fetching a branch created with gitflow?

Question

I created a feature branch using SourceTree and git flow (pressing buttons). Then I tried to clone these branches into another local copy of the repo, but I cannot get these branches locally anymore. For instance if I issue:

git branch -v -a, I see this:

gmmo@DESKTOP-GIMBJM0 MINGW64 /C/Dogwood (develop)
$ git branch -v -a
* develop                         de5e2f2 Updated to Build 4.1.6.37
  master                          0aa9613 Release 4.1.6.37
  remotes/origin/HEAD             -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/develop          de5e2f2 Updated to Build 4.1.6.37
  remotes/origin/feature/cleanups ef035e9 Added alert dialog
  remotes/origin/master           0aa9613 Release 4.1.6.37

so the remotes/* were created by git flow. I only created develop and master manually

but how do I clone all the remotes back to my local drive easily?

I tried

git fetch

but not sure what it did, since if I issue

git branch

I only see on my drive the two main branches.

* develop
  master
gmmo@DESKTOP-GIMBJM0 MINGW64 /C/Dogwood (develop)

Is there an easy way to clone all these branches, without re-cloning the entire repo?

thx!

You should be able to do git checkout remote_branch_here. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1783405/checkout-remote-git-branch — the happy mamba, Mar 15 '16 at 23:36

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 16 '16 at 09:00

If you want to get a remote branch locally, you need to check it out. When you do

git checkout feature/cleanups

git should be smart enough to recognise it's a remote repository and automatically creates a local copy of the branch that tracks the remote version. If this doesn't work, you probably run an old version of git, and I would advise trying to update. An alternative that works on older versions is

git checkout --track origin/feature/cleanups

You can also work from SourceTree. Find and double-click the branch under Remotes > origin. It creates a popup for checking out a new branch; default values should be OK.

That said, the behaviour you describe is a bit odd. When you clone a local repository, you should get an exact copy, including feature branches. You said you tried to "clone these branches". You clone repositories, not branches. You can clone a copy of a repository getting only one branch with the --single-branch option (see the docs), but there is limited use for this.

fetching a branch created with gitflow?

1 Answers1