What is a Tracking Reference?

git git-extensions
Simon Tewsi picture Simon Tewsi · Mar 13, 2013 · Viewed 27.6k times · Source

When I push a new branch up to a remote repository via Git Extensions, I get an alert saying

The branch {branch name} does not have a tracking reference. Do
you want to add a tracking reference for {branch name}?

What is a tracking reference? I've found only a few mentions of tracking references in Google and no real definition.

Answer

Eric Walker picture Eric Walker · Mar 13, 2013

The basic idea is that there are purely local references (e.g., branches, tags), and then there are remote tracking references, which follow what happens in other repos. Because Git is decentralized, it is possible for you to choose a name for a branch that is the same as one used in a remote, without having known about the other one, such that they have completely different work on them. Git lets you do this, but it also provides a way to link local references to remote ones as well.

For example, consider the following:

% git branch -a
* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/maint
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/next
  remotes/origin/pu
  remotes/origin/todo

Here we have branches on origin called next and todo.

% git checkout -t remotes/origin/next
Branch next set up to track remote branch next from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'next'
% git branch todo

Now we have a local branch next that tracks the remote branch of the same name and local branch todo that will not be updated with changes to remotes/origin/todo.

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