[git] Git: Merge a Remote branch locally

I've pulled all remote branches via git fetch --all. I can see the branch I'd like to merge via git branch -a as remotes/origin/branchname. Problem is it is not accessible. I can't merge or checkout.

If you already fetched your remote branch and do git branch -a,
you obtain something like :

* 8.0
  xxx
  remotes/origin/xxx
  remotes/origin/8.0
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/8.0
  remotes/rep_mirror/8.0

After that, you can use rep_mirror/8.0 to designate locally your remote branch.

The trick is that remotes/rep_mirror/8.0 doesn't work but rep_mirror/8.0 does.

So, a command like git merge -m "my msg" rep_mirror/8.0 do the merge.

(note : this is a comment to @VonC answer. I put it as another answer because code blocks don't fit into the comment format)

Maybe you want to track the remote branch with a local branch:

1. Create a new local branch: git branch new-local-branch
2. Set this newly created branch to track the remote branch: git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/remote-branch new-local-branch
3. Enter into this branch: git checkout new-local-branch
4. Pull all the contents of the remote branch into the local branch: git pull

Whenever I do a merge, I get into the branch I want to merge into (e.g. "git checkout branch-i-am-working-in") and then do the following:

git merge origin/branch-i-want-to-merge-from

Fetch the remote branch from the origin first.

git fetch origin remote_branch_name

Merge the remote branch to the local branch

git merge origin/remote_branch_name