Pushing changes

Your commits live on your machine until you push them. Pushing uploads the commits from your local branch to the matching branch on the remote, so GitHub - and anyone else

• can see them.

What pushing actually does

A push sends any commits you have that the remote doesn't, and moves the remote's branch forward to match yours. It does not push uncommitted changes or staged files - only finished commits. So the usual rhythm is: stage, commit, then push.

git add .
git commit -m "Add login form"
git push

If your branch is already connected to the remote, plain git push is all you need. Setting up that connection is the one extra step the first time.

The first push: git push -u origin main

The very first time you push a new branch, Git doesn't yet know which remote branch it belongs to. You tell it once:

git push -u origin main

Read it as: "push my main branch to the remote called origin, and remember this pairing". Breaking it down:

• origin is the remote (from the previous lessons).
• main is the branch you're pushing.
• -u (short for --set-upstream) records that your local main tracks origin/main. This link is called the upstream branch.

After this, Git knows where main goes. From now on you can just run:

git push

and Git pushes main to origin/main without you spelling it out. You only need the -u form once per new branch.

One thing that surprises people: a push is per-branch. git push sends the branch you're currently on, not everything you've committed everywhere. Switch to a feature branch you made in the branching chapter and it sits unpushed until you check it out and push it too. That's usually what you want, but it explains why a branch you "finished" is missing from GitHub - you pushed main, not it.

Checking before you push

git status tells you whether you have commits waiting to go up:

Your branch is ahead of 'origin/main' by 2 commits.
  (use "git push" to publish your local commits)

"Ahead by 2 commits" means you have two local commits the remote doesn't. After a successful push, status goes back to "up to date".

Common mistake

Beginners often expect their files to appear on GitHub the moment they save them, or right after git add. They won't. GitHub only ever shows committed work that has been pushed. If you don't see a change online, check two things: did you commit it (git status), and did you push (git status again, looking for "ahead of origin").

FAQ

Do I have to push after every commit?

No. Commit as often as you like locally; push when you want to back up or share. Many people push once they've finished a small unit of work, not after every single commit.

What does -u do exactly?

It sets the upstream branch - the remote branch your local branch is paired with. Once set, git push and git pull know where to go without arguments. You need it only on the first push of a new branch.

My push was rejected. What now?

That usually means the remote has commits you don't have locally, so Git stops to avoid losing them. You pull first, then push. The next lesson, fetching and pulling, covers exactly that.