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EGit pop-up window

What is the 

HEAD
master [branch]

?

What should I choose for the "Source ref" and "Destination ref", respectively?

qazwsx
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2 Answers2

11

You see this screen in Egit Push URI documentation:

Push Ref Specification

That is where you define the refspecs:

A "refspec" is used by fetch and push operations to describe the mapping between remote Ref and local Ref.
Semantically they define how local branches or tags are mapped to branches or tags in a remote repository.
In native git they are combined with a colon in the format <src>:<dst>, preceded by an optional plus sign, + to denote forced update.
In EGit they can be displayed and also edited in tabular form in the Push Ref Specification and the Fetch Ref Specification and other dialogs.

The "left-hand" side of a RefSpec is called source and the "right-hand" side is called destination.
Depending on whether the RefSpec is used for fetch or for push, the semantics of source and destination differ:
For a Push RefSpec, the source denotes a Ref in the source Repository and the destination denotes a Ref in the target Repository.

Push Refspecs

A typical example for a Push RefSpec could be

HEAD:refs/heads/master

This means that the currently checked out branch (as signified by the HEAD Reference, see Git References) will be pushed into the master branch of the remote repository.

VonC
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    So, what should I select? – Rauli Rajande Jun 08 '14 at 21:08
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    @RauliRajande one of the predefined refspecs if you want to push everything, or (if you want to push only your branch) '`HEAD`' for source, and '`refs/head/yourBranch`' for destination (or '`yourBranch`' directly in the destination dropbox field) – VonC Jun 08 '14 at 21:15
8

I think you should probably check out a learning guide to understand the terminology of git. Maybe look at this site: http://gitready.com/

master is the default branch of the repo. Usually you consider this your "always working" production branch. Other work can be done in other branches and then merged into the master. "HEAD" is just the most recent changes regardless. In your case here, you would probably push to master (until you figure out branching).

In a nutshell, while you are learning git, stay on the master branch, and track the remote master branch, and push and pull from the master branch. You will soon discover a ton more amazing features of git as you go.

jdi
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