automatically checkout a remote's "default" branch

git-auto-checkout

#!/usr/bin/env sh

# Automatically checkout a local branch that tracks whatever the remote's
# HEAD is defined as (aka, the "default" branch).
#
# Place this somewhere on your PATH and call it with:
# $ git auto-checkout [remote]
#
# Takes an optional argument specifying which remote (defaults to origin).
# Note that if the branch already exists, it will be reset to the HEAD
# of [remote]/[branch].

REMOTE=${1:-origin}

git fetch $REMOTE
[ $? -eq 0 ] || exit 1

git remote set-head $REMOTE -a

BRANCH=`git symbolic-ref --short refs/remotes/$REMOTE/HEAD | cut -d/ -f2-`

git checkout -B $BRANCH -t $REMOTE/$BRANCH