question about options in push window dialogue

Todd Belcher

I just started using Git Flow, and am confused.  When I go to push my commit, the push dialogue opens, and I'm unsure what to select.  I have four possible branches: develop, master, origin/develop, and origin/master.  And then each one has a Track? box beside it that is either unchecked, checked, or has a black box.  The default is develop, and seems to be working fine.  Just looking for some clarification.

First question, what is the difference between the Track? box being checked and having a black box?

Second question, why can I select two versions of each branch?  I don't really get why I would be pushing to develop vs origin/develop.

Third question, is there a user manual for sourcetree that explains this stuff?  All I've found is some extremely basic documentation, would love a much more in-depth description of what things do. 

Thanks!

Ana Retamal

Hi Todd, let's reply to your questions one by one:

1. The track box:

• Checked = Set the remote branch to be the one the local branch should track.
• Unchecked = Stop the local branch tracking anything.
• Mixed (-) = Don't change any tracking on this branch, leave it as-is (this is the default).

2. That's a bug and was reported at SRCTREEWIN-7056, it will be fixed in version 2.1. Please watch that ticket to be notified of further updates! 

3. Regarding the 'tracked' branch, this is the default remote branch for the local branch, so if you use 'git pull' or 'git push' Git knows which remote branch to use.

SourceTree uses the tracked branch to know what state you are in locally. If you switch the 'tracked' branch, SourceTree will show that new branch by default next time you open the push/pull dialogs. SourceTree will also change how it displays the notifications of how many commits ahead/behind your local branch is.

For more info I recommend you reading https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2.

If you want to learn more about SourceTree in general, our Knowledge Base is a good resource.

Hope this helps, Todd!

Cheers,

Ana