Search code examples
gitrepository

Push local repo into an existing remote repo as a branch

I have a scenario similar to what is asked in this question: Push local new Git repo to existing remote repo as branch?

The scenario is: I have a local repo A which I want to push to a remote repo B as a new branch. I do not want to merge, per se, but only create a new branch in the remote repo without losing history of repo A. Local repo A only has one branch called main.

The scenario looks as:

Local Repo A

Remote Repo B

Desired Result: Remote Repo B has branch named A

But the answer to this question (Push local new Git repo to existing remote repo as branch?) doesn't explain how to switch paths between repo A and repo B when executing the push.

I found another solution: How do you merge two Git repositories? (which has detailed steps listed in the answers) but I do not want to create a sub-directory but rather a branch from the local repo. I am thinking that there is some step that is missing from the following to make the repo A as a branch:

cd path/to/Repo-B
git remote add Repo-A /path/to/Repo-A
git fetch Repo-A --tags
git merge --allow-unrelated-histories Repo-A/master 
git remote remove Repo-A

Is there some way I can accomplish moving local repo to remote repo as a new branch and not lose any history?

Solution

  • whether I execute the push while being present in repo A

    Yes. You cannot push without being in repo A. There're two (rather similar) ways. 1st, you can manually cd into required directory:

    cd /path/to/A
git push

    Or you can tell git to do this:

    git -C /path/to/A push

    how do I tell git where repo B is?

    Example setup: local repo A with the single branch master. Remote repo B with URL http://host/user/repos/B. You want to push master from A to B as branch A. Again, there're two similar ways. 1st, you can push directly to the URL:

    git -C /path/to/A push http://host/user/repos/B master:A

    (master:A means "push local branch master to remote branch A"). If you gonna push only once this is the simplest way.

    Or you can add a short alias (called "remote") and can use the alias to push many times:

    cd /path/to/A
git remote add B http://host/user/repos/B
git push B master:A # <- push master:A to remote B