On Mar 25, 6:11 pm, Pito Salas <r...@salas.com> wrote: > Thanks! > > So even though the branch is in the local repo, I can't use the files > locally without creating a local tracking branch. > > And git checkout as well as git branch only work locally, always. > > Yes?
You could actually check out the remote branch (git checkout origin/ ymlsupport) - you'd get all the files in the state on that branch, but you'd be in a detached HEAD state - you're not on a local branch that you can make commits to. That's why you want to make that local tracking branch. If you keep that branch around, you'll probably want to keep merging after each time you fetch (git checkout ymlsupport; git merge origin/ymlsupport). The reason that git detaches HEAD when you check out a remote branch is that the remote branch, though it exists within your repository, is intended to indicate the position of that branch in the remote repository. It's updated when you fetch from there, so sometimes it's behind, but it's always showing you where the remote's branch was the last time you looked. It doesn't make sense for you to commit to that branch - clearly you're not actually putting the commit in the remote's repository, so the remote branch shouldn't move. It can be useful to do that detached HEAD checkout - say you just wanted to have a look at origin/ymlsupport, make sure everything was okay there, then pop back to what you were doing. No need to create a branch if you're just doing it once. Jeffrey -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Git for human beings" group. To post to this group, send email to git-us...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to git-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/git-users?hl=en.
