How do I list all remote branches in Git 1.7+?

Solution 1:

For the vast majority^[1] of visitors here, the correct and simplest answer to the question "How do I list all remote branches in Git 1.7+?" is:

git branch -r

For a small minority^[1]git branch -r does not work. If git branch -r does not work try:

git ls-remote --heads <remote-name>

If git branch -r does not work, then maybe as Cascabel says "you've modified the default refspec, so that git fetch and git remote update don't fetch all the remote's branches".

^[1] As of the writing of this footnote 2018-Feb, I looked at the comments and see that the git branch -r works for the vast majority (about 90% or 125 out of 140).

If git branch -r does not work, check git config --get remote.origin.fetch contains a wildcard (*) as per this answer

Solution 2:

remote show shows all the branches on the remote, including those that are not tracked locally and even those that have not yet been fetched.

git remote show <remote-name>

It also tries to show the status of the branches relative to your local repository:

> git remote show origin
* remote origin
  Fetch URL: C:/git/.\remote_repo.git
  Push  URL: C:/git/.\remote_repo.git
  HEAD branch: master
  Remote branches:
    branch_that_is_not_even_fetched new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
    branch_that_is_not_tracked      tracked
    branch_that_is_tracked          tracked
    master                          tracked
  Local branches configured for 'git pull':
    branch_that_is_tracked merges with remote branch_that_is_tracked
    master                 merges with remote master
  Local refs configured for 'git push':
    branch_that_is_tracked pushes to branch_that_is_tracked (fast-forwardable)
    master                 pushes to master                 (up to date)

Solution 3:

git branch -a | grep remotes/*

Solution 4:

Using git branch -r lists all remote branches and git branch -a lists all branches on local and remote. These lists get outdated though. To keep these lists up-to-date, run

git remote update --prune

which will update your local branch list with all new ones from the remote and remove any that are no longer there. Running this update command without the --prune will retrieve new branches but not delete ones no longer on the remote.

You can speed up this update by specifying a remote, otherwise it will pull updates from all remotes you have added, like so

git remote update --prune origin