Issue pushing to a GitHub repository created with "Initialize repo with a README" option

git, github

Solution

The errors are saying that your repo has changes that you don't have yet, because you added the `README` to the remote one when you set it up. If you've already got local changes or a local repo, you need to initialise an empty repository on Github, and then you can push. You'll have to add the remote though, something like `git remote add https://github.com/username/repo.git`.

Downloading the README manually and adding and committing will probably produce a different commit ID, and put it at a different point in the commit history, which is why it's not detected as the same one.

1) Why does it not work to initialize a remote repository on github with a README, and then try to connect the github repo with a previously existing existing local repo?

When Github adds the README it commits it, and then this is the first commit. If you have a local repo, the first commit locally will be different, so they won't match up.

2) Why could I not pull when I tried to fix this error?

Probably because of the above, or the `remote` reference didn't add in properly, depending on how you added it.

Generally, if you're creating locally first, you would go:

# Set up the Git repo locally, with no commits in it.
git init   
# Add a new file.
git add file1
# Commit the change.
git commit
# Tell Git where your remote is.
git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git 
# Push the default 'master' branch to the above remote called 'origin'.
git push origin master 

Or if it already exists on Github or a different remote server:

# Download the existing repo, with all of the history.
git clone https://bitbucket.org/user/repo.git
# Add a new file or modified file.
git add file1
# Commit the change.
git commit
# Push to the remote that you downloaded from with clone on branch master.
git push origin master

3) Why could I still not push and initialize the connection to my github remote after I added the README from github to my local repository manually?

That's not how the changes work with Git; they're a big list of sequential commits in a chain. Each commit has one or two parent commits, and the commit IDs aren't sequential either.

See the Git website for some diagrams on the branching and commits here: http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Branching-What-a-Branch-Is

4) How do I create a github repo with an initialized README and connect it to a local repo WITHOUT causing the errors below?

If you have an existing local repo you shouldn't create one with the initialised README. If it's blank on Github when you create it, you can push up your existing repository with no errors. If it has the README, you have to `git clone` the Github repo, and then add your changes to that folder, commit the changes, and then push. Adding the README is for when you have a new project and you're creating the Github repo first, and then you clone the project and start working in that location. If you have an existing repository locally don't use that option.

Problem

Original source

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