Git maintains a local copy of remote branches (to some extent, I'm not sure of the mechanics) and I believe you can cause it to update that with 'git remote update', 'git fetch' and a couple of other tools.
If you have a branch called "master", whose HEAD is currently "a4300d840a4d01767cb2e768e51f7e88cb40e8cb", for example, all that means is that there is a text file called ".git/refs/heads/master" which has the contents "a4300d840a4d01767cb2e768e51f7e88cb40e8cb".
That's all there is to a branch. Do:
cat .git/refs/heads/master
in any git repo you have on your machine and see (compare it with 'git log')
If you have a remote branch that points to the same commit, all that means is that there is a text file called ".git/refs/remotes/origin/master" which has the contents "a4300d840a4d01767cb2e768e51f7e88cb40e8cb". Again, that's all there is to a remote branch.
Well, ok, there's also an entry in your ".git/config" file that gives the URI for "origin" (or whatever you've named your remote server; origin is the default).
All these files are just text files. Have a look at them in your favourite text editor (or with less or whatever).
That's all there is to a branch. Do:
in any git repo you have on your machine and see (compare it with 'git log')If you have a remote branch that points to the same commit, all that means is that there is a text file called ".git/refs/remotes/origin/master" which has the contents "a4300d840a4d01767cb2e768e51f7e88cb40e8cb". Again, that's all there is to a remote branch.
Well, ok, there's also an entry in your ".git/config" file that gives the URI for "origin" (or whatever you've named your remote server; origin is the default).
All these files are just text files. Have a look at them in your favourite text editor (or with less or whatever).