Given below is a scenario you can try in order to learn how to push commits to a remote repo hosted on GitHub:
1. Fork an existing GitHub repo (e.g., samplerepo-things) to your GitHub account.
2. Clone the fork (not the original) to your computer.
3. Commit some changes in your local repo.
4. Push the new commits to your fork on GitHub
Click the Push button on the main menu, ensure the settings are as follows in the next dialog, and click the Push button on the dialog.
Use the command git push origin master. Enter your Github username and password when prompted.
5. Add a few more commits, and tag some of them.
6. Push the new commits and the tags.
Push similar to before, but ensure the [ ] Push all tags option in the push dialog is ticked as well.
A normal push does not include tags. After pushing the commits (as before), push tags to the repo as well:
To push a specific tag:
$ git push origin v1.0b
To push all tags:
$ git push origin --tags
You can push to repos other than the one you cloned from, as long as the target repo and your repo have a shared history.
- Add the GitHub repo URL as a remote, if you haven't done so already.
- Push to the target repo.
Push your repo to the new remote the usual way, but select the name of target remote instead of origin and remember to select the Track checkbox.
Push to the new remote the usual way e.g., git push upstream1 master (assuming you gave the name upstream1 to the remote).
You can even push an entire local repository to GitHub, to form an entirely new remote repository. For example, you created a local repo and worked with it for a while but now you want to upload it onto GitHub (as a backup or to share it with others). The steps are given below.
1. Create an empty remote repo on GitHub.
Login to your GitHub account and choose to create a new Repo.
In the next screen, provide a name for your repo but keep the
Initialize this repo ...tick box unchecked.
Note the URL of the repo. It will be of the form
https://github.com/{your_user_name}/{repo_name}.git.
e.g.,https://github.com/johndoe/foobar.git(note the.gitat the end)
2. Add the GitHub repo URL as a remote of the local repo. You can give it the name origin (or any other name).
3. Push the repo to the remote.
Push each branch to the new remote the usual way but use the -u flag to inform Git that you wish to the branch.
e.g., git push -u origin master