Managing Remote Servers and Remote-Tracking Branches

Remotes in the Sidebar

All of the remote servers added to your repository are listed under Remotes in the sidebar.

In turn, remote-tracking branches are listed under their respective remotes.

Adding a new remote

Right-click on Remotes in the sidebar and select Add Remote (or just double-click on Remotes) to bring up the “Add Remote” dialog:

The Add Remote dialog.

Fields in the Add Remote dialog

Item	Description
URL	The URL will be used to fetch from, and push to, this remote. GitFourchette automatically fills in the URL from your clipboard if possible. You can use the ssh/https button to convert the URL to another protocol.
Name	You can name the remote however you want, bar some restrictions. GitFourchette will let you know if the name you’ve entered isn’t compliant.
Log in with custom key file	By default, GitFourchette automatically looks for a matching key in your ~/.ssh directory if the remote requires authentication. Log in with custom key file lets you bypass automatic key detection and specify which key file to use to connect to this remote.

Note

Log in with custom key file is particularly useful if you have multiple repos requiring different credentials—for example, if you juggle between two accounts for personal use and for work.

Sidebar context menu for remotes

Right-click on a remote in the sidebar to bring up a context menu with the following actions:

Actions in the Remote context menu (from the Sidebar)

Action	Description
Edit Remote	Edit the remote’s name, URL, and optional custom key file. This is essentially the same dialog as Add Remote.
Fetch All Remote Branches	Fetch all remote-tracking branches from this remote. After this operation, remote-tracking branches may appear or disappear depending on activity on the remote. Won’t touch your local branches.
Remove Remote	Delete this remote from your local repository. Won’t have any effect on the server itself.
Visit Web Page	Open your web browser to the home page for this repository (e.g. on github.com if that’s where your repo is hosted).
Copy Remote URL	Copies the remote’s URL to the clipboard.

Tip

Double-click on a remote to edit it.

When a remote has keyboard focus in the sidebar, hit Enter to edit it, or Del to remove it.

Sidebar context menu for remote-tracking branches

Right-click on a remote-tracking branch in the sidebar to bring up a context menu with the following actions:

Actions in the Remote-Tracking Branch context menu (from the Sidebar)

Action	Description
Start Local Branch From Here	Create a new local branch that targets the tip of the remote-tracking branch.
Fetch New Commits	Fetch new commits from the remote on this specific remote-tracking branch only.
Merge Into (current branch)	Merge the remote-tracking branch into your current local branch. This will attempt a fast-forward if possible. See also: Resolving Merge Conflicts.
Rename Branch on Remote	Instruct the remote server to rename this branch. (This will rename the branch for all users of the remote!)
Delete Branch on Remote	Instruct the remote server to delete this branch. (Make sure this branch isn’t needed by anybody else that uses this remote!)
Visit Web Page	Open your web browser to the page for this branch on the host’s web site (e.g. github.com).

Tip

Double-click on a remote-tracking branch to start a local branch from it.

When a remote-tracking branch has keyboard focus in the sidebar, hit Enter to start a local branch from it, or Del to delete it from the remote.

Sorting remote-tracking branches in the Sidebar

Like local branches, remote-tracking branches can be sorted in the sidebar:

• by their name, or

• by the date of the latest commit at the tip of each branch.

To select a sorting mode, right-click on Remotes in the sidebar and pick an option under Sort Remote Branches By.