How to checkout a remote branch in Git?

Question

Someone pushed a "new feature" branch to the shared repo:

git push -u new_feature_branch

Now, I would like to create a copy of this branch on my local machine in order to test the new feature.

What would be the easiest way to do this? (Do I need to fetch / pull before checkout?)

Might be duplicated. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1783405/checkout-remote-git-branch — Harvey Pham, Sep 22 '15 at 22:02
Possible duplicate of [How do I check out a remote Git branch?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1783405/how-do-i-check-out-a-remote-git-branch) — Rahul, Jun 15 '17 at 10:15

score 49 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 16 '12 at 19:42

49

I generally find it unnecessary to use git fetch. git pull is sufficient. git pull will synchronize your repository with the remote. The new_feature_branch will then be available.

git checkout new_feature_branch will notice the branch in origin and create a new local tracking branch for you and switch to that branch.

git pull
git checkout new_feature_branch

edited Jan 16 '12 at 19:42

Misha Moroshko

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answered Jan 16 '12 at 16:14

Bill Door

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git pull == git fetch + git merge – KunMing Xie Oct 24 '17 at 09:17
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use -b if you don't want a detached head – aerin Sep 07 '20 at 05:31

score 34 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 16 '12 at 19:44

34

The simplest way to do this is:

git fetch
git checkout -t origin/new_feature_branch

This is only done initially. From now on you can continue working with the branch as you do for the others you use.

edited Jan 16 '12 at 19:44

Misha Moroshko

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answered Jan 16 '12 at 16:21

Adam Dymitruk

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Troels Thomsen · Answer 3 · 2012-01-16T09:25:38.060

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You need to fetch upstream changes so your local repository includes the relevant objects (git fetch --all or git fetch <remote>).

Afterwards you can perform a checkout using git checkout <branch> (if you like to do it explicitly, you can type git checkout -b <branch> <remote>/<branch>; the local name doesn't have to be the same as the remote). If you don't already have a local branch of that name, it will checkout the remote branch and track it.

As an alternative to this, you can use git pull <remote> <branch>, but this will - with default settings - merge the remote branch into your current, which is probably not what you want.

edited Jan 16 '12 at 09:25

answered Jan 16 '12 at 09:20

Troels Thomsen

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I wonder why this answer says that you MUST use `fetch --all` and the top answer just mentions `fetch`. Which one is it? – Petri Sirkkala Jul 18 '17 at 13:27
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@PetriSirkkala The answer does not say that you must use `--all`. `fetch --all` says fetching all remotes (if you have more than e.g. `origin`). – Roi Danton Dec 11 '17 at 14:38

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 07 '15 at 10:14

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git fetch && git checkout new_feature_branch

answered Oct 07 '15 at 10:14

Mukesh Chapagain

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can you please look into this question if you have time. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20634111/magento-error-when-disable-module – Tahir Yasin Nov 12 '15 at 08:24

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 13 '22 at 14:05

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for synchronize your repository with the remote branch run git fetch then after fetching run git checkout new_branch_name if you are using vs code add git Graph extension for diagnose the issue. It will help you in future use as well.

answered Jan 13 '22 at 14:05

Arqam.Rafay

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How to checkout a remote branch in Git?

5 Answers5