Find out which remote branch a local branch is tracking

Question

See also     How can I see which Git branches are tracking which remote   upstream branch      How can I find out which remote branch a local branch is tracking   Do I need to parse git config output  or is there a command that would do this for me

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Improving on this answer  I came up with these  gitconfig aliases   branch-name    symbolic-ref --short HEAD  branch-remote-fetch     branch   git branch-name   amp  amp  git config branch    branch   remote    echo origin    branch-remote-push      branch   git branch-name   amp  amp  git config branch    branch   pushRemote    git config remote pushDefault    git branch-remote-fetch    branch-url-fetch     remote   git branch-remote-fetch   amp  amp  git remote get-url           remote         cognizant of insteadOf branch-url-push      remote   git branch-remote-push    amp  amp  git remote get-url --push    remote         cognizant of pushInsteadOf

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Two choices     git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name   u  origin mainline   or    git for-each-ref --format    upstream short      git symbolic-ref -q HEAD   origin mainline

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Another simple way is to use  cat  git config in a git repo  This will list details for local branches

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I think git branch -av only tells you what branches you have and which commit they re at  leaving you to infer which remote branches the local branches are tracking   git remote show origin explicitly tells you which branches are tracking which remote branches   Here s example output from a repository with a single commit and a remote branch called abranch     git branch -av   abranch                d875bf4 initial commit   master                 d875bf4 initial commit   remotes origin HEAD    - gt  origin master   remotes origin abranch d875bf4 initial commit   remotes origin master  d875bf4 initial commit   versus    git remote show origin   remote origin   Fetch URL   home ageorge tmp d    exrepo    Push  URL   home ageorge tmp d    exrepo    HEAD branch  remote HEAD is ambiguous  may be one of the following       abranch     master   Remote branches      abranch tracked     master  tracked   Local branches configured for  git pull       abranch merges with remote abranch     master  merges with remote master   Local refs configured for  git push       abranch pushes to abranch  up to date      master  pushes to master   up to date

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Another method  thanks osse   if you just want to know whether or not it exists   if git rev-parse   u   gt   dev null 2 gt  amp 1 then   printf  has an upstream n  else   printf  has no upstream n  fi

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git-status porcelain  machine-readable  v2 output looks like this     git status -b --porcelain v2   branch oid d0de00da833720abb1cefe7356493d773140b460   branch head the-branch-name   branch upstream gitlab the-branch-name   branch ab  2 -2   And to get the branch upstream only     git status -b --porcelain v2   grep -m 1     branch upstream     cut -d     -f 3- gitlab the-branch-name   If the branch has no upstream  the above command will produce an empty output  or fail with set -o pipefail

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I use EasyGit  a k a   eg   as a super lightweight wrapper on top of  or along side of  Git   EasyGit has an  info  subcommand that gives you all kinds of super useful information  including the current branches remote tracking branch   Here s an example  where the current branch name is  foo      pknotz s883422   foo    workspace bd   eg info Total commits       175 Local repository   git Named remote repositories   name -  location    origin -  git   sahp7577 home pknotz bd git Current branch  foo   Cryptographic checksum  sha1sum   bd248d1de7d759eb48e8b5ff3bfb3bb0eca4c5bf   Default pull push repository  origin   Default pull push options      branch foo remote   origin     branch foo merge   refs heads aal devel 1   Number of contributors         3   Number of files        28   Number of directories        20   Biggest file size  in bytes  32473  pygooglechart-0 2 0 COPYING    Commits        62

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I use this alias  git config --global alias track   sh -c   if       -eq 2    then    echo   Setting tracking for branch      1    - gt       2     git branch --set-upstream   1   2   else    git for-each-ref --format   local    refname short   lt --sync-- gt  remote    upstream short    refs heads  amp  amp  echo --URLs  amp  amp  git remote -v  fi     -    then  git track   note that the script can also be used to setup tracking   More great aliases at https   github com orefalo bash-profiles

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Another simple way is to use  cat  git config in a git repo  This will list details for local branches

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git branch -r -vv   will list all branches including remote

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Following command will remote origin current fork is referring to       git remote -v     For adding a remote path        git remote add origin path name

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Two choices     git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name   u  origin mainline   or    git for-each-ref --format    upstream short      git symbolic-ref -q HEAD   origin mainline

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The local branches and their remotes   git branch -vv    All branches and tracking remotes   git branch -a -vv   See where the local branches are explicitly configured for push and pull   git remote show  remote name

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I don t know if this counts as parsing the output of git config  but this will determine the URL of the remote that master is tracking      git config remote   git config branch master remote  url

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git branch -vv   grep  BRANCH NAME   git branch -vv   This part will show all local branches along with their upstream branch     grep  BRANCH NAME    It will filter the current branch from the branch list

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Update  Well  it s been several years since I posted this  For my specific purpose of comparing HEAD to upstream  I now use   u   which is a shortcut that refers to the HEAD of the upstream tracking branch   See https   git-scm com docs gitrevisions gitrevisions-emltbranchnamegtupstreamemegemmasterupstreamememuem     Original answer  I ve run across this problem as well  I often use multiple remotes in a single repository  and it s easy to forget which one your current branch is tracking against  And sometimes it s handy to know that  such as when you want to look at your local commits via git log remotename branchname  HEAD   All this stuff is stored in git config variables  but you don t have to parse the git config output  If you invoke git config followed by the name of a variable  it will just print the value of that variable  no parsing required  With that in mind  here are some commands to get info about your current branch s tracking setup   LOCAL BRANCH  git name-rev --name-only HEAD  TRACKING BRANCH  git config branch  LOCAL BRANCH merge  TRACKING REMOTE  git config branch  LOCAL BRANCH remote  REMOTE URL  git config remote  TRACKING REMOTE url    In my case  since I m only interested in finding out the name of my current remote  I do this   git config branch  git name-rev --name-only HEAD  remote

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git remote --verbose    or    git remote --v    or    git remote -vv   or  To Know about the remote branch in details and Head branch    git remote show origin  To Know about the specific  remote branch and Head branch    git remote show origin   grep master Username for  https   github com   Pra      9   HEAD branch  master     master tracked     master merges with remote master     master pushes to master  up to date

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You can try this     git remote show origin   grep  branch name    branch name needs to be replaced with your branch

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If you are using Gradle   def gitHash   new ByteArrayOutputStream       project exec           commandLine  git    rev-parse    --short    HEAD          standardOutput   gitHash        def gitBranch   new ByteArrayOutputStream       project exec           def gitCmd    git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD    git branch -rq --contains   getGitHash       sed -e  2   d   -e  s                         2      echo  master           commandLine  bash    -c      gitCmd           standardOutput   gitBranch

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I don t know if this counts as parsing the output of git config  but this will determine the URL of the remote that master is tracking      git config remote   git config branch master remote  url

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Yet another way  git status -b --porcelain   This will give you     BRANCH    REMOTE  modified and untracked files

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git-status porcelain  machine-readable  v2 output looks like this     git status -b --porcelain v2   branch oid d0de00da833720abb1cefe7356493d773140b460   branch head the-branch-name   branch upstream gitlab the-branch-name   branch ab  2 -2   And to get the branch upstream only     git status -b --porcelain v2   grep -m 1     branch upstream     cut -d     -f 3- gitlab the-branch-name   If the branch has no upstream  the above command will produce an empty output  or fail with set -o pipefail

User · Answer

Having tried all of the solutions here  I realized none of them were good in all situations   works on local branches works on detached branches works under CI  This command gets all names  git branch -a --contains HEAD --list --format    refname short    For my application  I had to filter out the HEAD  amp  master refs  prefer remote refs  and strip off the word  origin    and then if that wasn t found  use the first non HEAD ref that didn t have a   or a   in it

User · Answer

Following command will remote origin current fork is referring to       git remote -v     For adding a remote path        git remote add origin path name

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This will show you the branch you are on     git branch -vv   This will show only the current branch you are on     git for-each-ref --format    upstream short     git symbolic-ref -q HEAD    for example   myremote mybranch   You can find out the URL of the remote that is used by the current branch you are on with     git remote get-url   git for-each-ref --format    upstream short     git symbolic-ref -q HEAD  cut -d  -f1    for example   https   github com someone somerepo git

User · Answer

Update  Well  it s been several years since I posted this  For my specific purpose of comparing HEAD to upstream  I now use   u   which is a shortcut that refers to the HEAD of the upstream tracking branch   See https   git-scm com docs gitrevisions gitrevisions-emltbranchnamegtupstreamemegemmasterupstreamememuem     Original answer  I ve run across this problem as well  I often use multiple remotes in a single repository  and it s easy to forget which one your current branch is tracking against  And sometimes it s handy to know that  such as when you want to look at your local commits via git log remotename branchname  HEAD   All this stuff is stored in git config variables  but you don t have to parse the git config output  If you invoke git config followed by the name of a variable  it will just print the value of that variable  no parsing required  With that in mind  here are some commands to get info about your current branch s tracking setup   LOCAL BRANCH  git name-rev --name-only HEAD  TRACKING BRANCH  git config branch  LOCAL BRANCH merge  TRACKING REMOTE  git config branch  LOCAL BRANCH remote  REMOTE URL  git config remote  TRACKING REMOTE url    In my case  since I m only interested in finding out the name of my current remote  I do this   git config branch  git name-rev --name-only HEAD  remote

User · Answer

Lists both local and remote branches     git branch -ra   Output     feature feature1   feature feature2   hotfix hotfix1   master   remotes origin HEAD - gt  origin master   remotes origin develop   remotes origin master

User · Answer

Improving on this answer  I came up with these  gitconfig aliases   branch-name    symbolic-ref --short HEAD  branch-remote-fetch     branch   git branch-name   amp  amp  git config branch    branch   remote    echo origin    branch-remote-push      branch   git branch-name   amp  amp  git config branch    branch   pushRemote    git config remote pushDefault    git branch-remote-fetch    branch-url-fetch     remote   git branch-remote-fetch   amp  amp  git remote get-url           remote         cognizant of insteadOf branch-url-push      remote   git branch-remote-push    amp  amp  git remote get-url --push    remote         cognizant of pushInsteadOf

User · Answer

This will show you the branch you are on     git branch -vv   This will show only the current branch you are on     git for-each-ref --format    upstream short     git symbolic-ref -q HEAD    for example   myremote mybranch   You can find out the URL of the remote that is used by the current branch you are on with     git remote get-url   git for-each-ref --format    upstream short     git symbolic-ref -q HEAD  cut -d  -f1    for example   https   github com someone somerepo git

User · Answer

You can use git checkout  i e   check out the current branch   This is a no-op with a side-effects to show the tracking information  if exists  for the current branch     git checkout  Your branch is up-to-date with  origin master

User · Answer

I use this alias  git config --global alias track   sh -c   if       -eq 2    then    echo   Setting tracking for branch      1    - gt       2     git branch --set-upstream   1   2   else    git for-each-ref --format   local    refname short   lt --sync-- gt  remote    upstream short    refs heads  amp  amp  echo --URLs  amp  amp  git remote -v  fi     -    then  git track   note that the script can also be used to setup tracking   More great aliases at https   github com orefalo bash-profiles

User · Answer

Yet another way  git status -b --porcelain   This will give you     BRANCH    REMOTE  modified and untracked files

User · Answer

Here is a command that gives you all tracking branches  configured for  pull    see     git branch -vv   main   aaf02f0  main master  ahead 25  Some other commit   master add0a03  jdsumsion master  Some commit   You have to wade through the SHA and any long-wrapping commit messages  but it s quick to type and I get the tracking branches aligned vertically in the 3rd column   If you need info on both  pull  and  push  configuration per branch  see the other answer on git remote show origin     Update  Starting in git version 1 8 5 you can show the upstream branch with git status and git status -sb

User · Answer

I use EasyGit  a k a   eg   as a super lightweight wrapper on top of  or along side of  Git   EasyGit has an  info  subcommand that gives you all kinds of super useful information  including the current branches remote tracking branch   Here s an example  where the current branch name is  foo      pknotz s883422   foo    workspace bd   eg info Total commits       175 Local repository   git Named remote repositories   name -  location    origin -  git   sahp7577 home pknotz bd git Current branch  foo   Cryptographic checksum  sha1sum   bd248d1de7d759eb48e8b5ff3bfb3bb0eca4c5bf   Default pull push repository  origin   Default pull push options      branch foo remote   origin     branch foo merge   refs heads aal devel 1   Number of contributors         3   Number of files        28   Number of directories        20   Biggest file size  in bytes  32473  pygooglechart-0 2 0 COPYING    Commits        62

User · Answer

You can use git checkout  i e   check out the current branch   This is a no-op with a side-effects to show the tracking information  if exists  for the current branch     git checkout  Your branch is up-to-date with  origin master

User · Answer

If you want to find the upstream for any branch  as opposed to just the one you are on   here is a slight modification to  cdunn2001 s answer   git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name YOUR LOCAL BRANCH NAME  upstream   That will give you the remote branch name for the local branch named YOUR LOCAL BRANCH NAME

User · Answer

You can try this     git remote show origin   grep  branch name    branch name needs to be replaced with your branch

User · Answer

Here is a command that gives you all tracking branches  configured for  pull    see     git branch -vv   main   aaf02f0  main master  ahead 25  Some other commit   master add0a03  jdsumsion master  Some commit   You have to wade through the SHA and any long-wrapping commit messages  but it s quick to type and I get the tracking branches aligned vertically in the 3rd column   If you need info on both  pull  and  push  configuration per branch  see the other answer on git remote show origin     Update  Starting in git version 1 8 5 you can show the upstream branch with git status and git status -sb

User · Answer

Another method  thanks osse   if you just want to know whether or not it exists   if git rev-parse   u   gt   dev null 2 gt  amp 1 then   printf  has an upstream n  else   printf  has no upstream n  fi

User · Answer

git remote --verbose    or    git remote --v    or    git remote -vv   or  To Know about the remote branch in details and Head branch    git remote show origin  To Know about the specific  remote branch and Head branch    git remote show origin   grep master Username for  https   github com   Pra      9   HEAD branch  master     master tracked     master merges with remote master     master pushes to master  up to date

User · Answer

Lists both local and remote branches     git branch -ra   Output     feature feature1   feature feature2   hotfix hotfix1   master   remotes origin HEAD - gt  origin master   remotes origin develop   remotes origin master

User · Answer

Having tried all of the solutions here  I realized none of them were good in all situations   works on local branches works on detached branches works under CI  This command gets all names  git branch -a --contains HEAD --list --format    refname short    For my application  I had to filter out the HEAD  amp  master refs  prefer remote refs  and strip off the word  origin    and then if that wasn t found  use the first non HEAD ref that didn t have a   or a   in it

User · Answer

I use EasyGit  a k a   eg   as a super lightweight wrapper on top of  or along side of  Git   EasyGit has an  info  subcommand that gives you all kinds of super useful information  including the current branches remote tracking branch   Here s an example  where the current branch name is  foo      pknotz s883422   foo    workspace bd   eg info Total commits       175 Local repository   git Named remote repositories   name -  location    origin -  git   sahp7577 home pknotz bd git Current branch  foo   Cryptographic checksum  sha1sum   bd248d1de7d759eb48e8b5ff3bfb3bb0eca4c5bf   Default pull push repository  origin   Default pull push options      branch foo remote   origin     branch foo merge   refs heads aal devel 1   Number of contributors         3   Number of files        28   Number of directories        20   Biggest file size  in bytes  32473  pygooglechart-0 2 0 COPYING    Commits        62

User · Answer

If you want to find the upstream for any branch  as opposed to just the one you are on   here is a slight modification to  cdunn2001 s answer   git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name YOUR LOCAL BRANCH NAME  upstream   That will give you the remote branch name for the local branch named YOUR LOCAL BRANCH NAME

User · Answer

I think git branch -av only tells you what branches you have and which commit they re at  leaving you to infer which remote branches the local branches are tracking   git remote show origin explicitly tells you which branches are tracking which remote branches   Here s example output from a repository with a single commit and a remote branch called abranch     git branch -av   abranch                d875bf4 initial commit   master                 d875bf4 initial commit   remotes origin HEAD    - gt  origin master   remotes origin abranch d875bf4 initial commit   remotes origin master  d875bf4 initial commit   versus    git remote show origin   remote origin   Fetch URL   home ageorge tmp d    exrepo    Push  URL   home ageorge tmp d    exrepo    HEAD branch  remote HEAD is ambiguous  may be one of the following       abranch     master   Remote branches      abranch tracked     master  tracked   Local branches configured for  git pull       abranch merges with remote abranch     master  merges with remote master   Local refs configured for  git push       abranch pushes to abranch  up to date      master  pushes to master   up to date

User · Answer

If you are using Gradle   def gitHash   new ByteArrayOutputStream       project exec           commandLine  git    rev-parse    --short    HEAD          standardOutput   gitHash        def gitBranch   new ByteArrayOutputStream       project exec           def gitCmd    git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD    git branch -rq --contains   getGitHash       sed -e  2   d   -e  s                         2      echo  master           commandLine  bash    -c      gitCmd           standardOutput   gitBranch

User · Answer

The local branches and their remotes   git branch -vv    All branches and tracking remotes   git branch -a -vv   See where the local branches are explicitly configured for push and pull   git remote show  remote name

User · Answer

I use EasyGit  a k a   eg   as a super lightweight wrapper on top of  or along side of  Git   EasyGit has an  info  subcommand that gives you all kinds of super useful information  including the current branches remote tracking branch   Here s an example  where the current branch name is  foo      pknotz s883422   foo    workspace bd   eg info Total commits       175 Local repository   git Named remote repositories   name -  location    origin -  git   sahp7577 home pknotz bd git Current branch  foo   Cryptographic checksum  sha1sum   bd248d1de7d759eb48e8b5ff3bfb3bb0eca4c5bf   Default pull push repository  origin   Default pull push options      branch foo remote   origin     branch foo merge   refs heads aal devel 1   Number of contributors         3   Number of files        28   Number of directories        20   Biggest file size  in bytes  32473  pygooglechart-0 2 0 COPYING    Commits        62

User · Answer

git branch -r -vv   will list all branches including remote

User · Answer

git branch -vv   grep  BRANCH NAME   git branch -vv   This part will show all local branches along with their upstream branch     grep  BRANCH NAME    It will filter the current branch from the branch list

[git] Find out which remote branch a local branch is tracking

Examples related to git

Examples related to branch

Examples related to git-remote