GIT how to merge master into branch cloned with -single-branch

Question

I have a git repository, where master is the current version of the application and each customer has their own branch with their own customizations.

I have cloned each customers branch separately into a directory using --single-branch

My goal is to merge master into my branch. I have cloned the repo using following command:

git clone {{REPO_URL}} --single-branch my-branch --branch my-branch

Then I tried:

git fetch origin -- master

git merge master

Then I am getting this

merge: master - not something we can merge

I know I could get around this by cloning entire repository, but is there anyway to work around this?

Answer 1

You just need to add the url as another remote in your local repo.

Detail commands as below:

# In local my-branch
git remote add upstream <repo URL> -f
git merge upstream/master

Now your local my-branch contains the changes from master branch.

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Update: to add remote only for master branch, you can use the command:

git remote add upstream <repo URL> -t master -f

If you already add the remote upstream with all branches, you can change it by:

git remote rm upstream
git remote add upstream <repo URL> -t master -f