others-how to push a local repository to a github new repostory?

Nov 1, 2022

1. Purpose

In this post, I will demonstrate how to push a local git repository to github. I will create a new local repository and then push it to a new github repository.

2. The basic

In Git, a refspec is a reference specifier that defines the mapping between a local branch and a remote branch when pushing or fetching. It tells Git how to connect your local references to those on the remote repository. The refspec is used in the git push and git fetch commands to specify which branches or references you want to copy between the local and remote repositories.

Here’s a breakdown of the components of a refspec:

Source: This is the local reference that you’re pushing from or fetching to. It is often a branch name, like master or feature.
Destination: This is the remote reference that you’re pushing to or fetching from. It is also often a branch name but can be any valid reference.
Direction: The refspec specifies the direction of the operation, whether you’re pushing from local to remote or fetching from remote to local.

Here’s the general syntax of a refspec:

<src>:<dst>

<src> is the local branch or reference.
<dst> is the remote branch or reference.

Examples of Using `refspec` in `git push`:

Push a Specific Branch: To push the local branch feature to the remote branch feature on the remote repository named origin, you would use:
```
git push origin feature:feature
```
Push with a Different Remote Branch Name: If you want to push the local branch feature to a remote branch named dev, you would use:
```
git push origin feature:dev
```
Push Using a Colon for Wildcard: If you want to push all branches that you have locally to the corresponding branches on the remote, you can use a colon (which acts as a wildcard) in the refspec:
```
git push origin :master
```
This command would push all local branches to the remote repository, matching them up with the corresponding branches on master.
Force Push with refspec: To force push a branch (which overwrites the remote branch with the local branch), you can use:
```
git push origin feature:feature --force
```

Default `refspec`:

If you don’t specify a refspec when pushing, Git uses the default refspec, which is usually:

<local-branch>:<remote-branch>

For example, if you’re on the master branch and you run:

git push origin

Git will push the master branch to the origin remote’s master branch because that’s the default mapping.

Using `git push` Without a `refspec`:

In most cases, you don’t need to specify a refspec when using git push because Git has a default behavior based on the current branch and the tracking information it has for the remote branch.

However, refspec becomes particularly useful when you need more control over what exactly is being pushed, such as renaming branches on the fly or pushing to multiple branches in a single command.

Understanding refspec is key to mastering Git’s remote operations and ensuring that you’re able to push and fetch exactly what you intend to.

3. The procedure

Before doing the job, let’s review the environments that we have: 1) We have created a repository in github, named kotlin-hello2 2) We have created a local git repository locally named kotlin-hello2

Here is the steps to do the job:

1) Add remote repository as my local git repository’s remote peer.

➜  kotlin-hello2 git:(master) ✗ git remote add origin https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git

2) Push local repo’s master branch to github remote repository

➜  kotlin-hello2 git:(master) ✗ git push -u origin master                                       
error: src refspec master does not match any
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git'
➜  kotlin-hello2 git:(master) ✗ git push -f origin master
error: src refspec master does not match any
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git'
➜  kotlin-hello2 git:(master) ✗ git push -f origin master --verbose
Pushing to https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git
error: src refspec master does not match any
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git'

What does error: src refspec master does not match any mean? It means that there is no matching branch in your remote branch, because the default branch in github is the main branch, not the master branch, so if you push master to main, there will be an error.

4. The solution

Create a branch named master in your remote github repository, then do as follows:

➜  kotlin-hello2 git:(master) git remote -v                                                   
origin  https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git (fetch)
origin  https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git (push)
➜  kotlin-hello2 git:(master) git push origin master                                           
Enumerating objects: 22, done.
Counting objects: 100% (22/22), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (14/14), done.
Writing objects: 100% (22/22), 59.75 KiB | 9.96 MiB/s, done.
Total 22 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
remote: 
remote: Create a pull request for 'master' on GitHub by visiting:
remote:      https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2/pull/new/master
remote: 
To https://github.com/bswen/kotlin-hello2.git
 * [new branch]      master -> master
➜  kotlin-hello2 git:(master)

Now it works!

5. Summary

In this post, I demonstrated how to solve the error: src refspec master does not match any error when trying to push a local repository to github remote repository, the key point is to match your local branch to the remote one. That’s it, thanks for your reading.