Git fetch remote branch

Question

My colleague and I are working on the same repository we've branched it into two branches each technically for different projects, but they have similarities so we'll sometimes want to commit back to the *master from the branch.

However, I have the branch. My question is, how can my colleague pull that branch specifically?

A git clone of the repo does not seem to create the branches locally for him, though I can see them live on unfuddle after a push on my end.

Also, when I originally made the branch I did -b checkout. Not sure if that makes much difference?

$ git branch -r
origin/HEAD -> origin/master
origin/daves_branch
origin/discover
origin/master

$ git fetch origin discover
$ git checkout discover

These are the commands I ran. But it definitely is not working.

I want to be able to check out that branch and then push and commit back just the branches changes from various collaborators or workstations.

Answer 1

You need to create a local branch that tracks a remote branch. The following command will create a local branch named daves_branch, tracking the remote branch origin/daves_branch. When you push your changes the remote branch will be updated.

For most recent versions of git:

git checkout --track origin/daves_branch

--track is shorthand for git checkout -b [branch] [remotename]/[branch] where [remotename] is origin in this case and [branch] is twice the same, daves_branch in this case.

For git 1.5.6.5 you needed this:

git checkout --track -b daves_branch origin/daves_branch

For git 1.7.2.3 and higher this is enough (might have started earlier but this is the earliest confirmation I could find quickly):

git checkout daves_branch

Note that with recent git versions, this command will not create a local branch and will put you in a 'detached HEAD' state. If you want a local branch, use the --track option. Full details here: http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Remote-Branches#Tracking-Branches

Answer 2

I have used fetch followed by checkout...

git fetch <remote> <rbranch>:<lbranch> 
git checkout <lbranch>

...where <rbranch> is the remote branch or source ref and <lbranch> is the as yet non-existent local branch or destination ref you want to track and which you probably want to name the same as the remote branch or source ref. This is explained under options in the explanation of <refspec>.

Git is so smart it auto completes the first command if I tab after the first few letters of the remote branch. IE: I don't even have to name the local branch, Git automatically copies the name of the remote branch for me. Thanks Git!

Also as the answer in this similar SO post shows, if you don't name the local branch in fetch, you can still create it when you check it out by using the -b flag. IE: git fetch <remote> <branch> followed by git checkout -b <branch> <remote>/<branch> does exactly the same as my initial answer. And evidently if your repo has only one remote, then you can just do git checkout <branch> after fetch and it will create a local branch for you. EG: You just cloned a repo and want to check out additional branches from the remote.

I believe that some of the documentation for fetch may have been copied verbatim from pull. In particular the section on <refspec> in options is the same. However, I do not believe that fetch will ever merge, so that if you leave the destination side of the colon empty fetch should do nothing.

NOTE: That git fetch <remote> <refspec> is short for git fetch <remote> <refspec>: which would therefore do nothing, but git fetch <remote> <tag> is the same as git fetch <remote> <tag>:<tag> which should copy the remote <tag> locally.

I guess this is only helpful if you want to copy a remote branch locally, but not necessarily check it out right away. Otherwise I now would use the accepted answer above, which is explained in detail in the first section of the checkout description and later in the options section under the explanation of --track, since it's a 1-liner. Well... sort of a 1-liner, because you would still have to run git fetch <remote> first.

FYI: The order of the <refspecs> (source:destination) explains the bizarre pre Git-1.7 method for deleting remote branches. IE: Push nothing into the destination refspec.

Answer 3

If you are trying to "checkout" a new remote branch (that exists only on the remote, but not locally), here's what you'll need:

git fetch origin
git checkout --track origin/<remote_branch_name>

This assumes you want to fetch from origin. If not, replace origin by your remote name.

Answer 4

To checkout myBranch that exists remotely and not a locally - This worked for me:

git fetch --all
git checkout myBranch

I got this message:

Branch myBranch set up to track remote branch myBranch from origin
Switched to a new branch 'myBranch'

Answer 5

Use git branch -a (both local and remote branches) or git branch -r (only remote branches) to see all the remotes and their branches. You can then do a git checkout -t remotes/repo/branch to the remote and create a local branch.

There is also a git ls-remote command to see all the refs and tags for that remote.

Answer 6

The title and the question are confused:

• Git fetch remote branch
• how can my colleague pull that branch specifically.

If the question is how can I get a remote branch to work with or how to git checkout a remote branch, a simpler solution is:

With git (>= 1.6.6) you are able to use:

git checkout <branch_name>

If local <branch_name> is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in exactly one remote with a matching name, treat as equivalent to:

git checkout -b <branch_name> --track <remote>/<branch_name>

see documentation for git checkout

For your friend:

$ git checkout discover
Branch discover set up to track remote branch discover
Switched to a new branch 'discover'

Answer 7

git checkout -b serverfix origin/serverfix

This is a common enough operation that git provides the --track shorthand:

git checkout --track origin/serverfix

In fact, this is so common that there’s even a shortcut for that shortcut. If the branch name you’re trying to checkout (a) doesn’t exist and (b) exactly matches a name on only one remote, Git will create a tracking branch for you:

git checkout serverfix

To set up a local branch with a different name than the remote branch, you can easily use the first version with a different local branch name:

git checkout -b sf origin/serverfix

Now, your local branch sf will automatically pull from origin/serverfix.

Source: Pro Git 2nd Edition, written by Scott Chacon and Ben Straub (cut for readability)

Answer 8

With this simple command:

git checkout -b 'your_branch' origin/'remote branch'

Answer 9

The easiest way to do it, at least for me:

git fetch origin <branchName>

Answer 10

What helped me was

1) To view all available remote branches (e.g. 'remote-branch-name')

git branch -r

2) Create a local branch using remote branch name

git fetch && git checkout 'remote-branch-name'

Answer 11

git fetch

git branch -r

git checkout <branch_name>

Answer 12

You can fetch and checkout the remote branch in one shot too:-

git fetch && git checkout the-branch-name

Answer 13

I typed

git checkout <branch_name>

and got

Branch <branch_name> set up to track remote branch <branch_name> from origin.
Switched to a new branch '<branch_name>'

Answer 14

To fetch a branch that exists on remote, the simplest way is:

git fetch origin
git checkout branchName

You can see if it already exists on remote with:

git branch -r

This will fetch the remote branch to your local and will automatically track the remote one.

Answer 15

At times you are asked not to fiddle with the master branch and work only the remote branch (as I was asked to). So all you need is the remote branch.

So to clone the remote branch alone (without the master), do this

git clone url --branch remote_branch_name

where, remote_branch_name is the name of the remote branch

For example,

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git --branch v3.15

This will make sure that you clone the remote branch to your local branch with the name of the remote branch.

Now if you commit your code and push, the code will be submitted to that branch alone.

Answer 16

git fetch --all & git checkout <branch name>

Answer 17

Let's say that your remote is git@xyz.git and you want its random_branch branch. The process should be as follows:

1. First check the list of your remotes by

   git remote -v

2. If you don't have the git@xyz.git remote in the above command's output, you would add it by

   git remote add xyz git@xyz.git

3. Now you can fetch the contents of that remote by

   git fetch xyz

4. Now checkout the branch of that remote by

   git checkout -b my_copy_random_branch xyz/random_branch

5. Check the branch list by

   git branch -a

The local branch my_copy_random_branch would be tracking the random_branch branch of your remote.

Answer 18

simply try

$git pull origin your_branch_name

Answer 19

git fetch && git checkout <your friend's branch name> should do the trick

Answer 20

I want to give you oneliner command for fetching all the remote branches to your local and switch to your desired newly created local branch:

git fetch && git checkout discover

after running above command you will get below message:

Switched to a new branch 'discover'
Branch discover set up to track remote branch discover from origin.

the first line states that Switched to a New branch - why new ? it is already there in remote!.

But actually you have to create it locally too, the branch is taken from the remote index and created locally for you.

Here discover is new branch which were created from your repository's remote branch discover.

But the second line gives more information than the first one which tell us that:

our branch is set upto track remote branch with the same name.

Although git fetch fetches all branches to local But if you run git branch after it you will see only master branch in local why?

because for every branch you have in remote you have to create it locally too, for tracking it as git checkout <branchname> as we have done in above example.

after running git checkout command you can run git branch now you can see both the branch :

1. master and 2. discover in your local listing.

Answer 21

The steps are as follows;

1. git fetch origin or git fetch --all , this will fetch all the remote branches to your local and then this the second option you can proced with.

2. git checkout --track origin/<The_remote_branch you want to switch over>

Then work on this branch and you can verify whether you are on that branch or not by typing

git branch

It displayes the branch you currently in.

Answer 22

If you already know your remote branch like so...

git remote
=> One
=> Two

and you know the branch name you wish to checkout ex. br1.2.3.4 then do

git fetch One
=> returns all meta data of remote i.e. the branch name in question.

all that is left is to checkout the branch

git checkout br.1.2.3.4

Then make any new branches off of it.

Answer 23

if you would like to fetch all remote branches please type just

git fetch --all

Hope it will help someone else to see all the remote branches.

Answer 24

Check your .git/config, particulary what tracking is present on fetch for that remote.

[remote "randomRemote"]
    url = git@github.com:someUser/someRepo.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/randomRemote/*

If it has heads/* pointing to randomRemote/*, when you run git fetch randomRemote, it will fetch all branches. Then you can just checkout that branch.

Otherwise,

1. You need to add remote branches to the tracking using this. Check your .git/config after running this. You will understand. git remote set-branches --add randomRemote randomBranch

2. Run git fetch randomRemote. This will fetch the remote branch.

3. Now you can run git checkout randomBranch

Answer 25

If you have a repository that was cloned with --depth 1 then many of the commands that were listed will not work. For example see here

% git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/repo/code
Cloning into 'code'...
cd code
remote: Counting objects: 1778, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1105/1105), done.
remote: Total 1778 (delta 87), reused 1390 (delta 58), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (1778/1778), 5.54 MiB | 4.33 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (87/87), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
Checking out files: 100% (1215/1215), done.
% cd code
% git checkout other_branch
error: pathspec 'other_branch' did not match any file(s) known to git.
% git fetch origin other_branch
remote: Counting objects: 47289, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (15906/15906), done.
remote: Total 47289 (delta 30151), reused 46699 (delta 29570), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (47289/47289), 31.03 MiB | 5.70 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (30151/30151), completed with 362 local objects.
From https://github.com/repo/code
 * branch            other_branch-> FETCH_HEAD
% git checkout other_branch
error: pathspec 'other_branch' did not match any file(s) known to git.
%

In this case I would reclone the repo, but perhaps there are other techniques e.g. git shallow clone (clone --depth) misses remote branches

Answer 26

You use 'git pull' to keep your branches separate. I will use actual repo and branch names to help since 'lbranch' and 'rbranch' is tough to decipher.

Let's use:

myteam.unfuddle.com = the remote git server

tlc = unfuddle project account where the repo exists

daves_branch = remote branch name

You, or any colleague, can run this to pull only your branch, no matter how many branches there are:

git init
git pull git@myteam.unfuddle.com:myteam/tlc daves_branch:refs/remotes/origin/daves_branch

Answer 27

git branch <name> --track origin/<name>

Answer 28

A simple command -"git checkout remote_branch_name" will help you to create a local branch that has all the changes in remote branch.

Answer 29

git checkout -b branch_name
git pull remote_name branch_name