Provided by:
git-core_1.6.3.3-2_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. With --rebase, calls
git-rebase instead of git-merge.
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.
Also note that options meant for git-pull itself and underlying
git-merge must be given before the options meant for git-fetch.
OPTIONS
-q, --quiet
Operate quietly.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
--stat
Show a diffstat at the end of the merge. The diffstat is also
controlled by the configuration option merge.stat.
-n, --no-stat
Do not show a diffstat at the end of the merge.
--summary, --no-summary
Synonyms to --stat and --no-stat; these are deprecated and will be
removed in the future.
--log
In addition to branch names, populate the log message with one-line
descriptions from the actual commits that are being merged.
--no-log
Do not list one-line descriptions from the actual commits being
merged.
--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 (except for the merge information), 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).
--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. To make this the default for branch
<name>, set configuration branch.<name>.rebase to true.
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.
-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. This parameter can be either a URL (see the section GIT
URLS below) or the name of a remote (see the section REMOTES
below).
<refspec>
The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus {plus},
followed by the source ref <src>, followed by a colon :, followed
by the destination ref <dst>.
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>. 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[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· https://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz[:port]/~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.
If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration
section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
insteadOf = <other url base>
For example, with this:
[url "git://git.host.xz/"]
insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
insteadOf = work:
a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
"git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
REMOTES
The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as
<repository> argument:
· a remote in the git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
· a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
· a file in the $GIT_DIR/branches directory.
All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command line
because they each contain a refspec which git will use by default.
Named remote in configuration file
You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had previously
configured using git-remote(1), git-config(1) or even by a manual edit
to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this remote will be used to
access the repository. The refspec of this remote will be used by
default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. The
entry in the config file would appear like this:
[remote "<name>"]
url = <url>
push = <refspec>
fetch = <refspec>
Named file in $GIT_DIR/remotes
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes. The
URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The refspec in
this file will be used as default when you do not provide a refspec on
the command line. This file should have the following format:
URL: one of the above URL format
Push: <refspec>
Pull: <refspec>
Push: lines are used by git-push and Pull: lines are used by git-pull
and git-fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for
additional branch mappings.
Named file in $GIT_DIR/branches
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches. The
URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This file
should have the following format:
<url>#<head>
<url> is required; #<head> is optional.
Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following refspecs,
if you don’t provide one on the command line. <branch> is the name of
this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults to master.
git fetch uses:
refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
git push uses:
HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
MERGE STRATEGIES
resolve
This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch and
another branch you pulled from) using a 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 a 3-way merge algorithm. When
there is more than one common ancestor 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 cases with more than two heads, but refuses to do a
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
branch.
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.
subtree
This is a modified recursive strategy. When merging trees A and B,
if B corresponds to a subtree of A, B is first adjusted to match
the tree structure of A, instead of reading the trees at the same
level. This adjustment is also done to the common ancestor tree.
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
· Update the remote-tracking branches for the repository you cloned
from, then merge one of them into your current branch:
$ git pull, git pull origin
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.
· Merge into the current branch the remote branch next:
$ git pull origin next
This leaves a copy of next temporarily in FETCH_HEAD, but does not
update any remote-tracking branches.
· Bundle local branch fixes and enhancements on top of the current
branch, making an Octopus merge:
$ git pull . fixes enhancements
This git pull . syntax is equivalent to git merge.
· Merge local branch obsolete into the current branch, using ours
merge strategy:
$ git pull -s ours . obsolete
· Merge local branch maint into the current branch, but do not make a
commit automatically:
$ git pull --no-commit . maint
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.
SEE ALSO
git-fetch(1), git-merge(1), git-config(1)
AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org[1]> and Junio C Hamano
<gitster@pobox.com[2]>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by Jon Loeliger, David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the
git-list <git@vger.kernel.org[3]>.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
NOTES
1. torvalds@osdl.org
mailto:torvalds@osdl.org
2. gitster@pobox.com
mailto:gitster@pobox.com
3. git@vger.kernel.org
mailto:git@vger.kernel.org