is not available at this time. Here is the new release notes.

edited Nov 09 '16 at 01:21

answered Nov 29 '14 at 10:23

Ethan Yang

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Actually, that's not completely true. ONLY if a rebase doesn't work, it tries to do a merge. – Joris Meys Mar 17 '15 at 13:42
The release notes link is broken. – skolima Jan 13 '16 at 10:11
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@JorisMeys I'm not sure your statement is true. In my experience, if there are *any* commits ahead of mine on remote, it will create a merge commit, even when it could do a rebase. – Jerad Rose Dec 15 '16 at 05:40
@JeradRose When I wrote my comment we were at Github Desktop v. 2.x, and we're at 3.3 by now :-) But you're right, I've noticed the same. – Joris Meys Dec 16 '16 at 09:52

redhotvengeance · Answer 3 · 2013-02-06T16:42:37.230

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"Sync" would be any actions necessary to have your local branch match your remote branch. If your local branch had commits that your remote branch didn't, then "sync" would push your branch. If the remote branch was ahead of your local branch, then "sync" would pull first (specifically, git pull --rebase, as was explained by Phil Haack). "Sync" is just a shortcut to getting the local and remote to mirror each other.

From the GitHub site:

The sync button turns the complex workflow of pulling and pushing into a single operation. It notifies you when there are new changes to pull down and lets you quickly share local changes.

edited Feb 06 '13 at 16:42

answered Aug 24 '12 at 07:05

redhotvengeance

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It doesn't just pull - it does "git pull --rebase", which is a crucial difference. Also, the order you have is wrong, pull before push. – Andiih Feb 06 '13 at 09:49
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@Andiih My language was generalized and not an ordered list of operations. The order was implied - notice I say "if the remote branch **was** ahead of your local branch"? My description was also a direct quote from the GitHub site. Regardless, Matt Rix's answer is more detailed, and deserves to be marked as the answer. I've made some small edits to clarify any confusion in my answer. – redhotvengeance Feb 06 '13 at 16:54
Does github sync also fetch upstream changes, in addition to origin. I.e. I haved f9rked a repo, and have a local clone of the fork, what I really want is the changes from upstream, not just origin – AaronLS Jul 27 '13 at 02:35
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@AaronLS GitHub for Windows is only built to work with one remote right now, namely `origin`. To work with multiple remotes, you'll have to use the command line. Relevant info can be found [here](http://windows.github.com/help.html), under "Multiple Git remotes & non-GitHub remotes". – redhotvengeance Jul 27 '13 at 20:43

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

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To add to @ethanyang's answer,

According to the alias configured in the gitconfig,

[alias]
...
sync = !git pull && git push

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered Oct 12 '15 at 19:24

Ashwin Sinha

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Just out of curiosity, what does the ! mean in the above line? – Scott Romack Jul 14 '16 at 16:33
@ScottRomack it means that it's treated as a shell command: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21083933/what-does-the-exclamation-mark-mean-in-git-config-alias – Nicolas Holthaus Dec 14 '16 at 18:44
Does GitHub Desktop have this alias already setup? If so, where is this config located? I didn't see this alias in my global `.gitconfig`. Or is this just an override of your own? – james Jan 18 '17 at 14:09

What does GitHub for Windows' "sync" do?

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