On Tue, Dec 23, 2025 at 3:36 AM Harald Nordgren
[off-list ref] wrote:

Once the users runs that suggested command

        git push --set-upstream origin ahead_of_main_status__tmp2

then the 'branch.<name>.merge' and 'branch.<name>.remote' no longer hold the reference to "upstream/HEAD".

Right.

And, as Junio noted, to:

quoted

learn the other, the destination of a push of this branch, would
involve poking at remote.pushdefault, branch.<name>.pushRemote,
branch.<name>.remote to find out which remote repository it goes,
and then remote.<remote>.push to find out where this branch goes,

That is, there are some separate configuration items that can change
where `git push` goes.

Using `git push --set-upstream` sets ones that affect `git pull`, `git status`,
and `git push`, but it's possible to set ones that affect only `git push`.

That still leaves `git status` with the problem you (Harald) have observed,
so perhaps the path forward is to have `git status` check things like
branch.<name>.pushRemote to see if they exist and differ from
branch.<name>.remote.

Chris