Difference between 'git branch -r' and 'git remote show origin'

Question

I've seen this answer (git branch -r vs git remote show origin) which notes that one queries locally whilst the other connects to the server. However, the displayed format for these queries is different.

Is there a difference in what they display or do they simply show the same information but formatted very differently?

Answer 1

You can see exactly what's fetched from the remote server by comparing the output of git remote show origin with git remote show -n origin. The latter command will not connect to the remote server. As a result, it does not query which branch the server's HEAD is on, and uses locally cached information in a few places.

git branch -r shows information on which branches your local tracking branches push to. git remote show origin shows that, plus more information: which branch is checked out on the server, the URLs your remote uses, and how your git configuration is set up to treat a push.