Connecting to a remote repository

So far, everything that we’ve done has only affected our local git repository. Likely you’ll want to connect your local repository to a remote repository using a hosting service such as GitHub. Syncing your local repository to a remote will back up your code and provide a central store for your project, allowing you to share your work or to access it from another computer.

Creating a new repository on GitHub

First, you need to create a GitHub repository to use as a remote. You should have created a GitHub account already. Log into GitHub and go to your profile page. On the Repositories tab, click New.

At the Create a new repository screen, give your repository a name and click Create Repository.

The next screen provides sets of git commands for use in different circumstances. Find the section labelled …or push an existing repository from the command line and copy the commands to the clipboard.

These commands tell git to set the remote repository for your project and need to be executed from within your project directory. The first line has the form:

git remote add origin https://github.com/ghuser/myproj.git

This indicates that you want to use the GitHub repository myproj belonging to the user ghuser as the remote for your local repository, using the HTTPS protocol¹.

The second line is required because, having set the remote, you need to perform an initial git push to push your local changes and set up your project to sync with the remote:

git push -u origin master

Once you’ve run these commands, visit the GitHub page for your remote repository to confirm that the project has been uploaded.

Next: Subsequent workflow

¹There are two alternative methods for connecting to a remote, HTTPS and ssh. See the GitHub help pages for more information.