-#is parent branch the right thing to tell it?
-#or we want mybranch for real, don't we?
-# check_branch_state $(parent_branch_name)
- state=$(check_branch_state $(my_branch_name) )
-test_or_continue "branch state check"
-#need to instead do something here if fails.
+ local this_branch="$(my_branch_name)"
+#appears to be useless; reports no changes when we need to know about remote changes that do exist:
+#hmmm: trying it out again now that things are better elsewhere. let's see what it says.
+ state=$(check_branch_state "$this_branch")
+ echo "=> branch '$this_branch' state is: $state"
+
+ # this code is now doing what i have to do when i repair the repo. and it seems to be good so far.
+ local branch_list=$(all_branch_names)
+ local bran
+ for bran in $branch_list; do
+# echo "synchronizing remote branch: $bran"
+ git checkout "$bran"
+ test_or_die "git switching checkout to remote branch: $bran"
+
+ state=$(check_branch_state "$bran")
+ echo "=> branch '$bran' state is: $state"
+
+ remote_branch_info=$(git ls-remote --heads origin $bran 2>/dev/null)
+ if [ ! -z "$remote_branch_info" ]; then
+ # we are pretty sure the remote branch does exist.
+ git pull --no-ff origin "$bran"
+ fi
+ test_or_die "git pull of remote branch: $bran"
+ done
+ # now switch back to our branch.
+ git checkout "$this_branch"
+ test_or_die "git checking out our current branch: $this_branch"