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This article outlines the difference between the git checkout -b branch origin/branchand git checkout --track origin/branchcommands. We use these two commands to check out remote branches in a Git repository.

These two commands have the same result, but the difference lies in actual usage, as we will see shortly.

Difference between git checkout -b branch origin/branch and git checkout --track origin/branch

To understand the difference between these two commands, we’ll explore what each command does when run on the terminal. Let’s jump right in.

git checkout -b branch origin/branch command

If you are familiar with Git, you must know that we use the following command to check out the remote branch.

$ git checkout <remotebranch>

The above command will create a remotebranch in our local repo and start tracking a remote branch named remotebranch (if your origin has remotebranch ).

What if our local repository already has a remotebranch and we want to create and track a remote branch with the same name? How do we do that?

This is where our git checkout -b branch origin/branchcommand comes into play. We will run:

$ git checkout -b remote-branch1 origin/remotebranch

The command above will create a remote-branch1 in our local repository , tracking remotebranch in our origin . Remember, origin is our remote.

git checkout --track origin/branch command

git checkout --track origin/branchThe command will create a branch called branch and track it in our remote branch. Sounds like the previous command, right?

The question is, when should you use it?

It is better to use the command above if our local repository contains multiple remotes with the same branch name.

Let’s look at an example.

Assume our local repository has four remote repositories and a branch called remotebranch . As shown below, we can set up a branch to track one of our remotes, in this case origin.

$ git checkout --track origin/remotebranch

The command above will create a local branch called remotebranch and track it based on remotebranch in our source .

In short, git checkout -b branch origin/branchthe and git checkout --track branch origin/branchcommands have the same result, i.e. creating a branch to track the remote.

As we discussed, the difference lies in the actual use of the two.