Setting up a Tracking Branch in Git

If you have an open source repository, or you’re sharing code with a team, you’ll probably want to pull in changes from other people and merge them into your code. Here’s how to do it.

git remote add [persons_name] [url_to_repository]
git fetch [persons_name]
git branch --track [persons_name] [persons_name]/master
git merge [persons_name]
git push

This sets up a local branch that’s only job is to track the other person’s repository. Any time you want to pull in their changes and merge them with yours:

git co [persons_name]
git pull
git co master
git merge [persons_name]

Sources

• PeepCode
• GitCasts