Git Remote URLs

When collaborating on projects with Git, it's crucial to understand the remote repositories associated with your local repository. Git provides a simple yet powerful command to show remote URLs—the git remote -v command. We'll explore various ways to use this command, helping you gain insights into the remote configurations of your Git repositories.

1. Displaying Remote URLs:

The basic usage of git remote -v is to display the URLs of all remote repositories associated with your local repository. Execute the following command in your terminal:

bash
git remote -v

This will show the fetch and push URLs for each remote repository.

2. Viewing Specific Remote URL:

If you are interested in the URL of a specific remote (e.g., origin), you can specify the remote name:

bash
git remote -v show origin

Replace origin with the name of the remote you want to inspect.

3. Displaying Fetch URL Only:

If you are only interested in the fetch URL and not the push URL, you can use the following command:

bash
git remote get-url --all origin

Replace origin with the name of your remote.

4. Displaying Push URL Only:

Conversely, if you want to see only the push URL and not the fetch URL, you can use:

bash
git remote get-url --push origin

Again, replace origin with the name of your remote.

5. Displaying Remote URLs Without Fetching:

By default, git remote -v fetches the remote information before displaying it. If you want to skip fetching and see the cached information, use:

bash
git remote -v --dry-run

This can be useful if you want to avoid unnecessary network activity.

6. Using git config for Remote URLs:

Underneath, Git stores remote URLs in the configuration. You can use git config to directly inspect these values:

bash
git config --get remote.origin.url

Replace origin with your remote's name.

7. Changing Remote URLs:

If you need to update a remote URL, you can use the git remote set-url command: 

bash
git remote set-url origin new-url.git

Replace origin with your remote's name and new-url.git with the updated URL.

8. Adding a New Remote:

To add a new remote and specify its URL in one go, you can use:

bash
git remote add upstream https://github.com/upstream/repo.git

Replace upstream with the desired remote name and provide the URL.

9. Removing Remote:

If you no longer need a remote, you can remove it using:

bash
git remote remove upstream

Replace upstream with the name of the remote you want to remove.

10. Viewing Remote URLs Verbosely:

For a more detailed view of remote URLs along with additional information like fetch refspecs, use:

bash
git remote show origin

Replace origin with your remote's name.

11. Viewing Remote URLs in a Specific Format:

You can format the output of git remote -v using the --format option. For example, to display only the fetch URL:

bash
git remote -v --format='%(fetch:url)'
12. Viewing Remote URL with Git Configuration:

You can directly view the remote URL using git config and formatting options: 

bash
git config --get-regexp '^remote\.origin\.url'

Replace origin with your remote's name.