How can I tell which remote "parent" branch my branch is based on?

Question

I have a scenario in which there a several remote tracking branches within my local repository that I must sync up to. Our workflow model is:

• make a branch locally, based off of the desired remote tracking branch
• make our changes
• build/test/fix
• commit
• push back to the remote server

I've noticed that "git status" doesn't show me what branch my local branch is based on unless something has changed; i.e. uncommitted local changes or a recent fetch puts my local branch behind the times. Is there some way of knowing what branch my local branch is based on without having to change things? Something like, "git status -showparentbranch" or some other command that would show this. Occasionally I run into this need but don't know yet how to satisfy it.

Answer 1

try this:

git log --graph --decorate 

Answer 2

Git does not track what branches a commit was put through. There is no way to tell. If the commits happened on your repo, then you can inspect the reflog, but that's about it. Take a look at the explanation of the DAG in the Pro Git book - also read up on reflog in there.

You can also visualize history better with gitk --all or git log --graph --decorate

Hope this helps.