7. Remote Repositories

# View remotes
git remote -v

# Add / rename / remove
git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git
git remote rename origin upstream
git remote remove old-remote

# Push
git push origin main                  # push main to origin
git push -u origin feature/login      # push + set upstream tracking
git push                              # push to tracked remote (after -u)
git push origin --delete feature/old  # delete remote branch

# Fetch & pull
git fetch origin                      # download changes, don't merge
git fetch --all                       # fetch all remotes

git pull                              # fetch + merge (or rebase if configured)
git pull origin main                  # explicit
git pull --rebase                     # fetch + rebase (cleaner history)

# Track remote branches
git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/main main

Fetch vs Pull

Command	What happens
git fetch	Downloads remote changes into origin/branch. Your local branch is untouched. You review before merging.
git pull	fetch + merge (or rebase). Automatic. Less control.

Best practice: use fetch + manual merge/rebase on shared branches.

Useful remote inspection

git log origin/main..HEAD        # local commits not yet pushed
git diff origin/main             # diff between remote and local
git branch -r                    # list remote branches

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