1GIT-PULL(1) Git Manual GIT-PULL(1)
2
6 git-pull - Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local
7 branch
8
10 git pull [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
11
13 Incorporates changes from a remote repository into the current branch.
14 In its default mode, git pull is shorthand for git fetch followed by
15 git merge FETCH_HEAD.
16 More precisely, git pull runs git fetch with the given parameters and
18 calls git merge to merge the retrieved branch heads into the current
19 branch. With --rebase, it runs git rebase instead of git merge.
20 <repository> should be the name of a remote repository as passed to
22 git-fetch(1). <refspec> can name an arbitrary remote ref (for example,
23 the name of a tag) or even a collection of refs with corresponding
24 remote-tracking branches (e.g., refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*),
25 but usually it is the name of a branch in the remote repository.
26 Default values for <repository> and <branch> are read from the "remote"
28 and "merge" configuration for the current branch as set by git-
29 branch(1) --track.
30 Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "master":
32 A---B---C master on origin
34 /
35 D---E---F---G master
36 ^
37 origin/master in your repository
38 Then "git pull" will fetch and replay the changes from the remote
40 master branch since it diverged from the local master (i.e., E) until
41 its current commit (C) on top of master and record the result in a new
42 commit along with the names of the two parent commits and a log message
43 from the user describing the changes.
44 A---B---C origin/master
46 / \
47 D---E---F---G---H master
48 See git-merge(1) for details, including how conflicts are presented and
50 handled.
51 In Git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use git reset
53 --merge. Warning: In older versions of Git, running git pull with
54 uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you in a
55 state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict.
56 If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes,
58 the merge will be automatically canceled and the work tree untouched.
59 It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before
60 pulling or stash them away with git-stash(1).
61
63 -q, --quiet
64 This is passed to both underlying git-fetch to squelch reporting of
65 during transfer, and underlying git-merge to squelch output during
66 merging.
67 -v, --verbose
69 Pass --verbose to git-fetch and git-merge.
70 --[no-]recurse-submodules[=yes|on-demand|no]
72 This option controls if new commits of populated submodules should
73 be fetched, and if the working trees of active submodules should be
74 updated, too (see git-fetch(1), git-config(1) and gitmodules(5)).
75 If the checkout is done via rebase, local submodule commits are
77 rebased as well.
78 If the update is done via merge, the submodule conflicts are
80 resolved and checked out.
81 Options related to merging
83 --commit, --no-commit
84 Perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to
85 override --no-commit.
86 With --no-commit perform the merge and stop just before creating a
88 merge commit, to give the user a chance to inspect and further
89 tweak the merge result before committing.
90 Note that fast-forward updates do not create a merge commit and
92 therefore there is no way to stop those merges with --no-commit.
93 Thus, if you want to ensure your branch is not changed or updated
94 by the merge command, use --no-ff with --no-commit.
95 --edit, -e, --no-edit
97 Invoke an editor before committing successful mechanical merge to
98 further edit the auto-generated merge message, so that the user can
99 explain and justify the merge. The --no-edit option can be used to
100 accept the auto-generated message (this is generally discouraged).
101 Older scripts may depend on the historical behaviour of not
103 allowing the user to edit the merge log message. They will see an
104 editor opened when they run git merge. To make it easier to adjust
105 such scripts to the updated behaviour, the environment variable
106 GIT_MERGE_AUTOEDIT can be set to no at the beginning of them.
107 --cleanup=<mode>
109 This option determines how the merge message will be cleaned up
110 before committing. See git-commit(1) for more details. In addition,
111 if the <mode> is given a value of scissors, scissors will be
112 appended to MERGE_MSG before being passed on to the commit
113 machinery in the case of a merge conflict.
114 --ff, --no-ff, --ff-only
116 Specifies how a merge is handled when the merged-in history is
117 already a descendant of the current history. --ff is the default
118 unless merging an annotated (and possibly signed) tag that is not
119 stored in its natural place in the refs/tags/ hierarchy, in which
120 case --no-ff is assumed.
121 With --ff, when possible resolve the merge as a fast-forward (only
123 update the branch pointer to match the merged branch; do not create
124 a merge commit). When not possible (when the merged-in history is
125 not a descendant of the current history), create a merge commit.
126 With --no-ff, create a merge commit in all cases, even when the
128 merge could instead be resolved as a fast-forward.
129 With --ff-only, resolve the merge as a fast-forward when possible.
131 When not possible, refuse to merge and exit with a non-zero status.
132 -S[<keyid>], --gpg-sign[=<keyid>], --no-gpg-sign
134 GPG-sign the resulting merge commit. The keyid argument is optional
135 and defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be
136 stuck to the option without a space. --no-gpg-sign is useful to
137 countermand both commit.gpgSign configuration variable, and earlier
138 --gpg-sign.
139 --log[=<n>], --no-log
141 In addition to branch names, populate the log message with one-line
142 descriptions from at most <n> actual commits that are being merged.
143 See also git-fmt-merge-msg(1).
144 With --no-log do not list one-line descriptions from the actual
146 commits being merged.
147 --signoff, --no-signoff
149 Add a Signed-off-by trailer by the committer at the end of the
150 commit log message. The meaning of a signoff depends on the project
151 to which you’re committing. For example, it may certify that the
152 committer has the rights to submit the work under the project’s
153 license or agrees to some contributor representation, such as a
154 Developer Certificate of Origin. (See
155 http://developercertificate.org for the one used by the Linux
156 kernel and Git projects.) Consult the documentation or leadership
157 of the project to which you’re contributing to understand how the
158 signoffs are used in that project.
159 The --no-signoff option can be used to countermand an earlier
161 --signoff option on the command line.
162 --stat, -n, --no-stat
164 Show a diffstat at the end of the merge. The diffstat is also
165 controlled by the configuration option merge.stat.
166 With -n or --no-stat do not show a diffstat at the end of the
168 merge.
169 --squash, --no-squash
171 Produce the working tree and index state as if a real merge
172 happened (except for the merge information), but do not actually
173 make a commit, move the HEAD, or record $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD (to
174 cause the next git commit command to create a merge commit). This
175 allows you to create a single commit on top of the current branch
176 whose effect is the same as merging another branch (or more in case
177 of an octopus).
178 With --no-squash perform the merge and commit the result. This
180 option can be used to override --squash.
181 With --squash, --commit is not allowed, and will fail.
183 --no-verify
185 This option bypasses the pre-merge and commit-msg hooks. See also
186 githooks(5).
187 -s <strategy>, --strategy=<strategy>
189 Use the given merge strategy; can be supplied more than once to
190 specify them in the order they should be tried. If there is no -s
191 option, a built-in list of strategies is used instead (git
192 merge-recursive when merging a single head, git merge-octopus
193 otherwise).
194 -X <option>, --strategy-option=<option>
196 Pass merge strategy specific option through to the merge strategy.
197 --verify-signatures, --no-verify-signatures
199 Verify that the tip commit of the side branch being merged is
200 signed with a valid key, i.e. a key that has a valid uid: in the
201 default trust model, this means the signing key has been signed by
202 a trusted key. If the tip commit of the side branch is not signed
203 with a valid key, the merge is aborted.
204 --summary, --no-summary
206 Synonyms to --stat and --no-stat; these are deprecated and will be
207 removed in the future.
208 --autostash, --no-autostash
210 Automatically create a temporary stash entry before the operation
211 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means that you
212 can run the operation on a dirty worktree. However, use with care:
213 the final stash application after a successful merge might result
214 in non-trivial conflicts.
215 --allow-unrelated-histories
217 By default, git merge command refuses to merge histories that do
218 not share a common ancestor. This option can be used to override
219 this safety when merging histories of two projects that started
220 their lives independently. As that is a very rare occasion, no
221 configuration variable to enable this by default exists and will
222 not be added.
223 -r, --rebase[=false|true|merges|preserve|interactive]
225 When true, rebase the current branch on top of the upstream branch
226 after fetching. If there is a remote-tracking branch corresponding
227 to the upstream branch and the upstream branch was rebased since
228 last fetched, the rebase uses that information to avoid rebasing
229 non-local changes.
230 When set to merges, rebase using git rebase --rebase-merges so that
232 the local merge commits are included in the rebase (see git-
233 rebase(1) for details).
234 When set to preserve (deprecated in favor of merges), rebase with
236 the --preserve-merges option passed to git rebase so that locally
237 created merge commits will not be flattened.
238 When false, merge the current branch into the upstream branch.
240 When interactive, enable the interactive mode of rebase.
242 See pull.rebase, branch.<name>.rebase and branch.autoSetupRebase in
244 git-config(1) if you want to make git pull always use --rebase
245 instead of merging.
246 Note
248 This is a potentially dangerous mode of operation. It rewrites
249 history, which does not bode well when you published that
250 history already. Do not use this option unless you have read
251 git-rebase(1) carefully.
252 --no-rebase
254 Override earlier --rebase.
255 Options related to fetching
257 --all
258 Fetch all remotes.
259 -a, --append
261 Append ref names and object names of fetched refs to the existing
262 contents of .git/FETCH_HEAD. Without this option old data in
263 .git/FETCH_HEAD will be overwritten.
264 --depth=<depth>
266 Limit fetching to the specified number of commits from the tip of
267 each remote branch history. If fetching to a shallow repository
268 created by git clone with --depth=<depth> option (see git-
269 clone(1)), deepen or shorten the history to the specified number of
270 commits. Tags for the deepened commits are not fetched.
271 --deepen=<depth>
273 Similar to --depth, except it specifies the number of commits from
274 the current shallow boundary instead of from the tip of each remote
275 branch history.
276 --shallow-since=<date>
278 Deepen or shorten the history of a shallow repository to include
279 all reachable commits after <date>.
280 --shallow-exclude=<revision>
282 Deepen or shorten the history of a shallow repository to exclude
283 commits reachable from a specified remote branch or tag. This
284 option can be specified multiple times.
285 --unshallow
287 If the source repository is complete, convert a shallow repository
288 to a complete one, removing all the limitations imposed by shallow
289 repositories.
290 If the source repository is shallow, fetch as much as possible so
292 that the current repository has the same history as the source
293 repository.
294 --update-shallow
296 By default when fetching from a shallow repository, git fetch
297 refuses refs that require updating .git/shallow. This option
298 updates .git/shallow and accept such refs.
299 --negotiation-tip=<commit|glob>
301 By default, Git will report, to the server, commits reachable from
302 all local refs to find common commits in an attempt to reduce the
303 size of the to-be-received packfile. If specified, Git will only
304 report commits reachable from the given tips. This is useful to
305 speed up fetches when the user knows which local ref is likely to
306 have commits in common with the upstream ref being fetched.
307 This option may be specified more than once; if so, Git will report
309 commits reachable from any of the given commits.
310 The argument to this option may be a glob on ref names, a ref, or
312 the (possibly abbreviated) SHA-1 of a commit. Specifying a glob is
313 equivalent to specifying this option multiple times, one for each
314 matching ref name.
315 See also the fetch.negotiationAlgorithm configuration variable
317 documented in git-config(1).
318 --dry-run
320 Show what would be done, without making any changes.
321 -f, --force
323 When git fetch is used with <src>:<dst> refspec it may refuse to
324 update the local branch as discussed in the <refspec> part of the
325 git-fetch(1) documentation. This option overrides that check.
326 -k, --keep
328 Keep downloaded pack.
329 -p, --prune
331 Before fetching, remove any remote-tracking references that no
332 longer exist on the remote. Tags are not subject to pruning if they
333 are fetched only because of the default tag auto-following or due
334 to a --tags option. However, if tags are fetched due to an explicit
335 refspec (either on the command line or in the remote configuration,
336 for example if the remote was cloned with the --mirror option),
337 then they are also subject to pruning. Supplying --prune-tags is a
338 shorthand for providing the tag refspec.
339 --no-tags
341 By default, tags that point at objects that are downloaded from the
342 remote repository are fetched and stored locally. This option
343 disables this automatic tag following. The default behavior for a
344 remote may be specified with the remote.<name>.tagOpt setting. See
345 git-config(1).
346 --refmap=<refspec>
348 When fetching refs listed on the command line, use the specified
349 refspec (can be given more than once) to map the refs to
350 remote-tracking branches, instead of the values of remote.*.fetch
351 configuration variables for the remote repository. Providing an
352 empty <refspec> to the --refmap option causes Git to ignore the
353 configured refspecs and rely entirely on the refspecs supplied as
354 command-line arguments. See section on "Configured Remote-tracking
355 Branches" for details.
356 -t, --tags
358 Fetch all tags from the remote (i.e., fetch remote tags refs/tags/*
359 into local tags with the same name), in addition to whatever else
360 would otherwise be fetched. Using this option alone does not
361 subject tags to pruning, even if --prune is used (though tags may
362 be pruned anyway if they are also the destination of an explicit
363 refspec; see --prune).
364 -j, --jobs=<n>
366 Number of parallel children to be used for all forms of fetching.
367 If the --multiple option was specified, the different remotes will
369 be fetched in parallel. If multiple submodules are fetched, they
370 will be fetched in parallel. To control them independently, use the
371 config settings fetch.parallel and submodule.fetchJobs (see git-
372 config(1)).
373 Typically, parallel recursive and multi-remote fetches will be
375 faster. By default fetches are performed sequentially, not in
376 parallel.
377 --set-upstream
379 If the remote is fetched successfully, add upstream (tracking)
380 reference, used by argument-less git-pull(1) and other commands.
381 For more information, see branch.<name>.merge and
382 branch.<name>.remote in git-config(1).
383 --upload-pack <upload-pack>
385 When given, and the repository to fetch from is handled by git
386 fetch-pack, --exec=<upload-pack> is passed to the command to
387 specify non-default path for the command run on the other end.
388 --progress
390 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
391 when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This
392 flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is
393 not directed to a terminal.
394 -o <option>, --server-option=<option>
396 Transmit the given string to the server when communicating using
397 protocol version 2. The given string must not contain a NUL or LF
398 character. The server’s handling of server options, including
399 unknown ones, is server-specific. When multiple
400 --server-option=<option> are given, they are all sent to the other
401 side in the order listed on the command line.
402 --show-forced-updates
404 By default, git checks if a branch is force-updated during fetch.
405 This can be disabled through fetch.showForcedUpdates, but the
406 --show-forced-updates option guarantees this check occurs. See git-
407 config(1).
408 --no-show-forced-updates
410 By default, git checks if a branch is force-updated during fetch.
411 Pass --no-show-forced-updates or set fetch.showForcedUpdates to
412 false to skip this check for performance reasons. If used during
413 git-pull the --ff-only option will still check for forced updates
414 before attempting a fast-forward update. See git-config(1).
415 -4, --ipv4
417 Use IPv4 addresses only, ignoring IPv6 addresses.
418 -6, --ipv6
420 Use IPv6 addresses only, ignoring IPv4 addresses.
421 <repository>
423 The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch or pull
424 operation. This parameter can be either a URL (see the section GIT
425 URLS below) or the name of a remote (see the section REMOTES
426 below).
427 <refspec>
429 Specifies which refs to fetch and which local refs to update. When
430 no <refspec>s appear on the command line, the refs to fetch are
431 read from remote.<repository>.fetch variables instead (see the
432 section "CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES" in git-fetch(1)).
433 The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus +, followed
435 by the source <src>, followed by a colon :, followed by the
436 destination ref <dst>. The colon can be omitted when <dst> is
437 empty. <src> is typically a ref, but it can also be a fully spelled
438 hex object name.
439 A <refspec> may contain a * in its <src> to indicate a simple
441 pattern match. Such a refspec functions like a glob that matches
442 any ref with the same prefix. A pattern <refspec> must have a * in
443 both the <src> and <dst>. It will map refs to the destination by
444 replacing the * with the contents matched from the source.
445 If a refspec is prefixed by ^, it will be interpreted as a negative
447 refspec. Rather than specifying which refs to fetch or which local
448 refs to update, such a refspec will instead specify refs to
449 exclude. A ref will be considered to match if it matches at least
450 one positive refspec, and does not match any negative refspec.
451 Negative refspecs can be useful to restrict the scope of a pattern
452 refspec so that it will not include specific refs. Negative
453 refspecs can themselves be pattern refspecs. However, they may only
454 contain a <src> and do not specify a <dst>. Fully spelled out hex
455 object names are also not supported.
456 tag <tag> means the same as refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>; it
458 requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
459 The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if <dst> is not
461 an empty string, an attempt is made to update the local ref that
462 matches it.
463 Whether that update is allowed without --force depends on the ref
465 namespace it’s being fetched to, the type of object being fetched,
466 and whether the update is considered to be a fast-forward.
467 Generally, the same rules apply for fetching as when pushing, see
468 the <refspec>... section of git-push(1) for what those are.
469 Exceptions to those rules particular to git fetch are noted below.
470 Until Git version 2.20, and unlike when pushing with git-push(1),
472 any updates to refs/tags/* would be accepted without + in the
473 refspec (or --force). When fetching, we promiscuously considered
474 all tag updates from a remote to be forced fetches. Since Git
475 version 2.20, fetching to update refs/tags/* works the same way as
476 when pushing. I.e. any updates will be rejected without + in the
477 refspec (or --force).
478 Unlike when pushing with git-push(1), any updates outside of
480 refs/{tags,heads}/* will be accepted without + in the refspec (or
481 --force), whether that’s swapping e.g. a tree object for a blob, or
482 a commit for another commit that’s doesn’t have the previous commit
483 as an ancestor etc.
484 Unlike when pushing with git-push(1), there is no configuration
486 which’ll amend these rules, and nothing like a pre-fetch hook
487 analogous to the pre-receive hook.
488 As with pushing with git-push(1), all of the rules described above
490 about what’s not allowed as an update can be overridden by adding
491 an the optional leading + to a refspec (or using --force command
492 line option). The only exception to this is that no amount of
493 forcing will make the refs/heads/* namespace accept a non-commit
494 object.
495 Note
497 When the remote branch you want to fetch is known to be rewound
498 and rebased regularly, it is expected that its new tip will not
499 be descendant of its previous tip (as stored in your
500 remote-tracking branch the last time you fetched). You would
501 want to use the + sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates
502 will be needed for such branches. There is no way to determine
503 or declare that a branch will be made available in a repository
504 with this behavior; the pulling user simply must know this is
505 the expected usage pattern for a branch.
506 Note
508 There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec>
509 directly on git pull command line and having multiple
510 remote.<repository>.fetch entries in your configuration for a
511 <repository> and running a git pull command without any
512 explicit <refspec> parameters. <refspec>s listed explicitly on
513 the command line are always merged into the current branch
514 after fetching. In other words, if you list more than one
515 remote ref, git pull will create an Octopus merge. On the other
516 hand, if you do not list any explicit <refspec> parameter on
517 the command line, git pull will fetch all the <refspec>s it
518 finds in the remote.<repository>.fetch configuration and merge
519 only the first <refspec> found into the current branch. This is
520 because making an Octopus from remote refs is rarely done,
521 while keeping track of multiple remote heads in one-go by
522 fetching more than one is often useful.
523
525 In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the
526 address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending
527 on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
528 Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp, and
530 ftps can be used for fetching, but this is inefficient and deprecated;
531 do not use it).
532 The native transport (i.e. git:// URL) does no authentication and
534 should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
535 The following syntaxes may be used with them:
537 · ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
539 · git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
541 · http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
543 · ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
545 An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
547 · [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
549 This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the first
551 colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a colon. For
552 example the local path foo:bar could be specified as an absolute path
553 or ./foo:bar to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh url.
554 The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
556 · ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
558 · git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
560 · [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
562 For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the following
564 syntaxes may be used:
565 · /path/to/repo.git/
567 · file:///path/to/repo.git/
569 These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except when cloning, when the
571 former implies --local option. See git-clone(1) for details.
572 git clone, git fetch and git pull, but not git push, will also accept a
574 suitable bundle file. See git-bundle(1).
575 When Git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it
577 attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To
578 explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
579 · <transport>::<address>
581 where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
583 URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked.
584 See gitremote-helpers(7) for details.
585 If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
587 you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
588 will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration
589 section of the form:
590 [url "<actual url base>"]
592 insteadOf = <other url base>
593 For example, with this:
595 [url "git://git.host.xz/"]
597 insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
598 insteadOf = work:
599 a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
601 rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
602 "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
603 If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
605 configuration section of the form:
606 [url "<actual url base>"]
608 pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
609 For example, with this:
611 [url "ssh://example.org/"]
613 pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
614 a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to
616 "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still
617 use the original URL.
618
620 The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as
621 <repository> argument:
622 · a remote in the Git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
624 · a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
626 · a file in the $GIT_DIR/branches directory.
628 All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command line
630 because they each contain a refspec which git will use by default.
631 Named remote in configuration file
633 You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had previously
634 configured using git-remote(1), git-config(1) or even by a manual edit
635 to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this remote will be used to
636 access the repository. The refspec of this remote will be used by
637 default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. The
638 entry in the config file would appear like this:
639 [remote "<name>"]
641 url = <url>
642 pushurl = <pushurl>
643 push = <refspec>
644 fetch = <refspec>
645 The <pushurl> is used for pushes only. It is optional and defaults to
647 <url>.
648 Named file in $GIT_DIR/remotes
650 You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes. The
651 URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The refspec in
652 this file will be used as default when you do not provide a refspec on
653 the command line. This file should have the following format:
654 URL: one of the above URL format
656 Push: <refspec>
657 Pull: <refspec>
658 Push: lines are used by git push and Pull: lines are used by git pull
660 and git fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for
661 additional branch mappings.
662 Named file in $GIT_DIR/branches
664 You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches. The
665 URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This file
666 should have the following format:
667 <url>#<head>
669 <url> is required; #<head> is optional.
671 Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following refspecs,
673 if you don’t provide one on the command line. <branch> is the name of
674 this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults to master.
675 git fetch uses:
677 refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
679 git push uses:
681 HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
683
685 The merge mechanism (git merge and git pull commands) allows the
686 backend merge strategies to be chosen with -s option. Some strategies
687 can also take their own options, which can be passed by giving
688 -X<option> arguments to git merge and/or git pull.
689 resolve
691 This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch and
692 another branch you pulled from) using a 3-way merge algorithm. It
693 tries to carefully detect criss-cross merge ambiguities and is
694 considered generally safe and fast.
695 recursive
697 This can only resolve two heads using a 3-way merge algorithm. When
698 there is more than one common ancestor that can be used for 3-way
699 merge, it creates a merged tree of the common ancestors and uses
700 that as the reference tree for the 3-way merge. This has been
701 reported to result in fewer merge conflicts without causing
702 mismerges by tests done on actual merge commits taken from Linux
703 2.6 kernel development history. Additionally this can detect and
704 handle merges involving renames, but currently cannot make use of
705 detected copies. This is the default merge strategy when pulling or
706 merging one branch.
707 The recursive strategy can take the following options:
709 ours
711 This option forces conflicting hunks to be auto-resolved
712 cleanly by favoring our version. Changes from the other tree
713 that do not conflict with our side are reflected in the merge
714 result. For a binary file, the entire contents are taken from
715 our side.
716 This should not be confused with the ours merge strategy, which
718 does not even look at what the other tree contains at all. It
719 discards everything the other tree did, declaring our history
720 contains all that happened in it.
721 theirs
723 This is the opposite of ours; note that, unlike ours, there is
724 no theirs merge strategy to confuse this merge option with.
725 patience
727 With this option, merge-recursive spends a little extra time to
728 avoid mismerges that sometimes occur due to unimportant
729 matching lines (e.g., braces from distinct functions). Use this
730 when the branches to be merged have diverged wildly. See also
731 git-diff(1) --patience.
732 diff-algorithm=[patience|minimal|histogram|myers]
734 Tells merge-recursive to use a different diff algorithm, which
735 can help avoid mismerges that occur due to unimportant matching
736 lines (such as braces from distinct functions). See also git-
737 diff(1) --diff-algorithm.
738 ignore-space-change, ignore-all-space, ignore-space-at-eol,
740 ignore-cr-at-eol
741 Treats lines with the indicated type of whitespace change as
742 unchanged for the sake of a three-way merge. Whitespace changes
743 mixed with other changes to a line are not ignored. See also
744 git-diff(1) -b, -w, --ignore-space-at-eol, and
745 --ignore-cr-at-eol.
746 · If their version only introduces whitespace changes to a
748 line, our version is used;
749 · If our version introduces whitespace changes but their
751 version includes a substantial change, their version is
752 used;
753 · Otherwise, the merge proceeds in the usual way.
755 renormalize
757 This runs a virtual check-out and check-in of all three stages
758 of a file when resolving a three-way merge. This option is
759 meant to be used when merging branches with different clean
760 filters or end-of-line normalization rules. See "Merging
761 branches with differing checkin/checkout attributes" in
762 gitattributes(5) for details.
763 no-renormalize
765 Disables the renormalize option. This overrides the
766 merge.renormalize configuration variable.
767 no-renames
769 Turn off rename detection. This overrides the merge.renames
770 configuration variable. See also git-diff(1) --no-renames.
771 find-renames[=<n>]
773 Turn on rename detection, optionally setting the similarity
774 threshold. This is the default. This overrides the
775 merge.renames configuration variable. See also git-diff(1)
776 --find-renames.
777 rename-threshold=<n>
779 Deprecated synonym for find-renames=<n>.
780 subtree[=<path>]
782 This option is a more advanced form of subtree strategy, where
783 the strategy makes a guess on how two trees must be shifted to
784 match with each other when merging. Instead, the specified path
785 is prefixed (or stripped from the beginning) to make the shape
786 of two trees to match.
787 octopus
789 This resolves cases with more than two heads, but refuses to do a
790 complex merge that needs manual resolution. It is primarily meant
791 to be used for bundling topic branch heads together. This is the
792 default merge strategy when pulling or merging more than one
793 branch.
794 ours
796 This resolves any number of heads, but the resulting tree of the
797 merge is always that of the current branch head, effectively
798 ignoring all changes from all other branches. It is meant to be
799 used to supersede old development history of side branches. Note
800 that this is different from the -Xours option to the recursive
801 merge strategy.
802 subtree
804 This is a modified recursive strategy. When merging trees A and B,
805 if B corresponds to a subtree of A, B is first adjusted to match
806 the tree structure of A, instead of reading the trees at the same
807 level. This adjustment is also done to the common ancestor tree.
808 With the strategies that use 3-way merge (including the default,
810 recursive), if a change is made on both branches, but later reverted on
811 one of the branches, that change will be present in the merged result;
812 some people find this behavior confusing. It occurs because only the
813 heads and the merge base are considered when performing a merge, not
814 the individual commits. The merge algorithm therefore considers the
815 reverted change as no change at all, and substitutes the changed
816 version instead.
817
819 Often people use git pull without giving any parameter. Traditionally,
820 this has been equivalent to saying git pull origin. However, when
821 configuration branch.<name>.remote is present while on branch <name>,
822 that value is used instead of origin.
823 In order to determine what URL to use to fetch from, the value of the
825 configuration remote.<origin>.url is consulted and if there is not any
826 such variable, the value on the URL: line in $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>
827 is used.
828 In order to determine what remote branches to fetch (and optionally
830 store in the remote-tracking branches) when the command is run without
831 any refspec parameters on the command line, values of the configuration
832 variable remote.<origin>.fetch are consulted, and if there aren’t any,
833 $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> is consulted and its Pull: lines are used. In
834 addition to the refspec formats described in the OPTIONS section, you
835 can have a globbing refspec that looks like this:
836 refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
838 A globbing refspec must have a non-empty RHS (i.e. must store what were
840 fetched in remote-tracking branches), and its LHS and RHS must end with
841 /*. The above specifies that all remote branches are tracked using
842 remote-tracking branches in refs/remotes/origin/ hierarchy under the
843 same name.
844 The rule to determine which remote branch to merge after fetching is a
846 bit involved, in order not to break backward compatibility.
847 If explicit refspecs were given on the command line of git pull, they
849 are all merged.
850 When no refspec was given on the command line, then git pull uses the
852 refspec from the configuration or $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>. In such
853 cases, the following rules apply:
854 1. If branch.<name>.merge configuration for the current branch <name>
856 exists, that is the name of the branch at the remote site that is
857 merged.
858 2. If the refspec is a globbing one, nothing is merged.
860 3. Otherwise the remote branch of the first refspec is merged.
862
864 · Update the remote-tracking branches for the repository you cloned
865 from, then merge one of them into your current branch:
866 $ git pull
868 $ git pull origin
869 Normally the branch merged in is the HEAD of the remote repository,
871 but the choice is determined by the branch.<name>.remote and
872 branch.<name>.merge options; see git-config(1) for details.
873 · Merge into the current branch the remote branch next:
875 $ git pull origin next
877 This leaves a copy of next temporarily in FETCH_HEAD, and updates
879 the remote-tracking branch origin/next. The same can be done by
880 invoking fetch and merge:
881 $ git fetch origin
883 $ git merge origin/next
884 If you tried a pull which resulted in complex conflicts and would want
886 to start over, you can recover with git reset.
887
889 The fetch and push protocols are not designed to prevent one side from
890 stealing data from the other repository that was not intended to be
891 shared. If you have private data that you need to protect from a
892 malicious peer, your best option is to store it in another repository.
893 This applies to both clients and servers. In particular, namespaces on
894 a server are not effective for read access control; you should only
895 grant read access to a namespace to clients that you would trust with
896 read access to the entire repository.
897 The known attack vectors are as follows:
899 1. The victim sends "have" lines advertising the IDs of objects it has
901 that are not explicitly intended to be shared but can be used to
902 optimize the transfer if the peer also has them. The attacker
903 chooses an object ID X to steal and sends a ref to X, but isn’t
904 required to send the content of X because the victim already has
905 it. Now the victim believes that the attacker has X, and it sends
906 the content of X back to the attacker later. (This attack is most
907 straightforward for a client to perform on a server, by creating a
908 ref to X in the namespace the client has access to and then
909 fetching it. The most likely way for a server to perform it on a
910 client is to "merge" X into a public branch and hope that the user
911 does additional work on this branch and pushes it back to the
912 server without noticing the merge.)
913 2. As in #1, the attacker chooses an object ID X to steal. The victim
915 sends an object Y that the attacker already has, and the attacker
916 falsely claims to have X and not Y, so the victim sends Y as a
917 delta against X. The delta reveals regions of X that are similar to
918 Y to the attacker.
919
921 Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in already
922 checked out submodules right now. When e.g. upstream added a new
923 submodule in the just fetched commits of the superproject the submodule
924 itself cannot be fetched, making it impossible to check out that
925 submodule later without having to do a fetch again. This is expected to
926 be fixed in a future Git version.
927
929 git-fetch(1), git-merge(1), git-config(1)
930
932 Part of the git(1) suite
933Git 2.30.2 2021-03-08 GIT-PULL(1)