Checking Out Remote Git Branches

Git is a powerful distributed version control system. A common task when working with Git is to check out a branch that exists on a remote repository. This tutorial will guide you through the process, covering the necessary steps and commands to successfully work with remote branches.

Understanding Remote Branches

Remote branches represent the state of branches on a remote repository (like GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket). These branches aren’t automatically present on your local machine. You need to explicitly fetch and check them out to work with them.

Fetching Remote Branches

Before you can check out a remote branch, you need to retrieve information about the remote branches from the remote repository. This is done using the git fetch command.

git fetch <remote_name>

<remote_name> typically defaults to origin, which usually points to your main remote repository. This command downloads information about the remote branches but doesn’t automatically create local branches.

After fetching, you can view the available remote branches using:

git branch -v -a

This command lists all branches – both local and remote. Remote branches are indicated by remotes/<remote_name>/<branch_name>.

Creating and Checking Out a Local Branch from a Remote Branch

There are several ways to create a local branch that tracks a remote branch:

1. Using git checkout -b <local_branch_name> <remote_name>/<remote_branch_name> (Recommended)

This is the most straightforward and widely used method. It creates a new local branch named <local_branch_name> and sets it up to track the remote branch <remote_name>/<remote_branch_name>.

git checkout -b <local_branch_name> <remote_name>/<remote_branch_name>

For example, to create a local branch named test that tracks the remote branch origin/test, you would use:

git checkout -b test origin/test

2. Using git switch -c <local_branch_name> <remote_name>/<remote_branch_name> (Git 2.23 and later)

The git switch command was introduced in Git 2.23 as a more focused alternative to git checkout for branch management. The -c option creates a new branch.

git switch -c <local_branch_name> <remote_name>/<remote_branch_name>

For example:

git switch -c test origin/test

3. Creating the branch and checking it out in two steps:

You can first create the local branch tracking the remote branch:

git branch <local_branch_name> <remote_name>/<remote_branch_name>

And then check it out:

git checkout <local_branch_name>

This is functionally equivalent to the git checkout -b or git switch -c commands, but less concise.

4. Using git fetch with branch name mapping:

You can use git fetch to fetch a specific remote branch and create a local branch with a different name in a single command:

git fetch <remote_name> '<remote_branch_name>:<local_branch_name>'

For example:

git fetch origin 'remote_branch_name:local_branch_name'

This command fetches the remote branch remote_branch_name from the origin remote and creates a local branch named local_branch_name tracking it. This method is particularly useful when you want to use a different name for the local branch than the remote branch.

Simplified Checkout (Modern Git)

In more recent versions of Git, you can often simply use:

git checkout <branch_name>

Git is often smart enough to infer that you want to create a local branch tracking the remote branch with the same name. However, this behavior might not always be consistent, so the explicit methods described above are generally preferred for clarity.

Troubleshooting

fatal: git checkout: updating paths is incompatible with switching branches.: This error often indicates that you have uncommitted changes in your working directory. Commit or stash your changes before checking out a different branch.
remote: Counting objects... but nothing happens: This usually means that the remote repository is not accessible (e.g., due to network issues or incorrect URL). Verify your remote URL and network connection.
The branch doesn’t exist locally: Make sure you have fetched the latest changes from the remote repository using git fetch before attempting to check out the branch.