Difference between git checkout --track origin branch and git checkout -b branch origin branch

Question

Does anybody know the difference between these two commands to switch and track a remote branch   git checkout -b branch origin branch git checkout --track origin branch   I think both keep track of the remote branch so I can push my changes to the branch on origin  right   Is there any practical differences    Thanks

User · Answer

You can t create a new branch with this command  git checkout --track origin branch   if you have changes that are not staged   Here is example     git status On branch master Your branch is up to date with  origin master    Changes not staged for commit     use  git add  lt file gt      to update what will be committed     use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory           modified    src App js  no changes added to commit  use  git add  and or  git commit -a       TRY TO CREATE     git checkout --track origin new-branch fatal   origin new-branch  is not a commit and a branch  new-branch  cannot be created from it   However you can easily create a new branch with un-staged changes with git checkout -b command     git checkout -b new-branch Switched to a new branch  new-branch  M       src App js

User · Answer

The book seems to indicate that those commands yield the same effect      The simple case is the example you just saw  running git checkout -b    branch   remotename   branch   If you have Git version 1 6 2 or   later  you can also use the --track shorthand      git checkout --track origin serverfix  Branch serverfix set up to track remote branch serverfix from origin   Switched to a new branch  serverfix        To set up a local branch with a different name than the   remote branch  you can easily use the first version with a different   local branch name      git checkout -b sf origin serverfix   That s particularly handy when your bash or oh-my-zsh git completions are able to pull the origin serverfix name for you - just append --track  or -t  and you are on your way

User · Answer

There is no difference at all   1  git checkout -b branch origin branch  If there is no --track and no --no-track  --track is assumed as default  The default can be changed with the setting branch autosetupmerge   In effect  1  behaves like git checkout -b branch --track origin branch   2  git checkout --track origin branch     As a convenience     --track without -b implies -b and the argument to -b is guessed to be    branch     The guessing is driven by the configuration variable remote origin fetch   In effect  2  behaves like git checkout -b branch --track origin branch   As you can see  no difference   But it gets even better   3  git checkout branch  is also equivalent to git checkout -b branch --track origin branch if    branch    does not exist yet but    origin branch    does1     All three commands set the    upstream    of    branch    to be    origin branch     or they fail    Upstream is used as reference point of argument-less git status  git push  git merge and thus git pull  if configured like that  which is the default or almost the default     E g  git status tells you how far behind or ahead you are of upstream  if one is configured   git push is configured to push the current branch upstream by default2 since git 2 0   1    and if    origin    is the only remote having    branch    2 the default  named    simple     also enforces for both branch names to be equal

User · Answer

The two commands have the same effect  thanks to Robert Siemer   s answer for pointing it out      The practical difference comes when using a local branch named differently    git checkout -b mybranch origin abranch will create mybranch and track origin abranch git checkout --track origin abranch will only create  abranch   not a branch with a different name     That is  as commented by Sebastian Graf  if the local branch did not exist already  If it did  you would need git checkout -B abranch origin abranch     Note  with Git 2 23  Q3 2019   that would use the new command git switch   git switch -c  lt branch gt  --track  lt remote gt   lt branch gt       If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is named by the checkout defaultRemote configuration variable  we ll use that one for the purposes of disambiguation  even if the  lt branch gt  isn t unique across all remotes    Set it to e g  checkout defaultRemote origin to always checkout remote branches from there if  lt branch gt  is ambiguous but exists on the  origin  remote    Here   -c  is the new  -b      First  some background  Tracking means that a local branch has its upstream set to a remote branch     git config branch  lt branch-name gt  remote origin   git config branch  lt branch-name gt  merge refs heads branch     git checkout -b branch origin branch will    create reset branch to the point referenced by origin branch  create the branch branch  with git branch  and track the remote tracking branch origin branch         When a local branch is started off a remote-tracking branch  Git sets up the branch  specifically the branch  lt name gt  remote and branch  lt name gt  merge configuration entries  so that git pull will appropriately merge from the remote-tracking branch    This behavior may be changed via the global branch autosetupmerge configuration flag  That setting can be overridden by using the --track and --no-track options  and changed later using git branch --set-upstream-to      And git checkout --track origin branch will do the same as git branch --set-upstream-to       or  since 1 7 0  git branch --set-upstream upstream branch branch    or  since 1 8 0  October 2012   git branch --set-upstream-to upstream branch branch    the short version remains the same   git branch -u upstream branch branch   It would also set the upstream for  branch     Note  git1 8 0 will deprecate git branch --set-upstream and replace it with git branch -u --set-upstream-to  see git1 8 0-rc1 announce     Having an upstream branch registered for a local branch will    tell git to show the relationship between the two branches in git status and git branch -v   directs git pull without arguments to pull from the upstream when the new branch is checked out    See  How do you make an existing git branch track a remote branch   for more

[git] Difference between git checkout --track origin/branch and git checkout -b branch origin/branch

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