difference between git push -u origin master and git push origin master

Question

I have been using git for a while now, and thus far, I have always used

git push origin master

Recently, however, I have come across

git push -u origin master

Can someone tell me what the difference between the two is, i.e. what the -u option stands for? I've tried googling quite a bit, but didn't find anything that answered my question.

See also http://stackoverflow.com/a/17096880/6309 – VonC Jul 29 '14 at 09:02 — VonC, Jul 29 '14 at 09:02
Thank you, that explains it pretty well! – Caílin Jul 29 '14 at 09:22 — Caílin, Jul 29 '14 at 09:22

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 29 '14 at 08:56

0

Here is the output of git help push. According to this, it just tells future calls to git push which branch to track.

  -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.<name>.merge
       in git-config(1).

answered Jul 29 '14 at 08:56

merlin2011

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Thanks for the answer, I should have thought of checking the help myself. – Caílin Jul 29 '14 at 09:22

difference between git push -u origin master and git push origin master

1 Answers1