git flow - how to start working on existing feature branch

Question

I would like to start working on another developer's feature branch (we use git and git flow). AFAIK The branch has been published (pushed). How can I get it to my local repository?

I tried:

git flow feature pull origin/XXXXXX-1003b

fatal: 'origin/XXXXXX-1003b' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
Failed to pull from remote 'origin/XXXXXX-1003b'.

And:

git flow feature pull XXXXXX-1003b

fatal: 'XXXXXX-1003b' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
Failed to pull from remote 'XXXXXX-1003b'.

Please advise. Thanks

Solution 1

git flow feature track

To track an existing feature branch on a remote, use feature track:

git flow feature track xxxxxx-1003b

Alternatively just do it "the normal way":

git fetch origin
git branch -a # list all branches
git checkout feature/xxxxxx-1003b

I.e. update the remote origin, and then checkout the branch corresponding to your colleague's branch.

Solution 2

If you don't have the branch inside your repo, and you want to get it, you have to use git-flow track. This should work:

git flow feature track XXXXXX-1003b

Comments

[Travis Heeter]

What does -1003b mean? I saw that in another answer and thought it was just a random alphanumeric, but they're identical, so does it have some significance?