Provided by:
git-core_1.5.4.3-1ubuntu2_i386 
NAME
git-pull - Fetch from and merge with another repository or a local
branch
SYNOPSIS
git-pull <options> <repository> <refspec>...
DESCRIPTION
Runs git-fetch with the given parameters, and calls git-merge to merge
the retrieved head(s) into the current branch.
Note that you can use . (current directory) as the <repository> to pull
from the local repository — this is useful when merging local branches
into the current branch.
OPTIONS
--summary
Show a diffstat at the end of the merge. The diffstat is also
controlled by the configuration option merge.diffstat.
-n, --no-summary
Do not show diffstat at the end of the merge.
--no-commit
Perform the merge but pretend the merge failed and do not
autocommit, to give the user a chance to inspect and further tweak
the merge result before committing.
--commit
Perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to
override --no-commit.
--squash
Produce the working tree and index state as if a real merge
happened, but do not actually make a commit or move the HEAD, nor
record $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD to cause the next git commit command to
create a merge commit. This allows you to create a single commit on
top of the current branch whose effect is the same as merging
another branch (or more in case of an octopus).
--no-squash
Perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to
override --squash.
--no-ff
Generate a merge commit even if the merge resolved as a
fast-forward.
--ff
Do not generate a merge commit if the merge resolved as a
fast-forward, only update the branch pointer. This is the default
behavior of git-merge.
-s <strategy>, --strategy=<strategy>
Use the given merge strategy; can be supplied more than once to
specify them in the order they should be tried. If there is no -s
option, a built-in list of strategies is used instead
(git-merge-recursive when merging a single head, git-merge-octopus
otherwise).
-q, --quiet
Pass --quiet to git-fetch-pack and silence any other internally
used programs.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
-a, --append
Append ref names and object names of fetched refs to the existing
contents of .git/FETCH_HEAD. Without this option old data in
.git/FETCH_HEAD will be overwritten.
--upload-pack <upload-pack>
When given, and the repository to fetch from is handled by
git-fetch-pack, --exec=<upload-pack> is passed to the command to
specify non-default path for the command run on the other end.
-f, --force
When git-fetch is used with <rbranch>:<lbranch> refspec, it refuses
to update the local branch <lbranch> unless the remote branch
<rbranch> it fetches is a descendant of <lbranch>. This option
overrides that check.
--no-tags
By default, tags that point at objects that are downloaded from the
remote repository are fetched and stored locally. This option
disables this automatic tag following.
-t, --tags
Most of the tags are fetched automatically as branch heads are
downloaded, but tags that do not point at objects reachable from
the branch heads that are being tracked will not be fetched by this
mechanism. This flag lets all tags and their associated objects be
downloaded.
-k, --keep
Keep downloaded pack.
-u, --update-head-ok
By default git-fetch refuses to update the head which corresponds
to the current branch. This flag disables the check. This is purely
for the internal use for git-pull to communicate with git-fetch,
and unless you are implementing your own Porcelain you are not
supposed to use it.
--depth=<depth>
Deepen the history of a shallow repository created by git clone
with --depth=<depth> option (see git-clone(1)) by the specified
number of commits.
<repository>
The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch or pull
operation. See the section GIT URLS below.
<refspec>
The canonical format of a <refspec> parameter is +?<src>:<dst>;
that is, an optional plus +, followed by the source ref, followed
by a colon :, followed by the destination ref.
The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if <dst> is not
empty string, the local ref that matches it is fast forwarded using
<src>. Again, if the optional plus + is used, the local ref is
updated even if it does not result in a fast forward update.
Note
If the remote branch from which you want to pull is modified in
non-linear ways such as being rewound and rebased frequently, then
a pull will attempt a merge with an older version of itself, likely
conflict, and fail. It is under these conditions that you would
want to use the + sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates will be
needed. There is currently no easy way to determine or declare that
a branch will be made available in a repository with this behavior;
the pulling user simply must know this is the expected usage
pattern for a branch.
Note
You never do your own development on branches that appear on the
right hand side of a <refspec> colon on Pull: lines; they are to be
updated by git-fetch. If you intend to do development derived from
a remote branch B, have a Pull: line to track it (i.e. Pull:
B:remote-B), and have a separate branch my-B to do your development
on top of it. The latter is created by git branch my-B remote-B (or
its equivalent git checkout -b my-B remote-B). Run git fetch to
keep track of the progress of the remote side, and when you see
something new on the remote branch, merge it into your development
branch with git pull . remote-B, while you are on my-B branch.
Note
There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec> directly
on git-pull command line and having multiple Pull: <refspec> lines
for a <repository> and running git-pull command without any
explicit <refspec> parameters. <refspec> listed explicitly on the
command line are always merged into the current branch after
fetching. In other words, if you list more than one remote refs,
you would be making an Octopus. While git-pull run without any
explicit <refspec> parameter takes default <refspec>s from Pull:
lines, it merges only the first <refspec> found into the current
branch, after fetching all the remote refs. This is because making
an Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track of
multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one is often
useful.
Some short-cut notations are also supported.
· tag <tag> means the same as refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>; it
requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
· A parameter <ref> without a colon is equivalent to <ref>: when
pulling/fetching, so it merges <ref> into the current branch
without storing the remote branch anywhere locally
GIT URLS
One of the following notations can be used to name the remote
repository:
· rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· http://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· https://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz/~user/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/~user/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/~/path/to/repo.git
SSH is the default transport protocol over the network. You can
optionally specify which user to log-in as, and an alternate, scp-like
syntax is also supported. Both syntaxes support username expansion, as
does the native git protocol, but only the former supports port
specification. The following three are identical to the last three
above, respectively:
· [user@]host.xz:/path/to/repo.git/
· [user@]host.xz:~user/path/to/repo.git/
· [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git
To sync with a local directory, you can use:
· /path/to/repo.git/
· file:///path/to/repo.git/
They are mostly equivalent, except when cloning. See git-clone(1) for
details.
REMOTES
In addition to the above, as a short-hand, the name of a file in
$GIT_DIR/remotes directory can be given; the named file should be in
the following format:
URL: one of the above URL format
Push: <refspec>
Pull: <refspec>
Then such a short-hand is specified in place of <repository> without
<refspec> parameters on the command line, <refspec> specified on Push:
lines or Pull: lines are used for git-push and git-fetch/git-pull,
respectively. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for
additional branch mappings.
Or, equivalently, in the $GIT_DIR/config (note the use of fetch instead
of Pull:):
[remote "<remote>"]
url = <url>
push = <refspec>
fetch = <refspec>
The name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches directory can be specified as
an older notation short-hand; the named file should contain a single
line, a URL in one of the above formats, optionally followed by a hash
# and the name of remote head (URL fragment notation).
$GIT_DIR/branches/<remote> file that stores a <url> without the
fragment is equivalent to have this in the corresponding file in the
$GIT_DIR/remotes/ directory.
URL: <url>
Pull: refs/heads/master:<remote>
while having <url>#<head> is equivalent to
URL: <url>
Pull: refs/heads/<head>:<remote>
MERGE STRATEGIES
resolve
This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch and
another branch you pulled from) using 3-way merge algorithm. It
tries to carefully detect criss-cross merge ambiguities and is
considered generally safe and fast.
recursive
This can only resolve two heads using 3-way merge algorithm. When
there are more than one common ancestors that can be used for 3-way
merge, it creates a merged tree of the common ancestors and uses
that as the reference tree for the 3-way merge. This has been
reported to result in fewer merge conflicts without causing
mis-merges by tests done on actual merge commits taken from Linux
2.6 kernel development history. Additionally this can detect and
handle merges involving renames. This is the default merge strategy
when pulling or merging one branch.
octopus
This resolves more than two-head case, but refuses to do complex
merge that needs manual resolution. It is primarily meant to be
used for bundling topic branch heads together. This is the default
merge strategy when pulling or merging more than one branches.
ours
This resolves any number of heads, but the result of the merge is
always the current branch head. It is meant to be used to supersede
old development history of side branches.
--rebase
Instead of a merge, perform a rebase after fetching. If there is a
remote ref for the upstream branch, and this branch was rebased
since last fetched, the rebase uses that information to avoid
rebasing non-local changes.
NOTE: This is a potentially _dangerous_ mode of operation. It
rewrites history, which does not bode well when you published that
history already. Do not use this option unless you have read git-
rebase(1) carefully.
--no-rebase
Override earlier --rebase.
DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR
Often people use git pull without giving any parameter. Traditionally,
this has been equivalent to saying git pull origin. However, when
configuration branch.<name>.remote is present while on branch <name>,
that value is used instead of origin.
In order to determine what URL to use to fetch from, the value of the
configuration remote.<origin>.url is consulted and if there is not any
such variable, the value on URL: line in $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> file
is used.
In order to determine what remote branches to fetch (and optionally
store in the tracking branches) when the command is run without any
refspec parameters on the command line, values of the configuration
variable remote.<origin>.fetch are consulted, and if there aren´t any,
$GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> file is consulted and its Pull: lines are
used. In addition to the refspec formats described in the OPTIONS
section, you can have a globbing refspec that looks like this:
refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
A globbing refspec must have a non-empty RHS (i.e. must store what were
fetched in tracking branches), and its LHS and RHS must end with /*.
The above specifies that all remote branches are tracked using tracking
branches in refs/remotes/origin/ hierarchy under the same name.
The rule to determine which remote branch to merge after fetching is a
bit involved, in order not to break backward compatibility.
If explicit refspecs were given on the command line of git pull, they
are all merged.
When no refspec was given on the command line, then git pull uses the
refspec from the configuration or $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>. In such
cases, the following rules apply:
1. If branch.<name>.merge configuration for the current branch <name>
exists, that is the name of the branch at the remote site that is
merged.
2. If the refspec is a globbing one, nothing is merged.
3. Otherwise the remote branch of the first refspec is merged.
EXAMPLES
git pull, git pull origin
Update the remote-tracking branches for the repository you cloned
from, then merge one of them into your current branch. Normally the
branch merged in is the HEAD of the remote repository, but the
choice is determined by the branch.<name>.remote and
branch.<name>.merge options; see git-config(1) for details.
git pull origin next
Merge into the current branch the remote branch next; leaves a copy
of next temporarily in FETCH_HEAD, but does not update any
remote-tracking branches.
git pull . fixes enhancements
Bundle local branch fixes and enhancements on top of the current
branch, making an Octopus merge. This git pull . syntax is
equivalent to git merge.
git pull -s ours . obsolete
Merge local branch obsolete into the current branch, using ours
merge strategy.
git pull --no-commit . maint
Merge local branch maint into the current branch, but do not make a
commit automatically. This can be used when you want to include
further changes to the merge, or want to write your own merge
commit message.
You should refrain from abusing this option to sneak substantial
changes into a merge commit. Small fixups like bumping
release/version name would be acceptable.
Command line pull of multiple branches from one repository
$ git checkout master
$ git fetch origin +pu:pu maint:tmp
$ git pull . tmp
This updates (or creates, as necessary) branches pu and tmp in the
local repository by fetching from the branches (respectively) pu
and maint from the remote repository.
The pu branch will be updated even if it is does not fast-forward;
the others will not be.
The final command then merges the newly fetched tmp into master.
If you tried a pull which resulted in a complex conflicts and would
want to start over, you can recover with git-reset(1).
SEE ALSO
git-fetch(1), git-merge(1), git-config(1)
AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano
<junkio@cox.net>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by Jon Loeliger, David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the
git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite