How to push to a non-bare Git repository?

Question

I usually work on a remote server via ssh (screen and vim), where I have a Git repository. Sometimes I'm not online, so I have a separate repository (cloned from my remote) on my laptop.

However, I can't pull from this repository on remote side because I'm usually behind a firewall or I don't have a public IP.

I've read that I should push just to a bare repository. How should I then push my changes to my remote repository?

Answer 1

receive.denyCurrentBranch updateInstead

This options was added in Git 2.3, and it makes the server update its working tree if it is clean.

So if you ensure that you always commit before you pull locally, and keep a clean working tree on the server (which you should do to avoid having merge conflicts), then this option is a good solution.

Sample usage:

git init server
cd server
touch a
git add .
git commit -m 0
git config --local receive.denyCurrentBranch updateInstead

cd ..
git clone server local
cd local
touch b
git add .
git commit -m 1
git push origin master:master

cd ../server
ls

Output:

a
b