Git branch naming

I have a git project that I've been working on for a while. One of the devs branched it and I need to work on both branches. So now I need to have the two branches - master and 2-0-stable - on my local repository. Simple:

Make sure I'm up to date

git pull

Get a local copy of the new branch

git checkout --track -b stable origin/stable

Confirm I can push and pull to both branches

git remote show origin

Which shows this:

penitentes:csh_home cpowell (2-0-stable)$ git remote show origin

* remote origin

Fetch URL: git@github.com:abakas/csh_home.git

Push URL: git@github.com:abakas/csh_home.git

HEAD branch: master

Remote branches:

2-0-stable tracked

master tracked

Local branches configured for 'git pull':

2-0-stable merges with remote 2-0-stable

master merges with remote master

Local refs configured for 'git push':

2-0-stable pushes to 2-0-stable (up to date)

master pushes to master (up to date)

And then I can switch between branches with:

git checkout [my branch name]

There are two gotchas that I ran into:

1. If you don't give your local branch the same name as the remote branch, you won't be able to push.
2. When you pull the new branch, your changes will go on the new branch as well.