Re: master 11abc4a: Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/scratch/lexical-gnus' into trunk

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org>
> Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2021 09:16:52 +0100
> Cc: yamaoka@jpl.org, Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>,
>  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> On Feb 02 2021, Richard Stallman wrote:
> 
> > Would someone please tell me what "remote tracking" means, concretely?
> 
> See gitglossary(7).

Which divulges this:

  remote-tracking branch
     A "ref" that is used to follow changes from another
     "repository". It typically looks like refs/remotes/foo/bar
     (indicating that it tracks a branch named bar in a remote named
     foo), and matches the right-hand-side of a configured fetch
     "refspec". A remote-tracking branch should not contain direct
     modifications or have local commits made to it.

Basically, "remote-tracking branch is a branch that tracks some
remote".  Very clear, right?

And if you think that the references clarify this, then here they are:

  ref

    A name that begins with refs/ (e.g. refs/heads/master) that points
    to an object name or another ref (the latter is called a symbolic
    ref). For convenience, a ref can sometimes be abbreviated when used
    as an argument to a Git command; see gitrevisions(7) for
    details. Refs are stored in the repository.

  refspec

    A "refspec" is used by fetch and push to describe the mapping
    between remote ref and local ref.