Question

I cloned a Git repository and when I do a ‘git checkout’ I see branch-0.2 and origin/branch-0.2 in the list of the branches. What is the difference between the two branches? I read a couple of articles, but I’m not clear on what the difference is.

Answer 1

origin/branch-0.2 is the local reference to branch-0.2 in the remote named origin. It is also called a remote-tracking branch. You can synchronise it (for manual merging later using git merge) with the remote by running: git fetch origin branch-0.2. In order to fetch and merge at the same time, you can use: git pull origin branch-0.2.