git push to GitHub repository branch gives error "src refspec master does not match any"

Question

I forked the Flask repository and cloned its website branch from GitHub like

git clone --recursive https://github.com/lovesh/flask.git -b website

Then i configured remote like

git remote add upstream https://github.com/lovesh/flask.git -t website
git fetch upstream

Then i made the changes(i didnt create any additional files but modified 2 files) i had to make then added the files and committed the changes like this

git add .
git commit .

This prompted me for a comment for the commit and i entered the comment. Now it showed me

2 files changed, 69 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

But when i try to push these changes to my GitHub account

git push origin master

it shows the error

error: src refspec master does not match any.
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/lovesh/flask.git'

I looked around and people who had this issue said that they did not commit the changes as here and here. But i did commit even then it shows me this error. To confirm i tried

git status 

and it showed

# On branch website
# Your branch is ahead of 'origin/website' by 1 commit.
#
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

Also git log also shows my commit in the log. I am new to git. Am i missing something?

Answer 1

Try git push origin website May be you configured your master branch under this name. Try and let me know.

Answer 2

First, you don't have a master branch after cloning your repo.
git clone details:

--branch <name>
-b <name>

Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to <name> branch instead.
In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will be checked out.
--branch can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit in the resulting repository.

So in your case, if you want to create and track the local website branch to origin, you need to:

git push -u origin website

(after that, a simple git push will be enough: more on the push policies in "git - push current vs. push upstream (tracking)")

---

Your other remote 'upstream' will also only track upstream/website branch:

The git remote documentation does mention:

With -t <branch> option, instead of the default glob refspec for the remote to track all branches under the refs/remotes/<name>/ namespace, a refspec to track only <branch> is created.
You can give more than one -t <branch> to track multiple branches without grabbing all branches.

In your case, you are only tracking upstream/website (+refs/heads/website:refs/remotes/upstream/website) instead of the default refspec (+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/upstream/*).