Where are my local remote branches?

Question

I have just cloned a git repo that already have a bunch of remote branches. I have poked around in the .git folder but I cannot find them, when I do a git show-ref I get:

cf8e5e98c27ee83a1ff2122f2c2a214e8e06383d refs/heads/master
cf8e5e98c27ee83a1ff2122f2c2a214e8e06383d refs/remotes/origin/HEAD
76541f13b20bb25056788f092f58547d4657bed8 refs/remotes/origin/example
cf8e5e98c27ee83a1ff2122f2c2a214e8e06383d refs/remotes/origin/master
cf8e5e98c27ee83a1ff2122f2c2a214e8e06383d refs/remotes/origin/smpl-remote
e34b3b7e54174c5b862ae16d29a3079c060c160e refs/remotes/origin/test

But the folder: .git\\refs\\remotes\\origin only contains the HEAD file

If open the repo in eclipse I can see them:

What am I missing here?

I just tried to remove the internet connection (wifi and wired) but I can still list the remote branches, where in the .git folder is that information??

Answer 1

Andrew C answered in a comment , but I'll add a bit more.

The "missing" branches are "packed". This saves space (and sometimes saves time although mostly that's a wash).

In fact, all branches get packed at various times (when git pack-refs runs, usually on behalf of git gc ). That's one of several reasons you are supposed to use various front-end and back-end commands ( git branch , git for-each-ref , git update-ref , git symbolic-ref ) to work with branches, rather than just peeking into .git/refs/ directly.

It's sometimes convenient to add .git/packed-refs to your peeking, but remember that this part is an implementation detail and may change.