How to check if remote branch exists on a given remote repository?

Question

I need to do a subtree merge for a specific branch, if it exists on a given remote repository. The problem is that the remote repository is not checked out locally, so I can

Answer 1

I'm combining some of the answers above in a script:

BRANCHES=(develop master 7.0 7.0-master)
ORIGIN=bitbucket
REMOTE=github

for BRANCH in "${BRANCHES[@]}"; do
  BRANCH=$(git ls-remote --heads "${ORIGIN}" "${BRANCH}" \
      | cut --delimiter=$'\t' --fields=2 \
      | sed 's,refs/heads/,,' \
      | grep --line-regexp "${BRANCH}")
  if [ -n "${BRANCH}" ]
  then
    git branch --force "${BRANCH}" "${ORIGIN}"/"${BRANCH}"
    git checkout "${BRANCH}"
    git push "${REMOTE}" "${BRANCH}"
  fi
done

git push github --tags

This script will get 4 branches from a remote bitbucket, and push them to a remote github, and will then push all tags to github. I'm using this in a Jenkins job, that's why you don't see any git fetch or git pull, that is already done in the Jenkins job repository config.

I usually prefer long-form options in scripts. I could have combined git branch and git checkout by using git checkout -B.