What is the difference between origin
and upstream
on GitHub?
When a git branch -a
command is executed, some branches it displays have a prefix of origin
(remotes/origin/..
) while others have a prefix of upstream
(remotes/upstream/..
).
This should be understood in the context of GitHub forks (where you fork a GitHub repo on GitHub before cloning that fork locally).
upstream generally refers to the original repo that you have forked (see also "Definition of “downstream” and “upstream”" for more on upstream term)
origin is your fork: your own repo on GitHub, clone of the original repo of GitHub
From the GitHub page:
When a repo is cloned, it has a default remote called origin that points to your fork on GitHub, not the original repo it was forked from. To keep track of the original repo, you need to add another remote named upstream
git remote add upstream https://github.com/<aUser>/<aRepo.git>
(with aUser/aRepo
the reference for the original creator and repository, that you have forked)
Note: since Sept. 2021, the unauthenticated git protocol (git://...
) on port 9418 is no longer supported on GitHub.
You will use upstream
to fetch from the original repo (in order to keep your local copy in sync with the project you want to contribute to).
git fetch upstream
(git fetch
alone would fetch from origin
by default, which is not what is needed here)
You will use origin
to pull and push since you can contribute to your own repository.
git pull
git push
(again, without parameters, 'origin' is used by default)
You will contribute back to the upstream
repo by making a pull request.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/cEJjT.png
In a nutshell answer.
origin: the fork
upstream: the forked
after cloning a fork you have to explicitly add a remote upstream, with git add remote "the original repo you forked from". This becomes your upstream, you mostly fetch and merge from your upstream. Any other business such as pushing from your local to upstream should be done using pull request.
fatal: The current branch branchName has no upstream branch. push the current branch and set the remote as upstream,
like - git push --set-upstream origin branchName
. There is nothing related to fork here, so what is upstream
here? Anyone can help?
Success story sharing
upstream
is generally: stackoverflow.com/questions/2739376/…