Introduction to using git remote branches

Git tips etc.

Set up local git repo

First I created a fork on GitHub of https://github.com/geophysics/MTpy, which was created at https://github.com/nietky/MTpy

Now clone that locally:

C:\Users\nietky\github> git clone https://github.com/nietky/MTpy.git
Cloning into 'MTpy'...
remote: Counting objects: 295, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (235/235), done.
remote: Total 295 (delta 151), reused 196 (delta 52)
Receiving objects: 100% (295/295), 519.98 KiB | 758 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (151/151), done.
C:\Users\nietky\github> cd mtpy

In the following the current branch is shown in the command prompt. This is very handy (Powershell recipe; lots of methods for bash).

C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy [master]> ls
    Directory: C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy
Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----         5/10/2012   4:10 PM            core
d----         5/10/2012   4:10 PM            doc
d----         5/10/2012   4:10 PM            imaging
d----         5/10/2012   4:10 PM            utils
-a---         5/10/2012   4:10 PM         72 README.md
-a---         5/10/2012   4:10 PM          0 __init__.py
C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy [master]> git st
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy [master]> git branch
* master

Only the master branch was pulled down, but there are more branches on the Github repo I just cloned, they are called "remote branches". Show them with:

C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy [master]> git branch -a
* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/Peacock
  remotes/origin/gitignore
  remotes/origin/lk
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/reconfig_as_pkgs

If I want to play with one of those, I need to track the remote branch:

C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy\doc [master]> git checkout --track origin/lk
Branch lk set up to track remote branch lk from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'lk'
C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy\doc [lk]> git branch
* lk
  master

Now I have a local copy, and can pull any future changes by using:

$ git pull origin lk

Add a new remote repository

Add the central repo:

$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/geophysics/MTpy.git

Pushing a local feature branch

First I should check which remote repo I want:

C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy\doc [git_tips]> git remote -v
origin  https://github.com/nietky/MTpy.git (fetch)
origin  https://github.com/nietky/MTpy.git (push)
upstream        https://github.com/geophysics/MTpy.git (fetch)
upstream        https://github.com/geophysics/MTpy.git (push)

I want them on "origin" (my github fork), and the changes I want to push are on the "git_tips" feature branch:

C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy\doc [git_tips]> git push -u origin git_tips
Counting objects: 6, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Writing objects: 100% (4/4), 1.12 KiB, done.
Total 4 (delta 1), reused 0 (delta 0)
To https://github.com/nietky/MTpy.git
 * [new branch]      git_tips -> git_tips
Branch git_tips set up to track remote branch git_tips from origin.

After making some changes, pushing is very similar:

C:\Users\nietky\github\mtpy\doc [git_tips]> git push origin git_tips

Testing a pull request/feature branch

Just track the branch associated with the pull request, as above, and test away/make changes/push them, etc. In this way, more than one person can work on a single pull request. The discussion thread on Github updates automatically Just make sure you fetch and merge the most recent changes before starting work:

$ git fetch