So this is likely a software problem, but I think its just me misunderstanding things so I'm asking here.
I'm doing a project with multiple people for the first time and doing a github project.
As I'm understanding it, branches are just different versions, so I wanted to do a development branch and use the master branch for the finished product.
Now I can't figure why I can't update my workspace with the content of the branch. For testing I just made two different readmes in each branch. Works fine, I can just pull to get the files from the master branch.
I did all of that using the inbuilt VCS tools in PhpStorm.
So now I created the new branch (development) locally, fetched everything from the remote repo and then set up the local branch to track the remote branch with
git branch --track development origin/development
If I understood everything correctly, I should now be able to pull everything from the branch, right? Keep in mind I still have the master readme in my workspace, but when I pull or try to commit changes it tells me there are no changes every time, although the readmes are clearly different.
Am I doing something wrong or misunderstanding something?
First of all start by reading about Git flow which will suit your need to develop and use master for production.
To understand more about branches read this question:
Now I can't figure why I can't update my workspace with the content of the branch
You will need to merge your branch (the one which you developed on) into the current branch.
git pull <my other branch>
This will "update" your current branch with the content of the second branch.
... If I understood everything correctly, I should now be able to pull everything from the branch, right?
The simple answer is yes. but it would be better if you continue developing on a separate branch and once in a while pull the content of the development branch into your current branch instead of changing it tracking branch.