Error when “git push” to github

Question

I have a public repository at github.com with 2 branches : master and test.

I created a new directory locally and did:

[ ] git clone git@github.com:{username}/{projectname}.git

Then I created a new branch named my_test with

[ ] git branch my_test

and switched to it.

[ ] git checkout my_test

Then I merged it from my test branch of my public repository with

[ ] git merge origin/test

and it resulted in a fast forward.

I made some changes and committed them. Then I tried to push the local my_test branch to the public test branch at github with

[ ] git push git@github.com:{username}/{projectname}.git test 

but I got this error:

error: src refspec test does not match any.
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
error: failed to push some refs to 'git@github.com:{username}/{projectname}.git

What am I doing wrong ?

Answer 1

Perhaps try:

git push git@github.com:{username}/{projectname}.git HEAD:test

The format of the last parameter on that command line is a refspec which is a source ref followed by a colon and then the destination ref. You can also use your local branch name (my_test) instead of HEAD to be certain you're pushing the correct branch.

The documentation for git push has more detail on this parameter.

Answer 2

Also, you don't need to type out the whole url each time you want to push. When you ran the clone, git saved that URL as 'origin', that's why you can run something like 'merge origin/test' - it means the 'test' branch on your 'origin' server. So, the simplest way to push to your server in that case would be:

git push origin my_test:test

That will push your local 'my_test' branch to the 'test' branch on your 'origin' server. If you had named your local branch the same as the branch on the server, then the colon is not neccesary, you can simply do:

git push origin test

Answer 3

This error also comes up if you try to push to a new repository without having committed anything first. Try:

git add -A
git commit -am 'Initial commit'

And then try your push again.

Answer 4

I think here you will need to set up branch tracking. Please run the following to enable tracking

git branch --track my_test origin/my_test

To test

git push -u origin my_test
git pull origin my_test

Answer 5

You need to make sure that your local repository have the same name as your remote repository you're trying to push.

First, change repository using git branch -m "test" so that "my_test" would be "test". Second, just git push origin test