Quick tip: git push origin hamster?

Dec 24, 2015 by David Farrell

My typing is horrible. I make mistakes all the time. I’m an avid Vim user but I still use the arrow keys. I’m one of those people who need technology that does what they meant, not what they asked for. So if you’re a coder like me, you probably see this a lot:

$ git push origin amster
error: src refspec amster does not match any.

Fortunately there is a simple workaround: Git’s symbolic references. I can add a symbolic reference for amster:

$ git symbolic-ref refs/heads/amster refs/heads/master

And now Git does what I meant:

$ git push origin amster
Counting objects: 3, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 695 bytes | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 3 (delta 2), reused 0 (delta 0)
To git@github.com:user/SomeProject.git
   ec208c7..fb0cb8f  amster -> master

Because it’s a symbolic reference, anytime I mean to type master but actually type amster, Git will do the right thing. Try it!

This article was originally posted on PerlTricks.com.