Create remote GIT branch with Visual Studio Online

Question

I am implementing a GIT repository in Visual Studio Online (and VS 2015 pro) and I am trying to implement a branching strategy that requires multiple remote branches. So, given that I start with "origin/master", I would like to branch off of that and have "origin/development".

I am guessing that I might be able to accomplish this with a command line, but is there a way to do this with VSO? Does this all even make sense, lol? I am obviously new to GIT.

Solution

Yes, you can do this from VS and VSO.

From VS:

1. Open “Branches” from Team Explorer.
2. Right click on the project you’d like to branch and select “New local branch from…” to create a local branch.
3. Right click on the new created branch and select “Publish Branch” to publish the local branch to your VSO Remote Repository.

   NOTE: In VS 2017+ it now says "Push Branch" instead of "Publish Branch"

From VSO:

1. Open your project from VSO Web Portal.
2. Click “Code” panel.
3. Click branch dropdown and select New Branch to create a branch.

Comments

[adova]

Gawd - go figure i was looking in the "Branches" tab rather than the "Explorer" tab to create branches. thx!

[adova]

From VS, the Publish Branch option is Grey Out - need to explore why that is.

[Eddie Chen - MSFT]

"Publish Branch" button will be Gray Out as soon as the branch is published to remote repository once.

[Tom McDonald]

Step 3 is different In VS 2017. It now says "Push Branch" not "publish branch". It does the same thing, however, despite the wording change.