git remote confusion

ivan@tremuloides:05:25 PM:www2> git pull
You asked me to pull without telling me which branch you
want to merge with, and 'branch.master.merge' in
your configuration file does not tell me either.	Please
specify which branch you want to merge on the command line and
try again (e.g. 'git pull <repository> <refspec>').
See git-pull(1) for details.

If you often merge with the same branch, you may want to
configure the following variables in your configuration
file:

    branch.master.remote = <nickname>
    branch.master.merge = <remote-ref>
    remote.<nickname>.url = <url>
    remote.<nickname>.fetch = <refspec>

See git-config(1) for details.
ivan@tremuloides:05:26 PM:www2> git branch
* master
ivan@tremuloides:05:27 PM:www2> git remote
origin
ivan@tremuloides:05:27 PM:www2> mate .git/config

make sure it has a section that looks like this:

[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master

mine was missing the two lines below [branch "master"]

save the file, and try it again:
ivan@tremuloides:05:31 PM:www2> git pull
Updating bc33550..2e13691
Checking out files: 100% (44/44), done.
Fast forward
 app/controllers/green_hosting_store_controller.rb  |    1 +
etc....