Git syncing works the same way the rest of Git works; through a series of commands. Git’s distributed collaboration model gives every developer their own copy of the repository, complete with its own local history and branch structure.
How Does the Git Remote Command Work?
The git remote command actually works as one piece of a much broader system that is responsible for Git syncing. Records that are registered through the git remote command are used in conjunction with the git fetch, git push, and git pull commands.
Let’s take a quick look at Git syncing and how it actually works using the git remote command.
How to Run the Git Remote Command for Git Syncing
Understand Git Remote
The git remote command allows you to create, view, and delete connections to other Git repositories. This means that remote connections are more like bookmarks rather than direct links to other repositories.
Instead of providing you real-time access to another repository, they serve as convenient, or easy to read names, that can be used to reference a not so convenient, or not so easy to read, URL. You can see some synchronizing changes command examples below.
Learn Git Remote Usage
Basically, the git remote command is used as an interface for managing a list of remote entries that are stored in the repository’s ./.git/config file. To view some git remote configurations you would use the following command lines:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]git remote[/ht_message]
This command will list the remote connections you have in other repositories.
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]git remote -v[/ht_message]
This command is the same as the first git remote command, except that it will include a URL of each connection.
Git is specifically designed to give each developer a stand-alone, or isolated, environment. What this means is that information is not automatically passed back and forth between repositories.
Instead, developers have to manually pull upstream commits into their local, or stand-alone, repository, or manually push their local commits back up to the central repository. So essentially, the git remote command is just an easier way to pass URLs to these “sharing” commands.
Synchronize Changes
Some commands to register a remote (URL) and exchange repository history.
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]$ git fetch [remote][/ht_message]
This command downloads all history from the remote repository.
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]$ git merge [remote]/[branch][/ht_message]
This command combines the remote branch into the current local branch.
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]$ git push [remote] [branch][/ht_message]
This command uploads all local branch commits to GitHub.
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]$ git pull[/ht_message]
This command downloads bookmark history and incorporates changes.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to use Git properly can be a real undertaking. However, just like anything else, if it is important enough to you, then a little time and patience go a long way. Once you learn how to properly use the system, then functions like Git syncing and all other Got commands and features will start to fall in place.
A great way to start learning Git is to learn 20 of the most popular commands available. Then work down from there.