How Can I Have Two Main Branches Pointing To Different Repos?

Table of contents

• 1. Clone the First Repository
• 2. Create a Second Main Branch
• 3. Add a Second Remote
• 4. Push the Branches to Different Repositories
• 5. Working with Different Repositories
• Conclusion

In this article, I will guide you through setting up your codebase to push to the main branch of two different repositories. This isn’t something most people usually need to do, but here I am, working on a codebase where I have a base code repository. Other repos branch out from this base, each with its own changes, and I need to sync them up from time to time.

1. Clone the First Repository

First, clone the primary repository that will be linked to your first main branch (usually called main):

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01: git clone https://github.com/yourusername/my-repo.git
02: cd my-repo

2. Create a Second Main Branch

Now, create a new branch for the second repository:

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$ git checkout -b client-main

This gives you two branches: main for your base repo and client-main for the client’s repo.

3. Add a Second Remote

Next, add the client’s remote repository so you can push changes there.

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$ git remote add client-repo https://github.com/clientsusername/client-repo.git

At this point, you have two remotes: origin (which points to your base repo) and client-repo (which points to the client’s repo).

4. Push the Branches to Different Repositories

First, push the main branch to your base repository:

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01: git checkout main
02: git push --set-upstream origin main

Then, switch to the client-main branch and push it to the client’s repository:

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01: git checkout client-main
02: git push --set-upstream client-repo client-main

5. Working with Different Repositories

Now, when I make changes on the main branch, I can push them to my own repository (origin). When I work on the client-main branch, I can push those changes to the client’s repository (client-repo):

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01: # My repository
02: git checkout main
03: git add .
04: git commit -m "Base repo updates"
05: git push origin main
06: 
07: # Client's repository
08: git checkout client-main
09: git add .
10: git commit -m "Client-specific updates"
11: git push client-repo client-main

Conclusion

By setting up two main branches with different remotes, I can manage changes between similar codebases with different needs. This setup allows me to work from a single codebase but sync changes between multiple repositories when necessary.

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