gawkworkflow: Local Branches
2.3 Local Branches
==================
Let's talk about local branches in more detail. (The terminology used
here is my own, not official Git jargon.) There are two kinds of local
branches:
"Tracking Branches"
Tracking branches track branches from the upstream repository. You
first create a tracking branch simply by checking out a branch from
the upstream. You use the branch name without the leading
'origin/' prefix. For example, 'git checkout gawk-4.1-stable'.
You can then work on this branch, making commitments to it as you
wish. Once things are ready to move upstream, you simply use 'git
push', and your changes will be pushed up to the main repo.(1)
You should *never* checkout a branch using the 'origin/' prefix.
Things will get very confused. Always work on local tracking
branches.
"Purely Local Branches"
A "purely local branch" exists only on your system. You may be
developing some large new feature, or fixing a very difficult bug,
or have a change for which paperwork has not yet been completed.
In such a case, you would keep your changes on a local branch, and
periodically synchronize it with 'master' (or whichever upstream
branch you started from).
This may seem somewhat abstract so far. We demonstrate with commands
and branches in 
Development without commit access, later in this
Info file.
Let's say you have checked out a copy of 'gawk-4.1-stable' and have
created a purely local branch named 'better-random'. Then our picture
now looks like Figure 2.3 your-repo-2, where the 'T' column
indicates a tracking branch.
+===+======================++=============================+
| T | Local Branches || Remote Branches |
+===+======================++=============================+
| X | master || origin/master |
+---+----------------------++-----------------------------+
| X | gawk-4.1-stable || origin/gawk-4.1-stable |
+---+----------------------++-----------------------------+
| | || origin/gawk-4.0-stable |
+---+----------------------++-----------------------------+
| | || origin/feature/fix-comments |
+---+----------------------++-----------------------------+
| | || ... |
+---+----------------------++-----------------------------+
| | better-random || |
+---+----------------------++-----------------------------+
Figure 2.3: Your Local 'gawk' Repository With a Purely Local Branch
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) Assuming you have permission to do so, of course.
Info Catalog
gawkworkflow: Repo Copies
gawkworkflow: Using Git
gawkworkflow: Branches are state