diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 7054c552..ed16ab13 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -2,3 +2,5 @@ source 'https://rubygems.org'
 
 gemspec :name => 'git'
 
+gem 'test-unit'
+
diff --git a/lib/git/base/factory.rb b/lib/git/base/factory.rb
index b97bfab5..9dfb87b1 100644
--- a/lib/git/base/factory.rb
+++ b/lib/git/base/factory.rb
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ def branch(branch_name = 'master')
 
       # returns a Git::Branches object of all the Git::Branch 
       # objects for this repo
-      def branches
-        Git::Branches.new(self)
+      def branches(opts=[])
+        Git::Branches.new(self, opts)
       end
       
       def commit_tree(tree = nil, opts = {})
diff --git a/lib/git/branches.rb b/lib/git/branches.rb
index fc871db8..c2b762cf 100644
--- a/lib/git/branches.rb
+++ b/lib/git/branches.rb
@@ -5,12 +5,12 @@ class Branches
 
     include Enumerable
     
-    def initialize(base)
+    def initialize(base, opts=[])
       @branches = {}
       
       @base = base
             
-      @base.lib.branches_all.each do |b|
+      @base.lib.branches_all(opts).each do |b|
         @branches[b[0]] = Git::Branch.new(@base, b[0])
       end
     end
diff --git a/lib/git/lib.rb b/lib/git/lib.rb
index a0c25de6..61758bcf 100644
--- a/lib/git/lib.rb
+++ b/lib/git/lib.rb
@@ -297,9 +297,9 @@ def change_head_branch(branch_name)
       command('symbolic-ref', ['HEAD', "refs/heads/#{branch_name}"])
     end
     
-    def branches_all
+    def branches_all(opts=[])
       arr = []
-      command_lines('branch', '-a').each do |b| 
+      command_lines('branch', opts.unshift('-a')).each do |b|
         current = (b[0, 2] == '* ')
         arr << [b.gsub('* ', '').strip, current]
       end