i have several git repositories set up and everytime i setup a new one and i do the first commit and push, this command fails git push origin master and i get some error about how it failed to push some refs.
----@--------- /c/git/repo/---- (master)
$ git push origin master
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
To -----------------------------
! [rejected] master -> master (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/-----/----.git'
To prevent you from losing history, non-fast-forward updates were rejected
Merge the remote changes (e.g. 'git pull') before pushing again. See the
'Note about fast-forwards' section of 'git push --help' for details.
however if i do a git push --force origin master it works, why is that and why do i have to do it everytime?
This error...
! [rejected] master -> master (non-fast-forward)
...means that the remote repository has changes that are not yet in your repository. If you are creating a repository on GitHub, it's possible to create a non-empty repository if you ask GitHub to pre-populate your repository with a .gitignore or README file.
In any case, when you see this error, rather than using --force (which will overwrite any changes in the remote repository), you should probably just run:
git pull
This will bring down any changes and merge them into your local repository, at which point a git push should work just fine.
You can also clone the remote repository to another directory and inspect it's contents if you're not sure what's there.