On a new machine, how do I fetch an existing branch?

Question

I'm not new to git, but I'm not a gitmaster.

I have an existing branch on my git account, that I would like to pull, but when I do this :

git checkout previously_created_branch

I get..

error: pathspec 'previously_created_branch' did not match any file(s) known to git.

Anyone know how to accomplish this?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1778088/how-to-clone-a-single-branch-in-git would help — VonC, Dec 02 '10 at 12:52

CharlesB · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-21T11:19:31.433

5

Git must know from where you want to get the branch

First fetch the changes from your remote repository:

git fetch origin

Then you can check it out with

git checkout -t origin/previously_created_branch

This will create a local branch of the same name, that tracks the remote branch

edited Dec 21 '10 at 11:19

answered Dec 02 '10 at 12:54

CharlesB

1

it's git checkout -t origin/prev_created_branch – Adam Dymitruk Dec 02 '10 at 21:22

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 02 '10 at 12:52

1

git checkout branch-name is used to switch branches.

To pull, you should use: git pull origin branch-name, assuming that your remote is named origin.

answered Dec 02 '10 at 12:52

Alan Haggai Alavi

Yah it didn't work. I get the error I wrote above. If I do git-pull, it says, everything-up-to-date , even though I know for a fact it is not. – Trip Dec 02 '10 at 12:54

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 02 '10 at 13:03

0

Maybe you're not tracking the remote branch on the new machine?

To see the list of remote branches:

git branch -r

To track the branch locally (if it isn't already):

git branch --track previously_created_branch origin/previously_created_branch

answered Dec 02 '10 at 13:03

hallidave

3 Answers3