Getting all branches with JGit

If it is the remote branches that you are missing, you have to set the ListMode of the ListBranchCommand to ALL or REMOTE. By default, the command returns only local branches.

new Git(repository).branchList().setListMode(ListMode.ALL).call();

I use the below method for git branches without cloning the repo using Jgit

This goes in the pom.xml

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.jgit</groupId>
        <artifactId>org.eclipse.jgit</artifactId>
        <version>4.0.1.201506240215-r</version>
    </dependency>

Method

public static List<String> fetchGitBranches(String gitUrl)
            {
                Collection<Ref> refs;
                List<String> branches = new ArrayList<String>();
                try {
                    refs = Git.lsRemoteRepository()
                            .setHeads(true)
                            .setRemote(gitUrl)
                            .call();
                    for (Ref ref : refs) {
                        branches.add(ref.getName().substring(ref.getName().lastIndexOf("/")+1, ref.getName().length()));
                    }
                    Collections.sort(branches);
                } catch (InvalidRemoteException e) {
                    LOGGER.error(" InvalidRemoteException occured in fetchGitBranches",e);
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (TransportException e) {
                    LOGGER.error(" TransportException occurred in fetchGitBranches",e);
                } catch (GitAPIException e) {
                    LOGGER.error(" GitAPIException occurred in fetchGitBranches",e);
                }
                return branches;
            }