Why did my Git repo enter a detached HEAD state?

Question

I ended up with a detached head today, the same problem as described in: git push says everything up-to-date even though I have local changes

As far as I know I didn

Answer 1

I reproduced this just now by accident:

1. lists the remote branches

   git branch -r
         origin/Feature/f1234
         origin/master
   

2. I want to checkout one locally, so I cut paste:

   git checkout origin/Feature/f1234
   

3. Presto! Detached HEAD state

   You are in 'detached HEAD' state. [...])
   

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Solution #1:

Do not include origin/ at the front of my branch spec when checking it out:

git checkout Feature/f1234

Solution #2:

Add -b parameter which creates a local branch from the remote

git checkout -b origin/Feature/f1234 or

git checkout -b Feature/f1234 it will fall back to origin automatically