Somebody pushed a branch called test with git push origin test to a shared repository. I can see the branch with git branch -r. How do I check out the remote test branch? I've tried:
git checkout test, which does nothinggit checkout origin/test gives * (no branch)I was stuck in a situation seeing error: pathspec 'desired-branch' did not match any file(s) known to git. for all of the suggestions above. I'm on Git version 1.8.3.1.
So this worked for me:
git fetch origin desired-branch
git checkout -b desired-branch FETCH_HEAD
The explanation behind is that I've noticed that when fetching the remote branch, it was fetched to FETCH_HEAD:
git fetch origin desired-branch
From github.com:MYTEAM/my-repo
* branch desired-branch -> FETCH_HEAD
Simply run git checkout with the name of the remote branch. Git will automatically create a local branch that tracks the remote one:
git fetch
git checkout test
However, if that branch name is found in more than one remote, this won't work as Git doesn't know which to use. In that case you can use either:
git checkout --track origin/test
or
git checkout -b test origin/test
In 2.19, Git learned the checkout.defaultRemote configuration, which specifies a remote to default to when resolving such an ambiguity.
None of these answers worked for me. This worked:
git checkout -b feature/branch remotes/origin/feature/branch
The git remote show <origin name> command will list all branches (including un-tracked branches). Then you can find the remote branch name that you need to fetch.
Example:
git remote show origin
Use these steps to fetch remote branches:
git fetch <origin name> <remote branch name>:<local branch name>
git checkout <local branch name > (local branch name should the name that you given fetching)
Example:
git fetch origin test:test
git checkout test
Fetch from the remote and checkout the branch.
git fetch <remote_name> && git checkout <branch_name>
E.g.:
git fetch origin && git checkout feature/XYZ-1234-Add-alerts
git checkout -b "Branch_name" [ B means Create local branch]
git branch --all
git checkout -b "Your Branch name"
git branch
git pull origin "Your Branch name"
successfully checkout from the master branch to dev branch
I used that one:
git clean -fxd # removes untracked (new added plus ignored files)
git fetch
git checkout {branchname}
git reset --hard origin/{branchname} # removes staged and working directory changes
For us, it seems the remote.origin.fetch configuration gave a problem. Therefore, we could not see any other remote branches than master, so git fetch [--all] did not help. Neither git checkout mybranch nor git checkout -b mybranch --track origin/mybranch did work, although it certainly was at remote.
The previous configuration only allowed master to be fetched:
$ git config --list | grep fetch
remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master
Fix it by using * and fetch the new information from origin:
$ git config remote.origin.fetch '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*'
$ git fetch
...
* [new branch] ...
...
Now we could git checkout the remote branch locally.
I don't have any idea how this configuration ended up in our local repository.
For some reason, I couldn't do:
git checkout -b branch-name origin/branch-name
It was throwing the error:
fatal: 'origin/branch-name' is not a commit and a branch 'branch-name' cannot be created from it
I had to do:
git checkout -b branch-name commit-sha
TL;DR
Using git switch rather than git checkout. More details are on this page.
I think the answer is obsolete. Git split some functions of checkout to switch and restore now.
The following is my summary:
If you want to update something for a remote branch, you should create a local branch to "track" the remote branch. You can update anything you want in local and finally push to remote. If you check out to the remote branch directly after cloning your repository, you may see the "detached HEAD" status and the following message from Git:
Note: switching to 'origin/asd'.
You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental
changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this
state without impacting any branches by switching back to a branch.
If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may
do so (now or later) by using -c with the switch command. Example:
git switch -c <new-branch-name>
Or undo this operation with:
git switch -
Turn off this advice by setting config variable advice.detachedHead to false
HEAD is now at d3e1083 Update a
So how can we create a local branch to track a remote branch?
To create a local branch to track a remote branch, you can use git checkout <remote branch name> or git switch <remote branch name>. If you have a file or folder has same name as your remote branch name, git checkout would output some error message, but git switch can work normally!
Example:
See all branches, and we want to create a local branch to track the remote branch remotes/origin/asd, and we also have the file name asd:
$ git branch -a
* master
remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
remotes/origin/asd
remotes/origin/ereres
remotes/origin/master
remotes/origin/zxc
$ ls
a asd
The filename is same as remote branch, and Git should output some error messages if we are using the git checkout command to create a local branch to track a remote branch
$ git checkout asd
fatal: 'asd' could be both a local file and a tracking branch.
Please use -- (and optionally --no-guess) to disambiguate
It works if we are using git switch!
$ git switch ereres
Branch 'ereres' set up to track remote branch 'ereres' from 'origin'.
Switched to a new branch 'ereres'
$ git branch -vv
* ereres 3895036 [origin/ereres] Update a
master f9e24a9 [origin/master] Merge branch 'master' of
It seems to my that no one suggested the simplest way (or maybe I'm too dumb to think this is "a way"). But anyway, try this:
git pull origin remoteBranchName
git switch remoteBranchName
This worked for me in the same case (a branch created on the remote after my last pull request).
To get all remote branches, use this:
git fetch --all
Then check out to the branch:
git checkout test
If the remote branch name begins with special characters you need to use single quotes around it in the checkout command, or else Git won't know which branch you are talking about.
For example, I tried to checkout a remote branch named #9773, but the command didn't work properly, as shown in the picture below:
For some reason, I wondered if the sharp symbol (#) could have something to do with it, and then I tried surrounding the branch name with single quotes, like '#9773' rather than just #9773, and fortunately it worked fine.
git checkout -b '#9773' origin/'#9773'
Just run these two commands and you should be good to go.
git checkout <branch-name>
git pull <remote> <branch-name>
git fetch --all
would fetch all the remote branches to your local
git checkout test
would switch you to the test branch
Working Commands
git fetch origin 'remote_branch':'local_branch_name'
git switch 'local_branch_name'
git pull origin 'remote_branch':'local_branch_name'
The first one is for fetching the branch and creating a local branch from a remote branch.
The second one is for switching to the local branch.
The third is for pulling the latest changes of remote to the local branch.
Use fetch to pull all your remote
git fetch --all
To list remote branches:
git branch -r
For list all your branches
git branch -l
>>outpots like-
* develop
test
master
To checkout/change a branch
git checkout master
There are many alternatives, for example:
Alternative 1:
git fetch && git checkout test
It's the simplest way.
Alternative 2:
git fetch
git checkout test
It's the same, but in two steps.
You can add a new branch test on local and then use:
git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/test test
I am not sure. I keep doing this day in and day out. The following command works like gem.
dev being the branch you want to checkout.
git fetch && git checkout dev