Git配置文件中branch.<branchName>相关字段首次填充时机及推拉命令影响问询

Let's break this down clearly based on Git's default behavior, excluding manual config edits or explicit tracking setup commands like git branch -u as you requested.

When Git Automatically Fills These Fields #

Git only adds these two config entries automatically in a couple of specific scenarios:

• During repository cloning: When you run git clone <repo-url>, Git creates a local branch matching the remote's default branch (usually main or master) and sets it to track that remote branch. This is when the branch.<default-branch>.remote (set to origin) and branch.<default-branch>.merge (set to refs/heads/<default-branch>) fields are first populated in your config.
• Checking out a remote branch without a local counterpart: If you run git checkout origin/my-feature or git switch origin/my-feature (available in Git 2.23+), Git will automatically create a local my-feature branch and set it to track origin/my-feature. This action quietly adds the branch.my-feature.remote and branch.my-feature.merge config fields behind the scenes.

Do git push or git pull Modify These Fields? #

Short answer: No, not when using the commands without extra flags.

• git pull: This command relies on the existing remote and merge config values to know which remote branch to fetch and merge into your local branch. It reads these settings but never modifies them.
• git push: By default, this pushes your local branch to the remote branch defined by the remote and merge fields. The only time git push touches these config entries is if you use the --set-upstream (or -u) flag (e.g., git push -u origin my-feature), which explicitly sets up tracking. Since you asked to ignore explicit tracking setup commands, a standard git push without -u won't alter these fields at all.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Number945