How to fetch all Git branches

Question

I cloned a Git repository, which contains about five branches. However, when I do git branch I only see one of them:

$ git branch
* master

I know that I can do git branch -a to see all the branches, but how would I pull all the branches locally so when I do git branch, it shows the following?

$ git branch
* master
* staging
* etc...

Answer 1

git remote add origin https://yourBitbucketLink

git fetch origin

git checkout -b yourNewLocalBranchName origin/requiredRemoteBranch (use tab :D)

Now locally your yourNewLocalBranchName is your requiredRemoteBranch.

Answer 2

You can fetch all the branches by:

git fetch --all

or:

git fetch origin --depth=10000 $(git ls-remote -h -t origin)

^{The --depth=10000 parameter may help if you've shallowed repository.}

---

To pull all the branches, use:

git pull --all

---

If above won't work, then precede the above command with:

git config remote.origin.fetch '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*'

as the remote.origin.fetch could support only a specific branch while fetching, especially when you cloned your repo with --single-branch. Check this by: git config remote.origin.fetch.

After that you should be able to checkout any branch.

See also:

• How to fetch all remote branches?
• How to clone all remote branches in Git?

---

To push all the branches to the remote, use:

git push --all

eventually --mirror to mirror all refs.

---

If your goal is to duplicate a repository, see: Duplicating a repository article at GitHub.

Answer 3

If you are here seeking a solution to get all branches and then migrate everything to another Git server, I put together the below process. If you just want to get all the branches updated locally, stop at the first empty line.

git clone <ORIGINAL_ORIGIN>
git branch -r | awk -F'origin/' '!/HEAD|master/{print $2 " " $1"origin/"$2}' | xargs -L 1 git branch -f --track 
git fetch --all --prune --tags
git pull --all

git remote set-url origin <NEW_ORIGIN>
git pull
<resolve_any_merge_conflicts>
git push --all
git push --tags
<check_NEW_ORIGIN_to_ensure_it_matches_ORIGINAL_ORIGIN>

Answer 4

Looping didn't seem to work for me and I wanted to ignore origin/master. Here's what worked for me.

git branch -r | grep -v HEAD | awk -F'/' '{print $2 " " $1"/"$2}' | xargs -L 1 git branch -f --track

After that:

git fetch --all
git pull --all

Answer 5

If you do:

git fetch origin

then they will be all there locally. If you then perform:

git branch -a

you'll see them listed as remotes/origin/branch-name. Since they are there locally you can do whatever you please with them. For example:

git diff origin/branch-name 

or

git merge origin/branch-name

or

git checkout -b some-branch origin/branch-name

Answer 6

To list remote branches:
git branch -r

You can check them out as local branches with:
git checkout -b LocalName origin/remotebranchname