Git - remote branch invisible to local repo, fetch isn't helping

Question

I have a personal git repo on a server ("Server Repo"). It cannot see a branch on its central remote repo ("Origin") that I pushed from a personal git repo on another computer ("Personal Repo").

Server Repo (personal repository):

$ git branch -a
* master  
remotes/origin/master

Origin (central repository):

$ git branch -a
* master  
update

Personal Repo (personal repository):

$ git branch -a
* update  
master  
remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master  
remotes/origin/master  
remotes/origin/update

On Server Repo, I've tried $ git fetch --all but all I get is Fetching origin with no results.

$ git fetch -v --all yields:

Fetching origin
 = [up to date] master -> origin/master

I've never seen this issue before. I'm having a lot of issues searching for this problem because all Git Fetch issues seem to assume that the user is doing something wrong. As far as I can tell, Git is failing to recognize remote branches and I don't know what to do about it.

I've re-cloned from Origin into a new folder and the branches appear as expected then. I'm not sure what it is about re-cloning a repo from Origin that would get it to work properly. I have verified that in Server Repo the remote Origin is in fact correct and has the correct path (it's an absolute path on the same machine).

Check the repository config in /.git/config and match sure the fetch specs are good. — Andrew C, Jul 08 '15 at 01:29

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 07 '15 at 17:10

0

git checkout --track origin/update

answered Jul 07 '15 at 17:10

Dušan Maďar

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This unfortunately did not work. I got the following error: `fatal: git checkout: updating paths is incompatible with switching branches. Did you intend to checkout 'origin/update' which can not be resolved as commit?` – neveraskedforthis Jul 07 '15 at 21:42

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

The syntax in this answer worked: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1614996/448640

$ git fetch origin remote_branch_name:local_branch_name

This doesn't answer why I couldn't use the normal command to fetch, but at least it solved the problem.

After performing this version of the command, I have the Origin update branch locally on Server Repo, but when I run git branch -a I still don't see remotes/origin/update. Still confused.

UPDATE 1:
Andrew C suggested that I look at my fetch specifications in <repo>/.git/config on Server Repo. I searched and found an example in the Git docs of what that specification is supposed to be: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-The-Refspec

My Server Repo config file looked like this before:

[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = true
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
[remote "origin"]
    url = /home/user/repo/project.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master
[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master

Note the line with fetch = +refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master. The link to git-scm.com has an example with wildcards like this: fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

So I changed master to * in my fetch directive and now I can see and fetch my branches like normal!

$ git branch -a
  update
* master
  remotes/origin/master

$ git fetch
From /home/user/repo/project.git
 * [new branch]      update -> origin/update

$ git branch -a
  update
* master
  remotes/origin/update
  remotes/origin/master

I'm not sure why the fetch spec was incorrect, but I've now answered the question of why I couldn't see my remote branches, and I've solved the problem of obtaining the remote branches.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I am going to guess that because the fetch spec only specified the master branch, it was ignoring all other branches. The : notation command I used to get the remote branch must ignore the fetch spec in the config file.

Git - remote branch invisible to local repo, fetch isn't helping

2 Answers2