Question

• I created a new repository on github.
• I selected one of the options that added a README.md.
• I then cd into the project on my hard drive.
• I ran git init: Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/myusername/github/myproject/.git/

• I ran “git add .” and then “git commit -m ‘project files'”, which responded with this:

  [master (root-commit) ca52fe0] project files
   981 files changed, 257939 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
   create mode 100644 index.php
   create mode 100644 license.txt
   create mode 100644 readme.html
   create mode 100644 wp-activate.php
   ...
  

• I then ran “git remote add origin https://github.com/myusername/myproject.git“
• I then ran “git push origin master”
• I then ran “git status” which said nothing to commit

But I look at repo and my “my project files” commit is not there. So then I ran git pull and got this:

You asked me to pull without telling me which branch you
want to merge with, and 'branch.master.merge' in
your configuration file does not tell me, either. Please
specify which branch you want to use on the command line and
try again (e.g. 'git pull <repository> <refspec>').
See git-pull(1) for details.

and then git push and checked again and still my commits are not on github repo. The only time I can see the commit is when I run “git log”:

MacBook-myproject myusername$ git log
commit ca52fe090e6dbf1b6aa6ee51c3283efbe7549904
Author: User <myemailaddress>
Date:   Sat Jun 23 19:22:05 2012 -0400
project files

I followed github directions best that I could. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

After your Github repository has been created (i.e. you can view it on Github), then you should already have:

1. Local repository set up:

git init

2. README file created and added to the repository:

touch README.md
git add README.md 
git commit -m 'first commit'

3. A remote called origin linked to your repository:

git remote add origin https://github.com/username/repo.git

4. An initial push, which copied your local README to your Github repository:

git push -u origin master

If you can view your repository on Github, then it has been successfully created. In this case it looks like you may have edited your README file on Github using the online editing tools, which caused your remote and local branches to diverge.

Before you can push your local changes to Github, you need to fetch or pull your remote changes, merge the changes locally (merging is automatic with pull), and then push to the remote.

See Pro Git: Fetching and Pulling from Your Remotes