Everywhere I look, all I see is the standard:

git add remote origin <url>

followed by: add/commit/push

I do not want to add, commit and push anything. I just want to link my remote repository, and then be able to change branches, so I can create a new branch inside my repository, and then push stuff in it. Currently, when I do the git add remote origin <url>, and then do git branch, I see nothing. git branch -r also does not nothing. Why? Where are all my branches? If I do git checkout master, it doesn't work.

What I want is to do the same thing as cloning a repo, but instead of cloning it, I want to link it to my project. I do not want to commit or push anything into my master branch.

How do I connect it?

CodePudding user response：

The reason you do not see the branches of your remote repository in you local repository is that you missed the call to git fetch.

Do a

git add remote origin <url>
git fetch origin
git branch -r

and you will see the remote branches in you local repository. You can then checkout to one of them by running

git checkout -b <branch name>

After that it is the usual add/commit/push workflow again.