What is a tracking branch?

fixit_fiona

Can someone explain a "tracking branch" as it applies to git? Here's the definition from git-scm.com : A 'tracking branch' in Git is a local branch that is connected to a remote branch. When you push and pull on that branch, it automatically pushes and pulls to the remote branch that it is connected with. Use this if you always pull from the same upstream branch into the new branch, and if you don't want to use "git pull" explicitly....

Originally asked by jerhinesmith on Stack Exchange (stackoverflow) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

The ProGit book has a very good explanation : Tracking Branches Checking out a local branch from a remote branch automatically creates what is called a tracking branch. Tracking branches are local branches that have a direct relationship to a remote branch. If you’re on a tracking branch and type git push , Git automatically knows which server and branch to push to. Also, running git pull while on one of these branches fetches all the remote references and then automatically merges in the corresponding remote branch. When you clone a repository, it generally automatically creates a master branch that tracks origin/master. That’s why git push and git pull work out of the box with no other...

Full answer by Assaf Lavie: https://stackoverflow.stackexchange.com/a/4693780 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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