What's this question mark next to the branch name?

[WinnerWind]

Just set up a new repo via SSH on github. I have decided to do the git setup in lazygit itself.

I found this discussion which wasn't helpful due to the repo being set up in Lazygit itself.

[stefanhaller]

due to the repo being set up in Lazygit itself

Can you describe in more detail how you did that?

The question mark is displayed in the same spot that usually shows either a green ✓ or a yellow ↓3↑5 to indicate whether the branch is up to date with its upstream, or diverged from it. It shows a question mark instead if the remote that this branch is tracking is not stored locally; in other words, if the git config branch.main.remote is set to a URL rather than just a remote name. Did you do that on purpose?

[WinnerWind]

Alright.

So, what I did was I ran lazygit in a non git folder, and told it to initialize the repo.
Once the repo was initialized on branch main, I made a commit and attempted to push it. Naturally this failed because a remote was not set. I set origin main to my_repo_ssh main, where my_repo_ssh is the push link for my github repository.

This is all I did, and after the push finished, I saw the question mark.

[stefanhaller]

Ok, that explains it. I wasn't actually aware that lazygit allows setting a branch's upstream to a URL, but sure, that works.

The recommended way to do this is to go to the remotes tab, press n to create a new 'origin' remote there, and then change the upsteam of main to a branch in that remote.

[WinnerWind]

But N brings up the New Branch tab. And, I can't name the branch main because it's already taken. Are you saying that I should make a new branch, make its name something else, then set its upstream to a branch in remote?

[stefanhaller]

But N brings up the New Branch tab.

No, that's in the Branches tab. I was talking about the Remotes tab. You get to it by pressing ] when you are in the Branches tab, or by clicking on the "Remotes" tab title.

And, I can't name the branch main because it's already taken. Are you saying that I should make a new branch,

No, I recommend to change the upstream of your existing main branch. After you created the origin remote, select main in the Branches tab and press u s to set the upstream. Pick origin main in the prompt that appears.

[WinnerWind]

I didn't know that these were tabs, and it worked. I switched tabs and set the name to origin and the URL to my SSH url and it worked.

Thanks!