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1. View current remotes

Run the command:

git remote -v

This should show that you have one remote, something like:

origin  git@github.com:<your_github_username>/git-tutorial.git (fetch)
origin  git@github.com:<your_github_username>/git-tutorial.git (push)

2. Add project as a new remote

git remote add project git@github.com:CynderTech/git-tutorial.git

Donal says: There's nothing special about the "origin" name (or the "project" name) for a remote. "origin" is the default value.

Now run the command:

git remote -v

This should show that you now have two remotes, something like:

origin  git@github.com:<your_github_username>/git-tutorial.git (fetch)
origin  git@github.com:<your_github_username>/git-tutorial.git (push)
project git@github.com:CynderTech/git-tutorial.git (fetch)
project git@github.com:CynderTech/git-tutorial.git (push)

Donal asks: What will happen if you try to push to the project remote?

3. Get changes from project remote

Assuming there have been new commits on the project remote, get them:

git fetch project

This has pulled the changes down but it hasn't applied them.

4. View all branches

It's worth having a look at all the branches your local repository knows about:

git branch -a

Now you can see the branches on your remotes.

Donal says: These remote branches are pointers to the commit on the remote (the commit has also been pulled down to your local repository) and they can't be modified locally.

5. Compare the changes

git diff master..project/master

Donal says: This git diff specifies a range, in this case it's the difference between two branches.

You can also run:

git diff --name-only master..project/master

To see only the names of files that are different.

6. Merge the changes

Finally you can merge the changes into your master branch.

git checkout master
git merge project/master

And at this point there shouldn't be a conflict.

Donal says: You might want to merge these changes from master into your feature branch. This would be typical of a long lived branch which you need to keep up-to-date.

7. Push the changes to your origin remote

The changes from the project remote are now in your local repository, but they're not yet in your origin (ie. GitHub) remote. So run:

git push origin master

8. git pull

The git pull command combines the git fetch and git merge commands into one. While this may seem like a useful shortcut, in practice it can cause problems so it's strongly recommended to avoid using it.