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gitremote-branch

Using Git, I have cloned a branch and would like to update to another remote branch

I have cloned a project from Github from branch, say, br1

git clone --branch br1 https://www.github.com/project/project /opt/project/

I would like to switch to branch br2 as if I had did this from the beginning:

git clone --branch br2 https://www.github.com/project/project /opt/project/

I don't want all the branches locally, only the one I use since I am on a ressource limited VPS.

Can I do something like this (pseudo code for the first line)?

git fetch origin/br2
git branch -D br1

EDIT: here is my .config

# cat .git/config 
[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = true
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
[remote "origin"]
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
    url = https://www.github.com/project/project
[branch "br1"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/br1
Solution

  • The simplest approach is to:

    • delete your current repo

    • do the clone again

      git clone --branch br2 https://www.github.com/project/project /opt/project/

    That will limit the network activity to a minimum, like a custom fetch would (but the clone is simpler than the fetch here)

    If you want to test the fetch option:

    git remote rm origin
git remote add -t branch2 origin remote-url
git fetch origin