git pull from wrong remote branch

Question

My origin has a fixes and a fixes_v3 branch. My client has just fixes. I do a git pull git+ssh:/.../mygitrepo and suddenly on my client I have all the fixes_v3 code in the fixes branch. Why on earth did this happen? Now I try git pull ... mygitrepo fixes and it just tells me it's up to date.

git remote show origin gives this:

HEAD branch: fixes
Local refs configured for 'git push':
  fixes  pushes to fixes  (fast-forwardable)
  master pushes to master (up to date)

Answer 1

Apparently your branches are tracking the false remotes. Do a git remote show origin to see which branch remote branch fixes merges. It probably will say something like

fixes merges with remote fixes_v3

Adjust this accordingly after undoing your last merge.

Answer 2

The quick fix?

Undo all local commits. E.g.

Select branch for undo

git branch fixes

Remove local commits

git reset --hard origin/fixes

Source

How did the topic branch get messed up?

In my case, I'd done a pull without naming the destination:

git pull origin cifs_support

Since there was no local cifs_support branch, the commits from origin/cifs_support were added to master.

Are you safe?

No. Check your config using the advice in the accepted answer: use git remote show origin to see which branches are affected by git pull and git push. If branch tracking is wrong, fix it ASAP.