How to clone all remote branches in Git

Question

I have a master and a development branch  both pushed to GitHub  I ve cloned  pulled  and fetched  but I remain unable to get anything other than the master branch back   I m sure I m missing something obvious  but I have read the manual and I m getting no joy at all

User · Answer

Using the --mirror option seems to copy the remote tracking branches properly  However  it sets up the repository as a bare repository  so you have to turn it back into a normal repository afterwards   git clone --mirror path to original path to dest  git cd path to dest git config --bool core bare false git checkout anybranch   Reference  Git FAQ  How do I clone a repository with all remotely tracked branches

User · Answer

OK  when you clone your repo  you have all branches there     If you just do git branch  they are kind of hidden     So if you d like to see all branches name  just simply add --all flag like this   git branch --all or git branch -a  If you just checkout to the branch  you get all you need   But how about if the branch created by someone else after you clone   In this case  just do   git fetch  and check all branches again     If you like to fetch and checkout at the same time  you can do   git fetch  amp  amp  git checkout your branch name  Also created the image below for you to simplify what I said

User · Answer

Looking at one of answers to the question I noticed that it s possible to shorten it   for branch in   git branch -r   grep -v  HEAD  master    do    git branch --track   branch       branch  done   But beware  if one of remote branches is named as e g  admin master  it won t get downloaded   Thanks to bigfish for original idea

User · Answer

Using the --mirror option seems to copy the remote tracking branches properly  However  it sets up the repository as a bare repository  so you have to turn it back into a normal repository afterwards   git clone --mirror path to original path to dest  git cd path to dest git config --bool core bare false git checkout anybranch   Reference  Git FAQ  How do I clone a repository with all remotely tracked branches

User · Answer

all the answers I saw here are valid but there is a much cleaner way to clone a repository and to pull all the branches at once    When you clone a repository all the information of the branches is actually downloaded but the branches are hidden  With the command    git branch -a   you can show all the branches of the repository  and with the command    git checkout -b branchname origin branchname   you can then  download  them manually one at a time      However  when you want to clone a repo with a lot of branches all the ways illustrated are above are lengthy and tedious in respect to a much cleaner and quicker way that I am going to show  though it s a bit complicated  You need three steps to accomplish this    First step   create a new empty folder on your machine and clone a mirror copy of the  git folder from the repository     cd   Desktop  amp  amp  mkdir my repo folder  amp  amp  cd my repo folder   git clone --mirror https   github com planetoftheweb responsivebootstrap git  git   the local repository inside the folder my repo folder is still empty  there is just a hidden  git folder now that you can see with a  ls -alt  command from the terminal    Second step   switch this repository from an empty  bare  repository to a regular repository by switching the boolean value  bare  of the git configurations to false     git config --bool core bare false    Third Step   Grab everything that inside the current folder and create all the branches on the local machine  therefore making this a normal repo      git reset --hard   So now you can just type the command  git branch  and you can see that all the branches are downloaded    This is the quick way in which you can clone a git repository with all the branches at once  but it s not something you wanna do for every single project in this way

User · Answer

I needed to do exactly the same  Here is my Ruby script      usr bin env ruby  local      remote         Prepare  x git reset --hard HEAD   x git checkout master    Makes sure that   is on master   x git branch -a  each line do  line    line strip    if  origin    match line       remote line gsub  origin            line    else      local  lt  lt  line    end end   Update  remote each pair do  loc  rem    next if local include  loc     x git checkout --track -b   loc    rem   end  x git fetch

User · Answer

You can easily switch to a branch without using the fancy  quot git checkout -b somebranch origin somebranch quot  syntax   You can do  git checkout somebranch  Git will automatically do the right thing    git checkout somebranch Branch somebranch set up to track remote branch somebranch from origin  Switched to a new branch  somebranch   Git will check whether a branch with the same name exists in exactly one remote  and if it does  it tracks it the same way as if you had explicitly specified that it s a remote branch  From the git-checkout man page of Git 1 8 2 1   If  lt branch gt  is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in exactly one remote  call it  lt remote gt   with a matching name  treat as equivalent to   git checkout -b  lt branch gt  --track  lt remote gt   lt branch gt

User · Answer

The fetch that you are doing should get all the remote branches  but it won t create local branches for them  If you use gitk  you should see the remote branches described as  remotes origin dev  or something similar   To create a local branch based on a remote branch  do something like   git checkout -b dev refs remotes origin dev  Which should return something like   Branch dev set up to track remote branch refs remotes origin dev  Switched to a new branch  dev   Now  when you are on the dev branch   git pull  will update your local dev to the same point as the remote dev branch   Note that it will fetch all branches  but only pull the one you are on to the top of the tree

User · Answer

First  clone a remote Git repository and cd into it    git clone git   example com myproject   cd myproject  Next  look at the local branches in your repository    git branch   master  But there are other branches hiding in your repository  You can see these using the -a flag    git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental  If you just want to take a quick peek at an upstream branch  you can check it out directly    git checkout origin experimental  But if you want to work on that branch  you ll need to create a local tracking branch which is done automatically by    git checkout experimental  and you will see Branch experimental set up to track remote branch experimental from origin  Switched to a new branch  experimental   Here   quot new branch quot  simply means that the branch is taken from the index and created locally for you   As the previous line tells you  the branch is being set up to track the remote branch  which usually means the origin branch name branch  Now  if you look at your local branches  this is what you ll see    git branch   experimental   master  You can actually track more than one remote repository using git remote    git remote add win32 git   example com users joe myproject-win32-port   git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental   remotes win32 master   remotes win32 new-widgets  At this point  things are getting pretty crazy  so run gitk to see what s going on    gitk --all  amp

User · Answer

Here  I wrote you a nice function to make it easily repeatable gitCloneAllBranches       clone all git branches at once easily and cd in     clone as  quot bare repo quot    git clone --mirror  1     rename without  git extension   with extension   basename  1    without extension   echo  with extension   sed  s  git       mv  with extension  without extension   cd  without extension     change from  quot bare repository quot  to not   git config --bool core bare false     check if still bare repository if so   if      git rev-parse --is-bare-repository     false     then     echo  quot ready to go quot    else     echo  quot WARNING  STILL BARE GIT REPOSITORY quot    fi     EXAMPLES      gitCloneAllBranches https   github com something something git

User · Answer

Git usually  when not specified  fetches all branches and or tags  refs  see  git ls-refs  from one or more other repositories along with the objects necessary to complete their histories  In other words it fetches the objects which are reachable by the objects that are already downloaded  See  What does git fetch really do   Sometimes you may have branches tags which aren t directly connected to the current one  so git pull --all git fetch --all won t help in that case  but you can list them by   git ls-remote -h -t origin   and fetch them manually by knowing the ref names   So to fetch them all  try   git fetch origin --depth 10000   git ls-remote -h -t origin    The --depth 10000 parameter may help if you ve shallowed repository   Then check all your branches again   git branch -avv     If above won t help  you need to add missing branches manually to the tracked list  as they got lost somehow      git remote -v show origin       Remote branches      master      tracked   by git remote set-branches like   git remote set-branches --add origin missing branch   so it may appear under remotes origin after fetch     git remote -v show origin       Remote branches      missing branch new  next fetch will store in remotes origin    git fetch From github com Foo Bar     new branch       missing branch - gt  origin missing branch     Troubleshooting  If you still cannot get anything other than the master branch  check the followings    Double check your remotes  git remote -v   e g    Validate that git config branch master remote is origin  Check if origin points to the right URL via  git remote show origin  see this post

User · Answer

Use my tool git remote branch  you need Ruby installed on your machine   It s built specifically to make remote branch manipulations dead easy   Each time it does an operation on your behalf  it prints it in red at the console  Over time  they finally stick into your brain  -   If you don t want grb to run commands on your behalf  just use the  explain  feature  The commands will be printed to your console instead of executed for you   Finally  all commands have aliases  to make memorization easier   Note that this is alpha software  -   Here s the help when you run grb help    git remote branch version 0 2 6    Usage     grb create branch name  origin server      grb publish branch name  origin server      grb rename branch name  origin server      grb delete branch name  origin server      grb track branch name  origin server        Notes    - If origin server is not specified  the name  origin  is assumed       git s default    - The rename functionality renames the current branch    The explain meta-command  you can also prepend any command with the  keyword  explain   Instead of executing the command  git remote branch  will simply output the list of commands you need to run to accomplish  that goal     Example       grb explain create     grb explain create my branch github    All commands also have aliases    create  create  new   delete  delete  destroy  kill  remove  rm   publish  publish  remotize   rename  rename  rn  mv  move   track  track  follow  grab  fetch

User · Answer

This variation will clone a remote repo with all branches available locally without having to checkout each branch one by one  No fancy scripts needed   Make a folder with the same name of the repo you wish to clone and cd into for example   mkdir somerepo cd somerepo   Now do these commands but with actual repo usersname reponame   git clone --bare git github com someuser somerepo git  git git config --bool core bare false git reset --hard git branch   Voiala  you have all the branches there

User · Answer

Regarding        git checkout -b experimental origin experimental   using    git checkout -t origin experimental   or the more verbose but easier to remember    git checkout --track origin experimental   might be better  in terms of tracking a remote repository

User · Answer

A better alternative solution for developers using vscode is to use Git Shadow Extension  This vscode extension allows cloning repository content and directories  that can be filtered by branch name or commit hash  That way  branches or commits can be used as boilerplates templates for new projects

User · Answer

You can easily switch to a branch without using the fancy  quot git checkout -b somebranch origin somebranch quot  syntax   You can do  git checkout somebranch  Git will automatically do the right thing    git checkout somebranch Branch somebranch set up to track remote branch somebranch from origin  Switched to a new branch  somebranch   Git will check whether a branch with the same name exists in exactly one remote  and if it does  it tracks it the same way as if you had explicitly specified that it s a remote branch  From the git-checkout man page of Git 1 8 2 1   If  lt branch gt  is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in exactly one remote  call it  lt remote gt   with a matching name  treat as equivalent to   git checkout -b  lt branch gt  --track  lt remote gt   lt branch gt

User · Answer

Here  I wrote you a nice function to make it easily repeatable gitCloneAllBranches       clone all git branches at once easily and cd in     clone as  quot bare repo quot    git clone --mirror  1     rename without  git extension   with extension   basename  1    without extension   echo  with extension   sed  s  git       mv  with extension  without extension   cd  without extension     change from  quot bare repository quot  to not   git config --bool core bare false     check if still bare repository if so   if      git rev-parse --is-bare-repository     false     then     echo  quot ready to go quot    else     echo  quot WARNING  STILL BARE GIT REPOSITORY quot    fi     EXAMPLES      gitCloneAllBranches https   github com something something git

User · Answer

git clone --mirror on the original repo works well for this   git clone --mirror  path to original git git remote set-url origin  path to new-repo git git push -u origin

User · Answer

This isn t too much complicated  very simple and straight forward steps are as follows   git fetch origin This will bring all the remote branches to your local   git branch -a This will show you all the remote branches   git checkout --track origin  lt branch you want to checkout gt   Verify whether you are in the desired branch by the following command   git branch   The output will like this    your current branch  some branch2 some branch3    Notice the   sign that denotes the current branch

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When you do  git clone git   location   all branches and tags are fetched   In order to work on top of a specific remote branch  assuming it s the origin remote   git checkout -b branch origin branchname

User · Answer

This is what I do whenever I need to bring down all branches  Credits to Ray Villalobos from Linkedin Learning  Try cloning all branches including commits     mkdir -p -- newproject folder   cd newproject folder   git clone --mirror https   github com USER NAME RepositoryName git  git   git config --bool core bare false   git reset --hard

User · Answer

Use commands that you can remember  I m using Bitbucket  a Repository Hosting Service of Atlassian  So I try to follow their docs  And that works perfectly for me  With the following easy and short commands you can checkout your remote branch   At first clone your repository  then change into the destination folder  And last but not least fetch and checkout   git clone  lt repo gt   lt destination folder gt  cd  lt destination folder gt  git fetch  amp  amp  git checkout  lt branch gt    That s it  Here a litte more real world example   git clone https   username bitbucket org team repository git project folder cd project folder git fetch  amp  amp  git checkout develop   You will find detail information about the commands in the docs  Clone Command  Fetch Command  Checkout Command

User · Answer

Use my tool git remote branch  you need Ruby installed on your machine   It s built specifically to make remote branch manipulations dead easy   Each time it does an operation on your behalf  it prints it in red at the console  Over time  they finally stick into your brain  -   If you don t want grb to run commands on your behalf  just use the  explain  feature  The commands will be printed to your console instead of executed for you   Finally  all commands have aliases  to make memorization easier   Note that this is alpha software  -   Here s the help when you run grb help    git remote branch version 0 2 6    Usage     grb create branch name  origin server      grb publish branch name  origin server      grb rename branch name  origin server      grb delete branch name  origin server      grb track branch name  origin server        Notes    - If origin server is not specified  the name  origin  is assumed       git s default    - The rename functionality renames the current branch    The explain meta-command  you can also prepend any command with the  keyword  explain   Instead of executing the command  git remote branch  will simply output the list of commands you need to run to accomplish  that goal     Example       grb explain create     grb explain create my branch github    All commands also have aliases    create  create  new   delete  delete  destroy  kill  remove  rm   publish  publish  remotize   rename  rename  rn  mv  move   track  track  follow  grab  fetch

User · Answer

bin bash for branch in  git branch -a   grep remotes   grep -v HEAD   grep -v master    do    git branch --track   branch remotes origin    branch done   These code will pull all remote branches code to local repo

User · Answer

When you do  git clone git   location   all branches and tags are fetched   In order to work on top of a specific remote branch  assuming it s the origin remote   git checkout -b branch origin branchname

User · Answer

Git usually  when not specified  fetches all branches and or tags  refs  see  git ls-refs  from one or more other repositories along with the objects necessary to complete their histories  In other words it fetches the objects which are reachable by the objects that are already downloaded  See  What does git fetch really do   Sometimes you may have branches tags which aren t directly connected to the current one  so git pull --all git fetch --all won t help in that case  but you can list them by   git ls-remote -h -t origin   and fetch them manually by knowing the ref names   So to fetch them all  try   git fetch origin --depth 10000   git ls-remote -h -t origin    The --depth 10000 parameter may help if you ve shallowed repository   Then check all your branches again   git branch -avv     If above won t help  you need to add missing branches manually to the tracked list  as they got lost somehow      git remote -v show origin       Remote branches      master      tracked   by git remote set-branches like   git remote set-branches --add origin missing branch   so it may appear under remotes origin after fetch     git remote -v show origin       Remote branches      missing branch new  next fetch will store in remotes origin    git fetch From github com Foo Bar     new branch       missing branch - gt  origin missing branch     Troubleshooting  If you still cannot get anything other than the master branch  check the followings    Double check your remotes  git remote -v   e g    Validate that git config branch master remote is origin  Check if origin points to the right URL via  git remote show origin  see this post

User · Answer

As of early 2017  the answer in this comment works   git fetch  lt origin-name gt   lt branch-name gt  brings the branch down for you  While this doesn t pull all branches at once  you can singularly execute this per-branch

User · Answer

bin bash for branch in  git branch -a   grep remotes   grep -v HEAD   grep -v master    do    git branch --track   branch remotes origin    branch done   These code will pull all remote branches code to local repo

User · Answer

First  clone a remote Git repository and cd into it    git clone git   example com myproject   cd myproject  Next  look at the local branches in your repository    git branch   master  But there are other branches hiding in your repository  You can see these using the -a flag    git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental  If you just want to take a quick peek at an upstream branch  you can check it out directly    git checkout origin experimental  But if you want to work on that branch  you ll need to create a local tracking branch which is done automatically by    git checkout experimental  and you will see Branch experimental set up to track remote branch experimental from origin  Switched to a new branch  experimental   Here   quot new branch quot  simply means that the branch is taken from the index and created locally for you   As the previous line tells you  the branch is being set up to track the remote branch  which usually means the origin branch name branch  Now  if you look at your local branches  this is what you ll see    git branch   experimental   master  You can actually track more than one remote repository using git remote    git remote add win32 git   example com users joe myproject-win32-port   git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental   remotes win32 master   remotes win32 new-widgets  At this point  things are getting pretty crazy  so run gitk to see what s going on    gitk --all  amp

User · Answer

You only need to use  git clone  to get all branches   git clone  lt your http url gt    Even though you only see master branch  you can use  git branch -a  to see all branches   git branch -a   And you can switch to any branch which you already have   git checkout  lt your branch name gt    Don t worry that after you  git clone   you don t need to connect with the remote repo   git branch -a  and  git checkout   can be run successfully when you close your wifi  So it is proved that when you do  git clone   it already has copied all branches from the remote repo  After that  you don t need the remote repo  your local already has all branches  codes

User · Answer

A git clone is supposed to copy the entire repository   Try cloning it  and then run git branch -a   It should list all the branches   If then you want to switch to branch  foo  instead of  master   use git checkout foo

User · Answer

Use commands that you can remember  I m using Bitbucket  a Repository Hosting Service of Atlassian  So I try to follow their docs  And that works perfectly for me  With the following easy and short commands you can checkout your remote branch   At first clone your repository  then change into the destination folder  And last but not least fetch and checkout   git clone  lt repo gt   lt destination folder gt  cd  lt destination folder gt  git fetch  amp  amp  git checkout  lt branch gt    That s it  Here a litte more real world example   git clone https   username bitbucket org team repository git project folder cd project folder git fetch  amp  amp  git checkout develop   You will find detail information about the commands in the docs  Clone Command  Fetch Command  Checkout Command

User · Answer

Use aliases  Though there aren t any native Git one-liners  you can define your own as  git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -a   sed -n     HEAD  d     master  d   remotes p     xargs -L1 git checkout -t    and then use it as  git clone-branches

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Self-Contained Repository If you   re looking for a self-contained clone or backup that includes all remote branches and commit logs  use  git clone http   user repo url git pull --all  The accepted answer of git branch -a only shows the remote branches  If you attempt to checkout the branches you ll be unable to  unless you still have network access to the origin server  Credit   Gabe Kopley s for suggesting using git pull --all  Note  Of course  if you no longer have network access to the remote origin server  remote origin branches will not have any updates reflected in them  Their revisions will reflect commits from the date and time you performed the 2 commands above   Checkout a  local  branch in the usual way with  git checkout remote origin   Use  git branch -a  to reveal the remote branches saved within your  clone  repository  To checkout ALL your clone branches to local branches with one command  use one of the bash commands below    for i in   git branch -a  grep  remotes    awk -F    print  3        grep -v  HEAD - gt    do git checkout -b  i --track origin  i  done  OR If your repo has nested branches then this command will take that into account  for i in   git branch -a  grep  remotes   grep -v  HEAD - gt    do   basename   i         xargs -I    git checkout -b    --track origin     done   The above commands will checkout a local branch into your local git repository  named the same as the remote origin  lt branchname gt  and set it to --track changes from the remote branch on the remote origin server should you regain network access to your origin repo server once more and perform a git pull command in the usual way

User · Answer

Looking at one of answers to the question I noticed that it s possible to shorten it   for branch in   git branch -r   grep -v  HEAD  master    do    git branch --track   branch       branch  done   But beware  if one of remote branches is named as e g  admin master  it won t get downloaded   Thanks to bigfish for original idea

User · Answer

A git clone is supposed to copy the entire repository   Try cloning it  and then run git branch -a   It should list all the branches   If then you want to switch to branch  foo  instead of  master   use git checkout foo

User · Answer

As of early 2017  the answer in this comment works   git fetch  lt origin-name gt   lt branch-name gt  brings the branch down for you  While this doesn t pull all branches at once  you can singularly execute this per-branch

User · Answer

You only need to use  git clone  to get all branches   git clone  lt your http url gt    Even though you only see master branch  you can use  git branch -a  to see all branches   git branch -a   And you can switch to any branch which you already have   git checkout  lt your branch name gt    Don t worry that after you  git clone   you don t need to connect with the remote repo   git branch -a  and  git checkout   can be run successfully when you close your wifi  So it is proved that when you do  git clone   it already has copied all branches from the remote repo  After that  you don t need the remote repo  your local already has all branches  codes

User · Answer

If you have many remote branches that you want to fetch at once  do    git pull --all  Now you can checkout any branch as you need to  without hitting the remote repository   Note  This will not create working copies of any non-checked out branches  which is what the question was asking  For that  see  https   stackoverflow com a 4754797 430062 https   stackoverflow com a 7216269 430062

User · Answer

Better late than never  but here is the best way to do this   mkdir repo cd repo git clone --bare path to repo git  git git config --unset core bare git reset --hard   At this point you have a complete copy of the remote repo with all of it s branches  verify with git branch    You can use --mirror instead of --bare if your remote repo has remotes of its own

User · Answer

This Bash script helped me out      bin bash for branch in   git branch --all   grep    s remotes    egrep --invert-match     HEAD master      do     git branch --track    branch         branch  done   It will create tracking branches for all remote branches  except master  which you probably got from the original clone command   I think you might still need to do a   git fetch --all git pull --all   to be sure      One liner  git branch -a   grep -v HEAD   perl -ne  chomp      s      s     if  m             amp  amp  not  d  2    print qq git branch --track  2  1  2 n   else   d     1     csh -xfs   As usual  test in your setup before copying rm -rf universe as we know it       Credits for one-liner go to user cfi

User · Answer

A little late to the party  but I think this does the trick   mkdir YourRepo cd YourRepo git init --bare  git                         create a bare repo git remote add origin REMOTE URL             add a remote git fetch origin refs heads   refs heads     fetch heads git fetch origin refs tags   refs tags       fetch tags git init                                     reinit work tree git checkout master                          checkout a branch   If this does something undesirable  I d love to know  However  so far  this works for me

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I m going to add my 2 cents here because I got here trying to find out how to pull down a remote branch I had deleted locally  Origin was not mine  and I didn t want to go through the hassle of re-cloning everything   This worked for me   assuming you need to recreate the branch locally   git checkout -b recreated-branch-name git branch -a  to list remote branches  git rebase remotes remote-origin recreated-branch-name   So if I forked from gituser master to sjp and then branched it to sjp mynewbranch it would look like this     git checkout -b mynewbranch   git branch -a   master   remotes sjp master   remotes sjp mynewbranch   git fetch  habit to always do before    git rebase remotes sjp mynewbranch

User · Answer

Here is another short one-liner command which creates local branches for all remote branches    git branch -r   sed -n   - gt   s    origin   p   amp  amp  echo master    xargs -L1 git checkout   It works also properly if tracking local branches are already created  You can call it after the first git clone or any time later   If you do not need to have master branch checked out after cloning  use   git branch -r   sed -n   - gt   s    origin   p   xargs -L1 git checkout

User · Answer

Here is another short one-liner command which creates local branches for all remote branches    git branch -r   sed -n   - gt   s    origin   p   amp  amp  echo master    xargs -L1 git checkout   It works also properly if tracking local branches are already created  You can call it after the first git clone or any time later   If you do not need to have master branch checked out after cloning  use   git branch -r   sed -n   - gt   s    origin   p   xargs -L1 git checkout

User · Answer

allBranches  Script to download all braches from a Git project  Installation   sudo git clone https   github com marceloviana allBranches git  amp  amp  sudo cp -rfv allBranches allBranches sh  usr bin allBranches  amp  amp  sudo chmod  x  usr bin allBranches  amp  amp  sudo rm -rf allBranches   Ready  Now just call the command  allBranches  and tell the Git project directory that you want to download all branches  Use  Example 1      allBranches  var www myproject1    Example 2      allBranches  var www myproject2    Example 3  if already inside the project directory       allBranches      or     allBranches     View result   git branch   Reference   Repository allBranches GitHub  https   github com marceloviana allBranches

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When you do  git clone git   location   all branches and tags are fetched   In order to work on top of a specific remote branch  assuming it s the origin remote   git checkout -b branch origin branchname

User · Answer

Just do this     git clone git   example com myproject   cd myproject   git checkout branchxyz Branch branchxyz set up to track remote branch branchxyz from origin  Switched to a new branch  branchxyz    git pull Already up-to-date    git branch   branchxyz   master   git branch -a   branchxyz   master   remotes origin HEAD - gt  origin master   remotes origin branchxyz   remotes origin branch123   You see   git clone git   example com myprojectt  fetches everything  even the branches  you just have to checkout them  then your local branch will be created

User · Answer

I m going to add my 2 cents here because I got here trying to find out how to pull down a remote branch I had deleted locally  Origin was not mine  and I didn t want to go through the hassle of re-cloning everything   This worked for me   assuming you need to recreate the branch locally   git checkout -b recreated-branch-name git branch -a  to list remote branches  git rebase remotes remote-origin recreated-branch-name   So if I forked from gituser master to sjp and then branched it to sjp mynewbranch it would look like this     git checkout -b mynewbranch   git branch -a   master   remotes sjp master   remotes sjp mynewbranch   git fetch  habit to always do before    git rebase remotes sjp mynewbranch

User · Answer

This solution worked for me to  quot copy quot  a repository to another one  git merge path to source git --mirror cd source git git remote remove origin git remote add origin path to target git git push origin --all git push origin --tags  On target repository I can see the same branches and tags than the origin repo

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This Bash script helped me out      bin bash for branch in   git branch --all   grep    s remotes    egrep --invert-match     HEAD master      do     git branch --track    branch         branch  done   It will create tracking branches for all remote branches  except master  which you probably got from the original clone command   I think you might still need to do a   git fetch --all git pull --all   to be sure      One liner  git branch -a   grep -v HEAD   perl -ne  chomp      s      s     if  m             amp  amp  not  d  2    print qq git branch --track  2  1  2 n   else   d     1     csh -xfs   As usual  test in your setup before copying rm -rf universe as we know it       Credits for one-liner go to user cfi

User · Answer

This is what I do whenever I need to bring down all branches  Credits to Ray Villalobos from Linkedin Learning  Try cloning all branches including commits     mkdir -p -- newproject folder   cd newproject folder   git clone --mirror https   github com USER NAME RepositoryName git  git   git config --bool core bare false   git reset --hard

User · Answer

The fetch that you are doing should get all the remote branches  but it won t create local branches for them  If you use gitk  you should see the remote branches described as  remotes origin dev  or something similar   To create a local branch based on a remote branch  do something like   git checkout -b dev refs remotes origin dev  Which should return something like   Branch dev set up to track remote branch refs remotes origin dev  Switched to a new branch  dev   Now  when you are on the dev branch   git pull  will update your local dev to the same point as the remote dev branch   Note that it will fetch all branches  but only pull the one you are on to the top of the tree

User · Answer

Better late than never  but here is the best way to do this   mkdir repo cd repo git clone --bare path to repo git  git git config --unset core bare git reset --hard   At this point you have a complete copy of the remote repo with all of it s branches  verify with git branch    You can use --mirror instead of --bare if your remote repo has remotes of its own

User · Answer

Regarding        git checkout -b experimental origin experimental   using    git checkout -t origin experimental   or the more verbose but easier to remember    git checkout --track origin experimental   might be better  in terms of tracking a remote repository

User · Answer

Just do this     git clone git   example com myproject   cd myproject   git checkout branchxyz Branch branchxyz set up to track remote branch branchxyz from origin  Switched to a new branch  branchxyz    git pull Already up-to-date    git branch   branchxyz   master   git branch -a   branchxyz   master   remotes origin HEAD - gt  origin master   remotes origin branchxyz   remotes origin branch123   You see   git clone git   example com myprojectt  fetches everything  even the branches  you just have to checkout them  then your local branch will be created

User · Answer

Use aliases  Though there aren t any native Git one-liners  you can define your own as  git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -a   sed -n     HEAD  d     master  d   remotes p     xargs -L1 git checkout -t    and then use it as  git clone-branches

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The fetch that you are doing should get all the remote branches  but it won t create local branches for them  If you use gitk  you should see the remote branches described as  remotes origin dev  or something similar   To create a local branch based on a remote branch  do something like   git checkout -b dev refs remotes origin dev  Which should return something like   Branch dev set up to track remote branch refs remotes origin dev  Switched to a new branch  dev   Now  when you are on the dev branch   git pull  will update your local dev to the same point as the remote dev branch   Note that it will fetch all branches  but only pull the one you are on to the top of the tree

User · Answer

If you use BitBucket    you can use import Repository  this will import all git history   all the branches and commits

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A better alternative solution for developers using vscode is to use Git Shadow Extension  This vscode extension allows cloning repository content and directories  that can be filtered by branch name or commit hash  That way  branches or commits can be used as boilerplates templates for new projects

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When you do  git clone git   location   all branches and tags are fetched   In order to work on top of a specific remote branch  assuming it s the origin remote   git checkout -b branch origin branchname

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I wrote this small Powershell functions to be able to checkout all my git branches  that are on origin remote   Function git-GetAllRemoteBranches        iex  git branch -r                         lt   get all remote branches   gt                  -Match  origin     name  S        lt   select only names of the branches   gt               Out-Null   matches  name             lt   write does names   gt      Function git-CheckoutAllBranches       git-GetAllRemoteBranches                 iex  git checkout                 lt   execute   git checkout  lt branch gt     gt      More git functions can be found on my git settings repo

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First  clone a remote Git repository and cd into it    git clone git   example com myproject   cd myproject  Next  look at the local branches in your repository    git branch   master  But there are other branches hiding in your repository  You can see these using the -a flag    git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental  If you just want to take a quick peek at an upstream branch  you can check it out directly    git checkout origin experimental  But if you want to work on that branch  you ll need to create a local tracking branch which is done automatically by    git checkout experimental  and you will see Branch experimental set up to track remote branch experimental from origin  Switched to a new branch  experimental   Here   quot new branch quot  simply means that the branch is taken from the index and created locally for you   As the previous line tells you  the branch is being set up to track the remote branch  which usually means the origin branch name branch  Now  if you look at your local branches  this is what you ll see    git branch   experimental   master  You can actually track more than one remote repository using git remote    git remote add win32 git   example com users joe myproject-win32-port   git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental   remotes win32 master   remotes win32 new-widgets  At this point  things are getting pretty crazy  so run gitk to see what s going on    gitk --all  amp

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This isn t too much complicated  very simple and straight forward steps are as follows   git fetch origin This will bring all the remote branches to your local   git branch -a This will show you all the remote branches   git checkout --track origin  lt branch you want to checkout gt   Verify whether you are in the desired branch by the following command   git branch   The output will like this    your current branch  some branch2 some branch3    Notice the   sign that denotes the current branch

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Cloning from a local repo will not work with git clone  amp  git fetch  a lot of branches tags will remain unfetched   To get a clone with all branches and tags   git clone --mirror git   example com myproject myproject-local-bare-repo git   To get a clone with all branches and tags but also with a working copy   git clone --mirror git   example com myproject myproject  git cd myproject git config --unset core bare git config receive denyCurrentBranch updateInstead git checkout master

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all the answers I saw here are valid but there is a much cleaner way to clone a repository and to pull all the branches at once    When you clone a repository all the information of the branches is actually downloaded but the branches are hidden  With the command    git branch -a   you can show all the branches of the repository  and with the command    git checkout -b branchname origin branchname   you can then  download  them manually one at a time      However  when you want to clone a repo with a lot of branches all the ways illustrated are above are lengthy and tedious in respect to a much cleaner and quicker way that I am going to show  though it s a bit complicated  You need three steps to accomplish this    First step   create a new empty folder on your machine and clone a mirror copy of the  git folder from the repository     cd   Desktop  amp  amp  mkdir my repo folder  amp  amp  cd my repo folder   git clone --mirror https   github com planetoftheweb responsivebootstrap git  git   the local repository inside the folder my repo folder is still empty  there is just a hidden  git folder now that you can see with a  ls -alt  command from the terminal    Second step   switch this repository from an empty  bare  repository to a regular repository by switching the boolean value  bare  of the git configurations to false     git config --bool core bare false    Third Step   Grab everything that inside the current folder and create all the branches on the local machine  therefore making this a normal repo      git reset --hard   So now you can just type the command  git branch  and you can see that all the branches are downloaded    This is the quick way in which you can clone a git repository with all the branches at once  but it s not something you wanna do for every single project in this way

User · Answer

The fetch that you are doing should get all the remote branches  but it won t create local branches for them  If you use gitk  you should see the remote branches described as  remotes origin dev  or something similar   To create a local branch based on a remote branch  do something like   git checkout -b dev refs remotes origin dev  Which should return something like   Branch dev set up to track remote branch refs remotes origin dev  Switched to a new branch  dev   Now  when you are on the dev branch   git pull  will update your local dev to the same point as the remote dev branch   Note that it will fetch all branches  but only pull the one you are on to the top of the tree

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I needed to do exactly the same  Here is my Ruby script      usr bin env ruby  local      remote         Prepare  x git reset --hard HEAD   x git checkout master    Makes sure that   is on master   x git branch -a  each line do  line    line strip    if  origin    match line       remote line gsub  origin            line    else      local  lt  lt  line    end end   Update  remote each pair do  loc  rem    next if local include  loc     x git checkout --track -b   loc    rem   end  x git fetch

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Here s an answer that uses awk   This method should suffice if used on a new repo   git branch -r   awk -F     system  git checkout    NF       Existing branches will simply be checked out  or declared as already in it  but filters can be added to avoid the conflicts   It can also be modified so it calls an explicit git checkout -b  lt branch gt  -t  lt remote gt   lt branch gt  command   This answer follows Nikos C  s idea     Alternatively we can specify the remote branch instead   This is based on murphytalk s answer   git branch -r   awk    system  git checkout -t    NF       It throws fatal error messages on conflicts but I see them harmless     Both commands can be aliased   Using nobody s answer as reference  we can have the following commands to create the aliases   git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -r   awk -F     system   git checkout      NF      git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -r   awk    system   git checkout -t      NF        Personally I d use track-all or track-all-branches

User · Answer

A little late to the party  but I think this does the trick   mkdir YourRepo cd YourRepo git init --bare  git                         create a bare repo git remote add origin REMOTE URL             add a remote git fetch origin refs heads   refs heads     fetch heads git fetch origin refs tags   refs tags       fetch tags git init                                     reinit work tree git checkout master                          checkout a branch   If this does something undesirable  I d love to know  However  so far  this works for me

User · Answer

Cloning from a local repo will not work with git clone  amp  git fetch  a lot of branches tags will remain unfetched   To get a clone with all branches and tags   git clone --mirror git   example com myproject myproject-local-bare-repo git   To get a clone with all branches and tags but also with a working copy   git clone --mirror git   example com myproject myproject  git cd myproject git config --unset core bare git config receive denyCurrentBranch updateInstead git checkout master

User · Answer

None of these answers cut it  except user nobody is on the right track   I was having trouble with moving a repo from one server system to another  When I cloned the repo  it only created a local branch for master so when I pushed to the new remote  only master branch was pushed   So I found these two methods VERY useful  Hope they help someone else   Method 1   git clone --mirror OLD REPO URL cd new-cloned-project mkdir  git mv    git git config --local --bool core bare false git reset --hard HEAD git remote add newrepo NEW REPO URL git push --all newrepo git push --tags newrepo   Method 2   git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -a   sed -n     HEAD  d     master  d   remotes p     xargs -L1 git checkout -t  git clone OLD REPO URL cd new-cloned-project git clone-branches git remote add newrepo NEW REPO URL git push --all newrepo git push --tags newrepo

User · Answer

Why you only see  master   git clone downloads all remote branches but still considers them  remote   even though the files are located in your new repository  There s one exception to this  which is that the cloning process creates a local branch called  master  from the remote branch called  master   By default  git branch only shows local branches  which is why you only see  master    git branch -a shows all branches  including remote branches     How to get local branches  If you actually want to work on a branch  you ll probably want a  local  version of it  To simply create local branches from remote branches  without checking them out and thereby changing the contents of your working directory   you can do that like this   git branch branchone origin branchone git branch branchtwo origin branchtwo git branch branchthree origin branchthree   In this example  branchone is the name of a local branch you re creating based on origin branchone  if you instead want to create local branches with different names  you can do this   git branch localbranchname origin branchone   Once you ve created a local branch  you can see it with git branch  remember  you don t need -a to see local branches

User · Answer

Here s a cross-platform PowerShell 7 function adapted from the previous answers  function Invoke-GitCloneAll  url         repo    url Split      -1  Replace   git            repo d   Join-Path  pwd  repo     if  Test-Path  repo d            Write-Error  quot fatal  destination path   repo d  already exists and is not an empty directory  quot  -ErrorAction Continue       else           Write-Host  quot  nCloning all branches of  repo    quot          git -c fetch prune false clone  url -q --progress  amp  amp          git -c fetch prune false --git-dir  quot   Join-Path  repo d   git   quot  --work-tree  quot  repo d quot  pull --all         Write-Host  quot  quot   newline          Note  -c fetch prune false makes it include stale branches that would normally be excluded  remove that if you re not interested in it   You can make this work with PowerShell 5 1  the default in Windows 10  by removing  amp  amp  from the function  but that makes it try to git pull even when the previous command failed  So  I strongly recommend just using the cross-platform PowerShell it s always bugging you about trying

User · Answer

If you use BitBucket    you can use import Repository  this will import all git history   all the branches and commits

User · Answer

First  clone a remote Git repository and cd into it    git clone git   example com myproject   cd myproject  Next  look at the local branches in your repository    git branch   master  But there are other branches hiding in your repository  You can see these using the -a flag    git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental  If you just want to take a quick peek at an upstream branch  you can check it out directly    git checkout origin experimental  But if you want to work on that branch  you ll need to create a local tracking branch which is done automatically by    git checkout experimental  and you will see Branch experimental set up to track remote branch experimental from origin  Switched to a new branch  experimental   Here   quot new branch quot  simply means that the branch is taken from the index and created locally for you   As the previous line tells you  the branch is being set up to track the remote branch  which usually means the origin branch name branch  Now  if you look at your local branches  this is what you ll see    git branch   experimental   master  You can actually track more than one remote repository using git remote    git remote add win32 git   example com users joe myproject-win32-port   git branch -a   master   remotes origin HEAD   remotes origin master   remotes origin v1 0-stable   remotes origin experimental   remotes win32 master   remotes win32 new-widgets  At this point  things are getting pretty crazy  so run gitk to see what s going on    gitk --all  amp

User · Answer

None of these answers cut it  except user nobody is on the right track   I was having trouble with moving a repo from one server system to another  When I cloned the repo  it only created a local branch for master so when I pushed to the new remote  only master branch was pushed   So I found these two methods VERY useful  Hope they help someone else   Method 1   git clone --mirror OLD REPO URL cd new-cloned-project mkdir  git mv    git git config --local --bool core bare false git reset --hard HEAD git remote add newrepo NEW REPO URL git push --all newrepo git push --tags newrepo   Method 2   git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -a   sed -n     HEAD  d     master  d   remotes p     xargs -L1 git checkout -t  git clone OLD REPO URL cd new-cloned-project git clone-branches git remote add newrepo NEW REPO URL git push --all newrepo git push --tags newrepo

User · Answer

For copy-paste into command line   git checkout master   remote origin   for brname in  git branch -r   grep  remote   grep -v master   grep -v HEAD   awk   gsub                 1   print  1     do git branch -D  brname   git checkout -b  brname  remote  brname   done   git checkout master   For more readibility   git checkout master   remote origin   for brname in       git branch -r   grep  remote   grep -v master   grep -v HEAD        awk   gsub                 1   print  1      do     git branch -D  brname       git checkout -b  brname  remote  brname   done   git checkout master    This will    check out master  so that we can delete branch we are on  select remote to checkout  change it to whatever remote you have  loop through all branches of the remote except master and HEAD   delete local branch  so that we can check out force-updated branches  check out branch from the remote  check out master  for the sake of it    Based on answer of VonC

User · Answer

allBranches  Script to download all braches from a Git project  Installation   sudo git clone https   github com marceloviana allBranches git  amp  amp  sudo cp -rfv allBranches allBranches sh  usr bin allBranches  amp  amp  sudo chmod  x  usr bin allBranches  amp  amp  sudo rm -rf allBranches   Ready  Now just call the command  allBranches  and tell the Git project directory that you want to download all branches  Use  Example 1      allBranches  var www myproject1    Example 2      allBranches  var www myproject2    Example 3  if already inside the project directory       allBranches      or     allBranches     View result   git branch   Reference   Repository allBranches GitHub  https   github com marceloviana allBranches

User · Answer

Why you only see  master   git clone downloads all remote branches but still considers them  remote   even though the files are located in your new repository  There s one exception to this  which is that the cloning process creates a local branch called  master  from the remote branch called  master   By default  git branch only shows local branches  which is why you only see  master    git branch -a shows all branches  including remote branches     How to get local branches  If you actually want to work on a branch  you ll probably want a  local  version of it  To simply create local branches from remote branches  without checking them out and thereby changing the contents of your working directory   you can do that like this   git branch branchone origin branchone git branch branchtwo origin branchtwo git branch branchthree origin branchthree   In this example  branchone is the name of a local branch you re creating based on origin branchone  if you instead want to create local branches with different names  you can do this   git branch localbranchname origin branchone   Once you ve created a local branch  you can see it with git branch  remember  you don t need -a to see local branches

User · Answer

Here s a cross-platform PowerShell 7 function adapted from the previous answers  function Invoke-GitCloneAll  url         repo    url Split      -1  Replace   git            repo d   Join-Path  pwd  repo     if  Test-Path  repo d            Write-Error  quot fatal  destination path   repo d  already exists and is not an empty directory  quot  -ErrorAction Continue       else           Write-Host  quot  nCloning all branches of  repo    quot          git -c fetch prune false clone  url -q --progress  amp  amp          git -c fetch prune false --git-dir  quot   Join-Path  repo d   git   quot  --work-tree  quot  repo d quot  pull --all         Write-Host  quot  quot   newline          Note  -c fetch prune false makes it include stale branches that would normally be excluded  remove that if you re not interested in it   You can make this work with PowerShell 5 1  the default in Windows 10  by removing  amp  amp  from the function  but that makes it try to git pull even when the previous command failed  So  I strongly recommend just using the cross-platform PowerShell it s always bugging you about trying

User · Answer

If you have many remote branches that you want to fetch at once  do    git pull --all  Now you can checkout any branch as you need to  without hitting the remote repository   Note  This will not create working copies of any non-checked out branches  which is what the question was asking  For that  see  https   stackoverflow com a 4754797 430062 https   stackoverflow com a 7216269 430062

User · Answer

Self-Contained Repository If you   re looking for a self-contained clone or backup that includes all remote branches and commit logs  use  git clone http   user repo url git pull --all  The accepted answer of git branch -a only shows the remote branches  If you attempt to checkout the branches you ll be unable to  unless you still have network access to the origin server  Credit   Gabe Kopley s for suggesting using git pull --all  Note  Of course  if you no longer have network access to the remote origin server  remote origin branches will not have any updates reflected in them  Their revisions will reflect commits from the date and time you performed the 2 commands above   Checkout a  local  branch in the usual way with  git checkout remote origin   Use  git branch -a  to reveal the remote branches saved within your  clone  repository  To checkout ALL your clone branches to local branches with one command  use one of the bash commands below    for i in   git branch -a  grep  remotes    awk -F    print  3        grep -v  HEAD - gt    do git checkout -b  i --track origin  i  done  OR If your repo has nested branches then this command will take that into account  for i in   git branch -a  grep  remotes   grep -v  HEAD - gt    do   basename   i         xargs -I    git checkout -b    --track origin     done   The above commands will checkout a local branch into your local git repository  named the same as the remote origin  lt branchname gt  and set it to --track changes from the remote branch on the remote origin server should you regain network access to your origin repo server once more and perform a git pull command in the usual way

User · Answer

OK  when you clone your repo  you have all branches there     If you just do git branch  they are kind of hidden     So if you d like to see all branches name  just simply add --all flag like this   git branch --all or git branch -a  If you just checkout to the branch  you get all you need   But how about if the branch created by someone else after you clone   In this case  just do   git fetch  and check all branches again     If you like to fetch and checkout at the same time  you can do   git fetch  amp  amp  git checkout your branch name  Also created the image below for you to simplify what I said

User · Answer

I wrote this small Powershell functions to be able to checkout all my git branches  that are on origin remote   Function git-GetAllRemoteBranches        iex  git branch -r                         lt   get all remote branches   gt                  -Match  origin     name  S        lt   select only names of the branches   gt               Out-Null   matches  name             lt   write does names   gt      Function git-CheckoutAllBranches       git-GetAllRemoteBranches                 iex  git checkout                 lt   execute   git checkout  lt branch gt     gt      More git functions can be found on my git settings repo

User · Answer

For copy-paste into command line   git checkout master   remote origin   for brname in  git branch -r   grep  remote   grep -v master   grep -v HEAD   awk   gsub                 1   print  1     do git branch -D  brname   git checkout -b  brname  remote  brname   done   git checkout master   For more readibility   git checkout master   remote origin   for brname in       git branch -r   grep  remote   grep -v master   grep -v HEAD        awk   gsub                 1   print  1      do     git branch -D  brname       git checkout -b  brname  remote  brname   done   git checkout master    This will    check out master  so that we can delete branch we are on  select remote to checkout  change it to whatever remote you have  loop through all branches of the remote except master and HEAD   delete local branch  so that we can check out force-updated branches  check out branch from the remote  check out master  for the sake of it    Based on answer of VonC

User · Answer

git clone --mirror on the original repo works well for this   git clone --mirror  path to original git git remote set-url origin  path to new-repo git git push -u origin

User · Answer

Here s an answer that uses awk   This method should suffice if used on a new repo   git branch -r   awk -F     system  git checkout    NF       Existing branches will simply be checked out  or declared as already in it  but filters can be added to avoid the conflicts   It can also be modified so it calls an explicit git checkout -b  lt branch gt  -t  lt remote gt   lt branch gt  command   This answer follows Nikos C  s idea     Alternatively we can specify the remote branch instead   This is based on murphytalk s answer   git branch -r   awk    system  git checkout -t    NF       It throws fatal error messages on conflicts but I see them harmless     Both commands can be aliased   Using nobody s answer as reference  we can have the following commands to create the aliases   git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -r   awk -F     system   git checkout      NF      git config --global alias clone-branches    git branch -r   awk    system   git checkout -t      NF        Personally I d use track-all or track-all-branches

User · Answer

This solution worked for me to  quot copy quot  a repository to another one  git merge path to source git --mirror cd source git git remote remove origin git remote add origin path to target git git push origin --all git push origin --tags  On target repository I can see the same branches and tags than the origin repo

User · Answer

A git clone is supposed to copy the entire repository   Try cloning it  and then run git branch -a   It should list all the branches   If then you want to switch to branch  foo  instead of  master   use git checkout foo

User · Answer

This variation will clone a remote repo with all branches available locally without having to checkout each branch one by one  No fancy scripts needed   Make a folder with the same name of the repo you wish to clone and cd into for example   mkdir somerepo cd somerepo   Now do these commands but with actual repo usersname reponame   git clone --bare git github com someuser somerepo git  git git config --bool core bare false git reset --hard git branch   Voiala  you have all the branches there

User · Answer

A git clone is supposed to copy the entire repository   Try cloning it  and then run git branch -a   It should list all the branches   If then you want to switch to branch  foo  instead of  master   use git checkout foo

[git] How to clone all remote branches in Git?

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