warning: push.default is unset;

git push warning questions

This warning was introduced in Git 1.7.11 along with the

simple

style of pushing. The issue is that the current default,

matching

, can result in inexperienced users force pushing when some branches are behind their remote equivalent because the branches simply aren't up-to-date. The end result is that they end up rewinding the branch and potentially losing their work or someone else's. The

simple

mode was introduced as a new

push.default

behavior and will become the default in Git 2.0 (which should hopefully be out sometime early next year).

The new

simple

behavior is a lot like the

upstream

setting: it only pushes the current branch that you're currently on, if it has a remote branch that it's tracking. It adds one extra criteria: the remote branch must have the same name as the local one.

As you discovered, the way to get rid of the message is to set

push.default

. To get the new behavior, use:

git config --global push.default simple

To get Git's default behavior but without the warning message, use:

git config --global push.default matching

I'd really advise against using matching though. In general, most people really want the new

simple

behavior, or

upstream

.