How many types of branches exist in git?

Question

Struggling to understand how to work with remote branches and how many types of git branches there are I somehow got lost in differing namings and git versions. Here's a few things that happened to me, while believing there are only TWO types of git branches:

1. I unwillingly created a non-tracking local branch (so push and pull didn't work)
2. (I therefore decided to abandon automatic push/pull for a while)
3. I merged origin/master into my current branch without having fetched from origin before
4. I merged master into my current branch without having merged origin/master into it first.

So, after having spent some time mainly at http://git-scm.com/book and on stackoverflow, I got to the conclusion that I can actually describe FOUR instead of the commonly described two types (local vs remote) of git branches. I decided I would try to draw my understanding of how to work with remote branches, I know it is extremely reduced, but the idea would be to point in the right direction and get an idea of the different branch levels:

Edit: New picture, incorporating dunni's comment.

What do you think, how much did I get wrong? What should be added/noted?

Answer 1

You have one error in your picture: The branch origin/master doesn't exist on the server, it's called master. The branches on the server are just local branches from the servers POV.

I also wouldn't distinct between tracking branches and purely local branches, because the branches itself have no differences, other than the little configuration, which would simplify/enable pulling and pushing. But you can also pull to a local branch, which has no tracking configuration, you just need some additional arguments for the pull command.