How do I list all remote branches in Git 1.7+?
GitBranchGit BranchRemote BranchGit Problem Overview
I've tried git branch -r
, but that only lists remote branches that I've tracked locally. How do I find the list of those that I haven't? (It doesn't matter to me whether the command lists all remote branches or only those that are untracked.)
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
For the vast majority[1] of visitors here, the correct and simplest answer to the question "How do I list all remote branches in Git 1.7+?" is:
git branch -r
For a small minority[1] git branch -r
does not work. If git branch -r
does not work try:
git ls-remote --heads <remote-name>
If git branch -r
does not work, then maybe as Cascabel says "you've modified the default refspec, so that git fetch
and git remote update
don't fetch all the remote
's branches".
[1] As of the writing of this footnote 2018-Feb, I looked at the comments and see that the git branch -r
works for the vast majority (about 90% or 125 out of 140).
If git branch -r
does not work, check git config --get remote.origin.fetch
contains a wildcard (*
) as per this answer
Solution 2 - Git
remote show
shows all the branches on the remote, including those that are not tracked locally and even those that have not yet been fetched.
git remote show <remote-name>
It also tries to show the status of the branches relative to your local repository:
> git remote show origin
* remote origin
Fetch URL: C:/git/.\remote_repo.git
Push URL: C:/git/.\remote_repo.git
HEAD branch: master
Remote branches:
branch_that_is_not_even_fetched new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
branch_that_is_not_tracked tracked
branch_that_is_tracked tracked
master tracked
Local branches configured for 'git pull':
branch_that_is_tracked merges with remote branch_that_is_tracked
master merges with remote master
Local refs configured for 'git push':
branch_that_is_tracked pushes to branch_that_is_tracked (fast-forwardable)
master pushes to master (up to date)
Solution 3 - Git
Using git branch -r
lists all remote branches and git branch -a
lists all branches on local and remote. These lists get outdated though. To keep these lists up-to-date, run
git remote update --prune
which will update your local branch list with all new ones from the remote and remove any that are no longer there. Running this update command without the --prune will retrieve new branches but not delete ones no longer on the remote.
You can speed up this update by specifying a remote, otherwise it will pull updates from all remotes you have added, like so
git remote update --prune origin
Solution 4 - Git
git branch -a | grep remotes/*
Solution 5 - Git
But
git branch -ar
should do it.
Solution 6 - Git
Solution 7 - Git
You also may do git fetch
followed by a git branch -r
. Without fetch you will not see the most current branches.
Solution 8 - Git
Just run a git fetch
command. It will pull all the remote branches to your local repository, and then do a git branch -a
to list all the branches.
Solution 9 - Git
The simplest way I found:
git branch -a
Solution 10 - Git
Try this...
git fetch origin
git branch -a
Solution 11 - Git
TL;TR;
This is the solution of your problem:
git remote update --prune # To update all remotes
git branch -r # To display remote branches
or:
git remote update --prune # To update all remotes
git branch <TAB> # To display all branches
Solution 12 - Git
With Git Bash, you can use:
git branch -a
Solution 13 - Git
The best command to run is git remote show [remote]
. This will show all branches, remote and local, tracked and untracked.
Here's an example from an open source project:
> git remote show origin
* remote origin
Fetch URL: https://github.com/OneBusAway/onebusaway-android
Push URL: https://github.com/OneBusAway/onebusaway-android
HEAD branch: master
Remote branches:
amazon-rc2 new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
amazon-rc3 new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
arrivalStyleBDefault new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
develop tracked
master tracked
refs/remotes/origin/branding stale (use 'git remote prune' to remove)
Local branches configured for 'git pull':
develop merges with remote develop
master merges with remote master
Local refs configured for 'git push':
develop pushes to develop (local out of date)
master pushes to master (up to date)
If we just want to get the remote branches, we can use grep
. The command we'd want to use would be:
grep "\w*\s*(new|tracked)" -E
With this command:
> git remote show origin | grep "\w*\s*(new|tracked)" -E
amazon-rc2 new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
amazon-rc3 new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
arrivalStyleBDefault new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
develop tracked
master tracked
You can also create an alias for this:
git config --global alias.branches "!git remote show origin | grep \w*\s*(new|tracked) -E"
Then you can just run git branches
.
Solution 14 - Git
The accepted answer works for me. But I found it more useful to have the commits sorted starting with the most recent.
git branch -r --sort=-committerdate
Solution 15 - Git
I would use:
git branch -av
This command not only shows you the list of all branches, including remote branches starting with /remote
, but it also provides you the *
feedback on what you updated and the last commit comments.
Solution 16 - Git
Assuming you have the following branches on a remote repository:
git branch -a
gives you:
*remotes/origin/release/1.5.0
remotes/origin/release/1.5.1
remotes/origin/release/1.5.2
remotes/origin/release/1.5.3
remotes/origin/release/1.6.0
Based on above result command git branch -rl '*/origin/release/1.5*'
gives you this:
origin/release/1.5.1
origin/release/1.5.2
origin/release/1.5.3
-r
stands for remote
-l
list using <pattern>
Solution 17 - Git
If there's a remote branch that you know should be listed, but it isn't getting listed, you might want to verify that your origin is set up properly with this:
git remote show origin
If that's all good, maybe you should run an update:
git remote update
Assuming that runs successfully, you should be able to do what the other answers say:
git branch -r
Solution 18 - Git
I ended up doing a mess shell pipeline to get what I wanted. I just merged branches from the origin remote:
git branch -r --all --merged \
| tail -n +2 \
| grep -P '^ remotes/origin/(?!HEAD)' \
| perl -p -e 's/^ remotes\/origin\///g;s/master\n//g'
Solution 19 - Git
Using this command,
git log -r --oneline --no-merges --simplify-by-decoration --pretty=format:"%n %Cred CommitID %Creset: %h %n %Cred Remote Branch %Creset :%d %n %Cred Commit Message %Creset: %s %n"
CommitID : 27385d919
Remote Branch : (origin/ALPHA)
Commit Message : New branch created
It lists all remote branches including commit messages and commit IDs that are referred to by remote branches.
Solution 20 - Git
Make sure that the remote origin you are listing is really the repository that you want and not an older clone.