git pull remote branch cannot find remote ref

Question

I'm not sure why this doesn't work. When I do git branch -a, this is what I see:

I'm trying to pull from the DownloadManager on the online GitHub repository. I have tried

• git pull, but then it complains about not knowing which branch to pull from
• git pull origin, doesn't know which branch
• git pull origin downloadmanager fatal: Couldn't find remote ref downloadmanager. Unexpected end of commands stream
• git pull origin remotes/origin/DownloadManager 'fatal couldn't find remote ref remotes/origin/DownloadManager. Unexpected end of commands stream

Is there something I'm missing? In Xcode, When I try to connect to the repository, nothing ever shows up. I have been able to push to it in the past. But I can't push again until I pull the most recent changes.

Answer 1

You need to set your local branch to track the remote branch, which it won't do automatically if they have different capitalizations.

Try:

git branch --set-upstream downloadmanager origin/DownloadManager
git pull

UPDATE:

'--set-upstream' option is no longer supported.

git branch --set-upstream-to downloadmanager origin/DownloadManager
git pull

Answer 2

Be careful - you have case mixing between local and remote branch!

Suppose you are in local branch downloadmanager now (git checkout downloadmanager)

You have next options:

1. Specify remote branch in pull/push commands every time (case sensitive):

   git pull origin DownloadManager

   or

   git pull origin downloadmanager:DownloadManager

---

2. Specify tracking branch on next push:

   git push -u origin DownloadManager

   (-u is a short form of --set-upstream)

   this will persist downloadmanager:DownloadManager link in config automatically (same result, as the next step).

---

3. Set in git config default remote tracking branch:

   git branch -u downloadmanager origin/DownloadManager

   (note, since git 1.8 for branch command -u is a short form of --set-upstream-to, which is a bit different from deprecated --set-upstream)

   or edit config manually (I prefer this way):

   git config --local -e

   -> This will open editor. Add block below (guess, after "master" block):

   [branch "downloadmanager"]
           remote = origin
           merge = refs/heads/DownloadManager
   

---

and after any of those steps you can use easily:

git pull

If you use TortoiseGit: RightClick on repo -> TortoiseGit -> Settings -> Git -> Edit local .git/config

Answer 3

This error happens because the local repository can't identify the remote branch at first time. So you need to do it first. It can be done using following commands:

git remote add origin 'url_of_your_github_project'

git push -u origin master