Working with remote GIT branches

This page describes how to use remote branches in git, when setup in a manner similar to subversion.

Creating a branch

First we create an ordinary branch, called experimental-branch:

git branch experimental-branch

Then we push it to the server:

git push origin experimental-branch

Listing branches

List all branches:

git branch -a

The one with the asterisk is the current branch.

Create a local branch to track a remote one

I don’t remember what the -b is for:

git checkout --track -b experimental-branch origin/experimental-branch

That is two dashes before track instead of a long one. WordPress don’t seem to handle this very well …

Note: If you get errors along the line of

fatal: git checkout: updating paths is incompatible with switching branches/forcing
Did you intend to checkout 'origin/experimental-branch' which can not be resolved as commit?

, then you might want to run:

git fetch

Switching to a branch

Simply check it out:

git checkout experimental-branch

Comitting within a branch

You are always in some branch. It does not matter if it is named master or something else.

Pushing to a remote branch from a tracking branch

If the current branch is tracking some remote branch, it is as simple as:

git push

Merging back a branch

Merging from some branch is done by:

git merge experimental-branch

Other sources

• http://www.zorched.net/2008/04/14/start-a-new-branch-on-your-remote-git-repository/
• http://blogs.gnome.org/shaunm/2007/09/17/git-for-gnome/
• Git Book – Basic Branching and Merging

Tags: git, remote branch