Does anybody know the difference between these two commands to switch and track a remote branch?
git checkout -b branch origin/branch
git checkout --track origin/branch
I think both keep track of the remote branch so I can push my changes to the branch on origin, right?
Are there any practical differences?
The two commands have the same effect (thanks to Robert Siemer’s answer for pointing it out).
The practical difference comes when using a local branch named differently:
git checkout -b mybranch origin/abranch will create mybranch and track origin/abranch
git checkout --track origin/abranch will only create 'abranch', not a branch with a different name.
(That is, as commented by Sebastian Graf, if the local branch did not exist already.
If it did, you would need git checkout -B abranch origin/abranch
)
Note: with Git 2.23 (Q3 2019), that would use the new command git switch
:
git switch -c <branch> --track <remote>/<branch>
If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is named by the checkout.defaultRemote configuration variable, we'll use that one for the purposes of disambiguation, even if the
Here, '-c
' is the new '-b
'.
First, some background: Tracking means that a local branch has its upstream set to a remote branch:
# git config branch.<branch-name>.remote origin
# git config branch.<branch-name>.merge refs/heads/branch
git checkout -b branch origin/branch
will:
create/reset branch to the point referenced by origin/branch.
create the branch branch (with git branch) and track the remote tracking branch origin/branch.
When a local branch is started off a remote-tracking branch, Git sets up the branch (specifically the branch.
And git checkout --track origin/branch
will do the same as git branch --set-upstream-to
):
# or, since 1.7.0
git branch --set-upstream upstream/branch branch
# or, since 1.8.0 (October 2012)
git branch --set-upstream-to upstream/branch branch
# the short version remains the same:
git branch -u upstream/branch branch
It would also set the upstream for 'branch
'.
(Note: git1.8.0 will deprecate git branch --set-upstream
and replace it with git branch -u|--set-upstream-to
: see git1.8.0-rc1 announce)
Having an upstream branch registered for a local branch will:
tell git to show the relationship between the two branches in git status and git branch -v.
directs git pull without arguments to pull from the upstream when the new branch is checked out.
See "How do you make an existing git branch track a remote branch?" for more.
There is no difference at all!
1) git checkout -b branch origin/branch
If there is no --track
and no --no-track
, --track
is assumed as default. The default can be changed with the setting branch.autosetupmerge
.
In effect, 1) behaves like git checkout -b branch --track origin/branch
.
2) git checkout --track origin/branch
“As a convenience”, --track
without -b
implies -b
and the argument to -b
is guessed to be “branch”. The guessing is driven by the configuration variable remote.origin.fetch
.
In effect, 2) behaves like git checkout -b branch --track origin/branch
.
As you can see: no difference.
But it gets even better:
3) git checkout branch
is also equivalent to git checkout -b branch --track origin/branch
if “branch” does not exist yet but “origin/branch” does1.
All three commands set the “upstream” of “branch” to be “origin/branch” (or they fail).
Upstream is used as reference point of argument-less git status
, git push
, git merge
and thus git pull
(if configured like that (which is the default or almost the default)).
E.g. git status
tells you how far behind or ahead you are of upstream, if one is configured.
git push
is configured to push the current branch upstream by default2 since git 2.0.
1 ...and if “origin” is the only remote having “branch” 2 the default (named “simple”) also enforces for both branch names to be equal
The book seems to indicate that those commands yield the same effect:
The simple case is the example you just saw, running git checkout -b [branch] [remotename]/[branch]. If you have Git version 1.6.2 or later, you can also use the --track shorthand:
$ git checkout --track origin/serverfix
Branch serverfix set up to track remote branch serverfix from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'serverfix'
To set up a local branch with a different name than the remote branch, you can easily use the first version with a different local branch name:
$ git checkout -b sf origin/serverfix
That's particularly handy when your bash or oh-my-zsh git completions are able to pull the origin/serverfix
name for you - just append --track
(or -t
) and you are on your way.
You can't create a new branch with this command
git checkout --track origin/branch
if you have changes that are not staged.
Here is example:
$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.
Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: src/App.js
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
// TRY TO CREATE:
$ git checkout --track origin/new-branch
fatal: 'origin/new-branch' is not a commit and a branch 'new-branch' cannot be created from it
However you can easily create a new branch with un-staged changes with git checkout -b
command:
$ git checkout -b new-branch
Switched to a new branch 'new-branch'
M src/App.js
origin/branch
)
origin/new-branch
instead of origin/branch
. Are you aware of that?
Success story sharing
git pull
, whereas some branches would ask for a remote branch to pull from. It turns out that if you, in your first-time, are checking out a remote branch that your peer created, git goes on and addsbranch.<BNAME>.remote=origin
to the local gitconfig. Which then allows you to issuegit pull
. However, if you are the one creating the branchgit checkout -b BNAME
, then git -of course- does not know. So you should specify its remote.If <branch>
is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in exactly one remote (call it<remote>
) with a matching name, treat as equivalent to$ git checkout -b <branch> --track <remote>/<branch>
"branch.autoSetupMerge
toalways
simply performs what we are talking about. This setting defaults totrue
, which means the tracking will be performed only when checking out a remote branch.true
does not setup tracking for locally created branches.