CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitbranch
Sophia_ES
Sophia_ES

Reputation: 1361

Checking out a remote git branch that does not exist locally?

Let's say there is a remote clone of the same git repository that my local repository is cloned from - and there is a branch on that remote clone that isn't present in my clone (not the default branch).

Is there a way to clone that remote branch into my local copy? I don't want to merge it with the current branch or anything like that. I just want to start a local copy of the remote branch. Is there a way to do this?

I would also like to know (once this is done) how to add the mentioned branch also to the default remote-copy that my local clone checks in with by default.

Upvotes: 13

Views: 26902

Answers (5)

KyleMit
KyleMit

Reputation: 30287

You can also set a default remote for all checkout operations like this:

git config --global checkout.defaultRemote origin

*use --global to update everywhere

Which adds the following section to your profile / repository's .git config file:

[checkout]
     defaultRemote = origin

Now you should just be able to run checkout or switch like this:

git checkout <something>

See Also: How to set default remote in git?

Upvotes: 0

ninjarogue
ninjarogue

Reputation: 19

As of Git version 2.37.2 you can now use $ git switch -c as shown in the steps below.

Fetch everything from the remote repository.

$ git fetch <remote>

Checkout the remote branch

$ git checkout <remote>/<branch>

Create the new local branch

$ git switch -c <branch>

Upvotes: 0

zhulj
zhulj

Reputation: 41

One command will do this work:

git checkout -b <local_branch_name> origin/<remote_branch_name>

Edit: If an error occurred: fatal: 'origin/<branch_name>' is not a commit and a branch '<branch_name>' cannot be created from it.

You may try:

git pull
git checkout -b <local_branch_name> origin/<remote_branch_name>

Upvotes: 4

Paul Basenko
Paul Basenko

Reputation: 1015

Just use next:

git fetch <remote repo name>
git checkout -b <local branch name> <remote repo name>/<remote branch name>

It was helpful in my case and this procedure is identical to automatically generated action through TortoiseGit on my Windows machine.

Upvotes: 3

afontaine
afontaine

Reputation: 1059

You're going to want to run the following:

# Fetch everything from the other remote
git fetch <remote name>
# Check out the remote version of the branch
git checkout <remote name>/<branch name>
# Create the new local branch
git checkout -b <branch name>

That gives you a local, workable copy of your branch. Then, to push it back to the original remote (assuming it is origin), we just run

git push origin <branch name>:<branch name>

This will push your new branch up to your original remote.

Upvotes: 7

Related Questions