git checkout tag, git pull fails in branch

I have cloned a git repository and then checked out a tag:

# git checkout 2.4.33 -b my_branch

This is OK, but when I try to run git pull in my branch, git spits out this error:

> There is no tracking information for the current branch. Please > specify which branch you want to merge with. See git-pull(1) for > details > > git pull > > If you wish to set tracking information for this branch you can do so > with: > > git branch --set-upstream new origin/

I want git pull to only update the master branch and leave my current branch alone (it's a tag anyway). Is something like this possible?

The reason I need this is that I have a automatic script which always git pulls the repository and of course fails because of the error above..

Edit: For newer versions of Git, --set-upstream master has been deprecated, you should use --set-upstream-to instead:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master master

---

As it prompted, you can just run:

git branch --set-upstream master origin/master

After that, you can simply run git pull to update your code.

I had the same problem and fixed it with this command:

$ git push -u origin master

From the help file the -u basically sets the default for pulls:

-u, --set-upstream`

  For every branch that is up to date or successfully pushed, add 
  upstream (tracking) reference, used by argument-less git-pull(1) and
  other commands. For more information, see branch.<name>.merge in 
  git-config(1).

Try these commands:

git pull origin master
git push -u origin master

Switch back to the master branch using

$ git checkout master

and then run the git pull operation

$ git pull origin/master

Afterwards, you can switch back to your my_branch again.

@alesko : it is not possible to only do only git pull after checkout my_branch to update master branch only.
Because git pull will also merge to the current branch -> in your scenario to the my_branch

@Simon: that will do also the push. why is that?

$ git branch -u origin/master
Branch master set up to track remote branch master from origin.

and acording to docs:

-u <upstream>
  Set up <branchname>'s tracking information so <upstream> is considered  
  <branchname>'s upstream branch. If no <branchname> is specified,  
  then it defaults to the current branch.

First, make sure you are on the right branch.
Then (one time only):

git branch --track

After that this works again:

git pull

You might have multiple branch. And your current branch didn't set its upstream in remote.

Steps to fix this:

git checkout branch_name
git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/remote_branch_name local_branch_name

e.g.

// this set upstream of local branch develop to remote branch  origin/develop,
git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/develop develop

After doing this, when you do git pull, it pull from specified branch.

You could specify what branch you want to pull:

git pull origin master

Or you could set it up so that your local master branch tracks github master branch as an upstream:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master master
git pull

This branch tracking is set up for you automatically when you clone a repository (for the default branch only), but if you add a remote to an existing repository you have to set up the tracking yourself. Thankfully, the advice given by git makes that pretty easy to remember how to do.

--set-upstream is deprecated in git 1.9.x, apparently. Going forward you'd want to use something like

git branch -u origin/master

assuming you've checked out master already. If not, git branch -u origin/master master will work

If like me you need to do this all the time, you can set up an alias to do it automatically by adding the following to your .gitconfig file:

[alias]
    set-upstream = !git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/`git symbolic-ref --short HEAD`

When you see the message There is no tracking information..., just run git set-upstream, then git push again.

Thanks to https://zarino.co.uk/post/git-set-upstream/

Try this

git checkout master

git pull origin master

You need to set up your tracking (upstream) for the current branch

git branch --set-upstream master origin/master

Is already deprecated instead of that you can use --track flag

git branch --track master origin/master

I also like the doc reference that @casey notice:

-u <upstream>
  Set up <branchname>'s tracking information so <upstream> is considered  
  <branchname>'s upstream branch. If no <branchname> is specified,  
  then it defaults to the current branch.

What worked for me was: git branch --set-upstream-to=origin master When I did a pull again I only got the updates from master and the warning went away.

In order to just download updates:

git fetch origin master

However, this just updates a reference called origin/master. The best way to update your local master would be the checkout/merge mentioned in another comment. If you can guarantee that your local master has not diverged from the main trunk that origin/master is on, you could use git update-ref to map your current master to the new point, but that's probably not the best solution to be using on a regular basis...

This command is deprecated: git branch --set-upstream master origin/master

So, when trying to set up tracking, this is the command that worked for me:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master master