fetch and checkout a remote git branch in just one command

Question

If

I have local repo with a remote $REMOTE already set up
and a new branch $BRANCH exists on the remote repo that I haven't fetched, yet

can I fetch that branch and check it out into a tracking local branch of the same name in a single command?

I can achieve the desired result in two commands either with

git fetch $REMOTE $BRANCH
git checkout $BRANCH # or more explicitly git checkout -b $BRANCH $REMOTE/$BRANCH

git fetch $REMOTE $BRANCH:$BRANCH
git branch --set-upstream-to=$BRANCH $BRANCH

No, but [you can define an alias](https://git-scm.com/book/tr/v2/Git-Basics-Git-Aliases). — Phillip, May 22 '15 at 09:24
@Phillip If ,,no" is the answer, why not posting it as the answer? — schmijos, May 22 '15 at 11:32
@JosuaSchmid Because I don't consider a one-liner a good answer. — Phillip, May 22 '15 at 16:57

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 06 '15 at 16:45

15

There is no builtin command, but you could define an alias in your ~/.gitconfig:

[alias]
  fetch-checkout = !sh -c 'git fetch $1 $2 && git checkout $2' -

edited Nov 06 '15 at 16:45

das-g

answered Nov 03 '15 at 06:52

knittl

@das-g: well, you could always do [`git checkout --track FETCH_HEAD`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-checkout) or some variant of it – knittl Nov 05 '15 at 06:31
@das-g: I looked further into the topic, but I was unable to find a way to use `FETCH_HEAD` to create a tracking branch. Looks like you have to go with the alias – knittl Nov 06 '15 at 16:25
But it loose autocompletion. And I almost always use it beacuse I have easy-to-remember branches prefixes, but I can't remember its full name :( – Alex Zhukovskiy Oct 18 '17 at 14:50
You'd have to manually add this command to the bash autocompletion list (or whatever shell you are using). – knittl Oct 18 '17 at 16:43

1 Answers1