Github's nightmare - need some help here

[piernas]

I'm new to github. Forked the responsive oscommerce build and started doing things.

 

But when the main repository changes and I update my master fork, I always get a message saying This branch is 1 commit ahead of gburton:master. Even when It's up-to date and I didn't change anything.

 

When I see the latest commits the last one is named Merge remote-tracking branch 'refs/remotes/gburton/master'. It contains the latest changes to my repository from the main one.

 

That's fine. But when I make some changes and try to create a pull request to the main repository with changes I've made, that commit is included even when it doesn't contain any files. Why????????

 

If I go to a 'sub-branch', update it and open a pull request it add the commit mentioned with changed files. Weird or not??

 

I managed to get rid of this message a couple of days ago, after hours of reading. Pushed something ok. But today the main repo has been updated again and after fighting with git command line the only thing I did is getting five more commits instead of just one, so I now have a nice This branch is 6 commits ahead of gburton:master!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! even when it's updated.

 

Is there any way of avoiding this? I mean ressteing the main branch...

 

Damn github... Isn't it supposed to help? :(

[Dan Cole]

@@piernas  I don't know if it will help or not but you might want to try using something like SourceTree to manage your connections with GitHub...

 

https://www.atlassian.com/software/sourcetree/overview/

 

Dan

[piernas]

@@Dan Cole I'm using github desktop but it's very basic and most things must be done in the commandline. Will try sourcetree.

Anyway a "reset branch to source repository" command must exist, but I couldn't find it... yet.

[♥bruyndoncx]

git rebase perhaps what you are looking for ?

I'm no expert, so read a little about this first to make sure ...

[piernas]

@@bruyndoncx tried rebase and other commands. I ended up with 8 commits ahead, with no file changes.
 

git status tells me "Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'... So then why it's 8 commits ahead? I don't catch the concept.

 

My branch will be always several commits ahead origin/master because it adds a commit every time I update with the master changes. Is it the normal behavior?

 

Its really confusing. :(

[tgely]

Yes and finaly you should push the new commits into your github repo.

Here is a great instruction: http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/397703-github-development-workflow/

[♥altoid]

@@piernas  In Github my branch shows this:

 

This branch is 36 commits ahead of gburton:master.

 

I believe that is because every time I do a merge pull request to keep my fork up with the Gary's primary repo, I makes a commit to my fork.  That's how I understand it anyway,

 

Regarding @@Dan Cole suggestion using Sourcetree.

 

Do that.

 

It's well worth the time.

[piernas]

@@altoid I'll give it a try. It's good seeing I'm not the only one with that issue. But it seems odd to have empty commits with merge pull requests when you push something into the main branch.

 

@@Gergely Thanks for the link.

[piernas]

Finally solved!!! Thanks to @@BrockleyJohn, you are the man!

 

The sollution is here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29049650/github-fork-your-branch-is-5-commits-ahead-how-to-clean-this-without-pushing

git checkout mastergit checkout -b mybranchgit remote add upstream /url/original/repogit fetch upstream# reset master to upstream/mastergit checkout mastergit reset --hard upstream/mastergit push --force  y--y--y (mybranch) /z--z--z   (master, upstream/master, origin/master)# replay the patches (even they are rejected for now) on top of mastergit checkout mybranchgit rebase mastergit push -u origin mybranch

Just had a problem with

git push -u origin mybranch

I had to first do:

git push --force

 

Because I had a rejected message with the previous commmand.

 

Now my repository does not show those ugly pull request (w00t)

[piernas]

Another useful tip:

 

To squash i.e. four commits into one, do the following:

$ git rebase -i HEAD~4$ gut push -f

Magic :-D

[BrockleyJohn]

I'm glad that helped. To save others digging through all that, the important bit is

# reset master to upstream/master
git checkout master
git reset --hard upstream/master
git push --force

If your local repo has a remote for Gary's called something different than upstream, then it needs a different name above. You can check remotes with git remote -v

 

All the rest is only needed if you accidentally committed some development into your master branch and you want to save it to a development branch instead of just trashing it.