1GIT-PULL(1) Git Manual GIT-PULL(1)
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3
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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 If the current branch is behind the remote, then by default it will
15 fast-forward the current branch to match the remote. If the current
16 branch and the remote have diverged, the user needs to specify how to
17 reconcile the divergent branches with --rebase or --no-rebase (or the
18 corresponding configuration option in pull.rebase).
19
20 More precisely, git pull runs git fetch with the given parameters and
21 then depending on configuration options or command line flags, will
22 call either git rebase or git merge to reconcile diverging branches.
23
24 <repository> should be the name of a remote repository as passed to
25 git-fetch(1). <refspec> can name an arbitrary remote ref (for example,
26 the name of a tag) or even a collection of refs with corresponding
27 remote-tracking branches (e.g., refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*),
28 but usually it is the name of a branch in the remote repository.
29
30 Default values for <repository> and <branch> are read from the "remote"
31 and "merge" configuration for the current branch as set by git-
32 branch(1) --track.
33
34 Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "master":
35
36 A---B---C master on origin
37 /
38 D---E---F---G master
39 ^
40 origin/master in your repository
41
42 Then "git pull" will fetch and replay the changes from the remote
43 master branch since it diverged from the local master (i.e., E) until
44 its current commit (C) on top of master and record the result in a new
45 commit along with the names of the two parent commits and a log message
46 from the user describing the changes.
47
48 A---B---C origin/master
49 / \
50 D---E---F---G---H master
51
52 See git-merge(1) for details, including how conflicts are presented and
53 handled.
54
55 In Git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use git reset
56 --merge. Warning: In older versions of Git, running git pull with
57 uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you in a
58 state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict.
59
60 If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes,
61 the merge will be automatically canceled and the work tree untouched.
62 It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before
63 pulling or stash them away with git-stash(1).
64
66 -q, --quiet
67 This is passed to both underlying git-fetch to squelch reporting of
68 during transfer, and underlying git-merge to squelch output during
69 merging.
70
71 -v, --verbose
72 Pass --verbose to git-fetch and git-merge.
73
74 --[no-]recurse-submodules[=yes|on-demand|no]
75 This option controls if new commits of populated submodules should
76 be fetched, and if the working trees of active submodules should be
77 updated, too (see git-fetch(1), git-config(1) and gitmodules(5)).
78
79 If the checkout is done via rebase, local submodule commits are
80 rebased as well.
81
82 If the update is done via merge, the submodule conflicts are
83 resolved and checked out.
84
85 Options related to merging
86 --commit, --no-commit
87 Perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to
88 override --no-commit. Only useful when merging.
89
90 With --no-commit perform the merge and stop just before creating a
91 merge commit, to give the user a chance to inspect and further
92 tweak the merge result before committing.
93
94 Note that fast-forward updates do not create a merge commit and
95 therefore there is no way to stop those merges with --no-commit.
96 Thus, if you want to ensure your branch is not changed or updated
97 by the merge command, use --no-ff with --no-commit.
98
99 --edit, -e, --no-edit
100 Invoke an editor before committing successful mechanical merge to
101 further edit the auto-generated merge message, so that the user can
102 explain and justify the merge. The --no-edit option can be used to
103 accept the auto-generated message (this is generally discouraged).
104
105 Older scripts may depend on the historical behaviour of not
106 allowing the user to edit the merge log message. They will see an
107 editor opened when they run git merge. To make it easier to adjust
108 such scripts to the updated behaviour, the environment variable
109 GIT_MERGE_AUTOEDIT can be set to no at the beginning of them.
110
111 --cleanup=<mode>
112 This option determines how the merge message will be cleaned up
113 before committing. See git-commit(1) for more details. In addition,
114 if the <mode> is given a value of scissors, scissors will be
115 appended to MERGE_MSG before being passed on to the commit
116 machinery in the case of a merge conflict.
117
118 --ff-only
119 Only update to the new history if there is no divergent local
120 history. This is the default when no method for reconciling
121 divergent histories is provided (via the --rebase=* flags).
122
123 --ff, --no-ff
124 When merging rather than rebasing, specifies how a merge is handled
125 when the merged-in history is already a descendant of the current
126 history. If merging is requested, --ff is the default unless
127 merging an annotated (and possibly signed) tag that is not stored
128 in its natural place in the refs/tags/ hierarchy, in which case
129 --no-ff is assumed.
130
131 With --ff, when possible resolve the merge as a fast-forward (only
132 update the branch pointer to match the merged branch; do not create
133 a merge commit). When not possible (when the merged-in history is
134 not a descendant of the current history), create a merge commit.
135
136 With --no-ff, create a merge commit in all cases, even when the
137 merge could instead be resolved as a fast-forward.
138
139 -S[<keyid>], --gpg-sign[=<keyid>], --no-gpg-sign
140 GPG-sign the resulting merge commit. The keyid argument is optional
141 and defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be
142 stuck to the option without a space. --no-gpg-sign is useful to
143 countermand both commit.gpgSign configuration variable, and earlier
144 --gpg-sign.
145
146 --log[=<n>], --no-log
147 In addition to branch names, populate the log message with one-line
148 descriptions from at most <n> actual commits that are being merged.
149 See also git-fmt-merge-msg(1). Only useful when merging.
150
151 With --no-log do not list one-line descriptions from the actual
152 commits being merged.
153
154 --signoff, --no-signoff
155 Add a Signed-off-by trailer by the committer at the end of the
156 commit log message. The meaning of a signoff depends on the project
157 to which you’re committing. For example, it may certify that the
158 committer has the rights to submit the work under the project’s
159 license or agrees to some contributor representation, such as a
160 Developer Certificate of Origin. (See
161 http://developercertificate.org for the one used by the Linux
162 kernel and Git projects.) Consult the documentation or leadership
163 of the project to which you’re contributing to understand how the
164 signoffs are used in that project.
165
166 The --no-signoff option can be used to countermand an earlier
167 --signoff option on the command line.
168
169 --stat, -n, --no-stat
170 Show a diffstat at the end of the merge. The diffstat is also
171 controlled by the configuration option merge.stat.
172
173 With -n or --no-stat do not show a diffstat at the end of the
174 merge.
175
176 --squash, --no-squash
177 Produce the working tree and index state as if a real merge
178 happened (except for the merge information), but do not actually
179 make a commit, move the HEAD, or record $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD (to
180 cause the next git commit command to create a merge commit). This
181 allows you to create a single commit on top of the current branch
182 whose effect is the same as merging another branch (or more in case
183 of an octopus).
184
185 With --no-squash perform the merge and commit the result. This
186 option can be used to override --squash.
187
188 With --squash, --commit is not allowed, and will fail.
189
190 Only useful when merging.
191
192 --[no-]verify
193 By default, the pre-merge and commit-msg hooks are run. When
194 --no-verify is given, these are bypassed. See also githooks(5).
195 Only useful when merging.
196
197 -s <strategy>, --strategy=<strategy>
198 Use the given merge strategy; can be supplied more than once to
199 specify them in the order they should be tried. If there is no -s
200 option, a built-in list of strategies is used instead (ort when
201 merging a single head, octopus otherwise).
202
203 -X <option>, --strategy-option=<option>
204 Pass merge strategy specific option through to the merge strategy.
205
206 --verify-signatures, --no-verify-signatures
207 Verify that the tip commit of the side branch being merged is
208 signed with a valid key, i.e. a key that has a valid uid: in the
209 default trust model, this means the signing key has been signed by
210 a trusted key. If the tip commit of the side branch is not signed
211 with a valid key, the merge is aborted.
212
213 Only useful when merging.
214
215 --summary, --no-summary
216 Synonyms to --stat and --no-stat; these are deprecated and will be
217 removed in the future.
218
219 --autostash, --no-autostash
220 Automatically create a temporary stash entry before the operation
221 begins, record it in the special ref MERGE_AUTOSTASH and apply it
222 after the operation ends. This means that you can run the operation
223 on a dirty worktree. However, use with care: the final stash
224 application after a successful merge might result in non-trivial
225 conflicts.
226
227 --allow-unrelated-histories
228 By default, git merge command refuses to merge histories that do
229 not share a common ancestor. This option can be used to override
230 this safety when merging histories of two projects that started
231 their lives independently. As that is a very rare occasion, no
232 configuration variable to enable this by default exists and will
233 not be added.
234
235 Only useful when merging.
236
237 -r, --rebase[=false|true|merges|interactive]
238 When true, rebase the current branch on top of the upstream branch
239 after fetching. If there is a remote-tracking branch corresponding
240 to the upstream branch and the upstream branch was rebased since
241 last fetched, the rebase uses that information to avoid rebasing
242 non-local changes.
243
244 When set to merges, rebase using git rebase --rebase-merges so that
245 the local merge commits are included in the rebase (see git-
246 rebase(1) for details).
247
248 When false, merge the upstream branch into the current branch.
249
250 When interactive, enable the interactive mode of rebase.
251
252 See pull.rebase, branch.<name>.rebase and branch.autoSetupRebase in
253 git-config(1) if you want to make git pull always use --rebase
254 instead of merging.
255
256 Note
257 This is a potentially dangerous mode of operation. It rewrites
258 history, which does not bode well when you published that
259 history already. Do not use this option unless you have read
260 git-rebase(1) carefully.
261
262 --no-rebase
263 This is shorthand for --rebase=false.
264
265 Options related to fetching
266 --all
267 Fetch all remotes.
268
269 -a, --append
270 Append ref names and object names of fetched refs to the existing
271 contents of .git/FETCH_HEAD. Without this option old data in
272 .git/FETCH_HEAD will be overwritten.
273
274 --atomic
275 Use an atomic transaction to update local refs. Either all refs are
276 updated, or on error, no refs are updated.
277
278 --depth=<depth>
279 Limit fetching to the specified number of commits from the tip of
280 each remote branch history. If fetching to a shallow repository
281 created by git clone with --depth=<depth> option (see git-
282 clone(1)), deepen or shorten the history to the specified number of
283 commits. Tags for the deepened commits are not fetched.
284
285 --deepen=<depth>
286 Similar to --depth, except it specifies the number of commits from
287 the current shallow boundary instead of from the tip of each remote
288 branch history.
289
290 --shallow-since=<date>
291 Deepen or shorten the history of a shallow repository to include
292 all reachable commits after <date>.
293
294 --shallow-exclude=<revision>
295 Deepen or shorten the history of a shallow repository to exclude
296 commits reachable from a specified remote branch or tag. This
297 option can be specified multiple times.
298
299 --unshallow
300 If the source repository is complete, convert a shallow repository
301 to a complete one, removing all the limitations imposed by shallow
302 repositories.
303
304 If the source repository is shallow, fetch as much as possible so
305 that the current repository has the same history as the source
306 repository.
307
308 --update-shallow
309 By default when fetching from a shallow repository, git fetch
310 refuses refs that require updating .git/shallow. This option
311 updates .git/shallow and accepts such refs.
312
313 --negotiation-tip=<commit|glob>
314 By default, Git will report, to the server, commits reachable from
315 all local refs to find common commits in an attempt to reduce the
316 size of the to-be-received packfile. If specified, Git will only
317 report commits reachable from the given tips. This is useful to
318 speed up fetches when the user knows which local ref is likely to
319 have commits in common with the upstream ref being fetched.
320
321 This option may be specified more than once; if so, Git will report
322 commits reachable from any of the given commits.
323
324 The argument to this option may be a glob on ref names, a ref, or
325 the (possibly abbreviated) SHA-1 of a commit. Specifying a glob is
326 equivalent to specifying this option multiple times, one for each
327 matching ref name.
328
329 See also the fetch.negotiationAlgorithm and push.negotiate
330 configuration variables documented in git-config(1), and the
331 --negotiate-only option below.
332
333 --negotiate-only
334 Do not fetch anything from the server, and instead print the
335 ancestors of the provided --negotiation-tip=* arguments, which we
336 have in common with the server.
337
338 This is incompatible with --recurse-submodules=[yes|on-demand].
339 Internally this is used to implement the push.negotiate option, see
340 git-config(1).
341
342 --dry-run
343 Show what would be done, without making any changes.
344
345 --porcelain
346 Print the output to standard output in an easy-to-parse format for
347 scripts. See section OUTPUT in git-fetch(1) for details.
348
349 This is incompatible with --recurse-submodules=[yes|on-demand] and
350 takes precedence over the fetch.output config option.
351
352 -f, --force
353 When git fetch is used with <src>:<dst> refspec, it may refuse to
354 update the local branch as discussed in the <refspec> part of the
355 git-fetch(1) documentation. This option overrides that check.
356
357 -k, --keep
358 Keep downloaded pack.
359
360 --prefetch
361 Modify the configured refspec to place all refs into the
362 refs/prefetch/ namespace. See the prefetch task in git-
363 maintenance(1).
364
365 -p, --prune
366 Before fetching, remove any remote-tracking references that no
367 longer exist on the remote. Tags are not subject to pruning if they
368 are fetched only because of the default tag auto-following or due
369 to a --tags option. However, if tags are fetched due to an explicit
370 refspec (either on the command line or in the remote configuration,
371 for example if the remote was cloned with the --mirror option),
372 then they are also subject to pruning. Supplying --prune-tags is a
373 shorthand for providing the tag refspec.
374
375 --no-tags
376 By default, tags that point at objects that are downloaded from the
377 remote repository are fetched and stored locally. This option
378 disables this automatic tag following. The default behavior for a
379 remote may be specified with the remote.<name>.tagOpt setting. See
380 git-config(1).
381
382 --refmap=<refspec>
383 When fetching refs listed on the command line, use the specified
384 refspec (can be given more than once) to map the refs to
385 remote-tracking branches, instead of the values of remote.*.fetch
386 configuration variables for the remote repository. Providing an
387 empty <refspec> to the --refmap option causes Git to ignore the
388 configured refspecs and rely entirely on the refspecs supplied as
389 command-line arguments. See section on "Configured Remote-tracking
390 Branches" for details.
391
392 -t, --tags
393 Fetch all tags from the remote (i.e., fetch remote tags refs/tags/*
394 into local tags with the same name), in addition to whatever else
395 would otherwise be fetched. Using this option alone does not
396 subject tags to pruning, even if --prune is used (though tags may
397 be pruned anyway if they are also the destination of an explicit
398 refspec; see --prune).
399
400 -j, --jobs=<n>
401 Number of parallel children to be used for all forms of fetching.
402
403 If the --multiple option was specified, the different remotes will
404 be fetched in parallel. If multiple submodules are fetched, they
405 will be fetched in parallel. To control them independently, use the
406 config settings fetch.parallel and submodule.fetchJobs (see git-
407 config(1)).
408
409 Typically, parallel recursive and multi-remote fetches will be
410 faster. By default fetches are performed sequentially, not in
411 parallel.
412
413 --set-upstream
414 If the remote is fetched successfully, add upstream (tracking)
415 reference, used by argument-less git-pull(1) and other commands.
416 For more information, see branch.<name>.merge and
417 branch.<name>.remote in git-config(1).
418
419 --upload-pack <upload-pack>
420 When given, and the repository to fetch from is handled by git
421 fetch-pack, --exec=<upload-pack> is passed to the command to
422 specify non-default path for the command run on the other end.
423
424 --progress
425 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
426 when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This
427 flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is
428 not directed to a terminal.
429
430 -o <option>, --server-option=<option>
431 Transmit the given string to the server when communicating using
432 protocol version 2. The given string must not contain a NUL or LF
433 character. The server’s handling of server options, including
434 unknown ones, is server-specific. When multiple
435 --server-option=<option> are given, they are all sent to the other
436 side in the order listed on the command line.
437
438 --show-forced-updates
439 By default, git checks if a branch is force-updated during fetch.
440 This can be disabled through fetch.showForcedUpdates, but the
441 --show-forced-updates option guarantees this check occurs. See git-
442 config(1).
443
444 --no-show-forced-updates
445 By default, git checks if a branch is force-updated during fetch.
446 Pass --no-show-forced-updates or set fetch.showForcedUpdates to
447 false to skip this check for performance reasons. If used during
448 git-pull the --ff-only option will still check for forced updates
449 before attempting a fast-forward update. See git-config(1).
450
451 -4, --ipv4
452 Use IPv4 addresses only, ignoring IPv6 addresses.
453
454 -6, --ipv6
455 Use IPv6 addresses only, ignoring IPv4 addresses.
456
457 <repository>
458 The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch or pull
459 operation. This parameter can be either a URL (see the section GIT
460 URLS below) or the name of a remote (see the section REMOTES
461 below).
462
463 <refspec>
464 Specifies which refs to fetch and which local refs to update. When
465 no <refspec>s appear on the command line, the refs to fetch are
466 read from remote.<repository>.fetch variables instead (see the
467 section "CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES" in git-fetch(1)).
468
469 The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus +, followed
470 by the source <src>, followed by a colon :, followed by the
471 destination ref <dst>. The colon can be omitted when <dst> is
472 empty. <src> is typically a ref, but it can also be a fully spelled
473 hex object name.
474
475 A <refspec> may contain a * in its <src> to indicate a simple
476 pattern match. Such a refspec functions like a glob that matches
477 any ref with the same prefix. A pattern <refspec> must have a * in
478 both the <src> and <dst>. It will map refs to the destination by
479 replacing the * with the contents matched from the source.
480
481 If a refspec is prefixed by ^, it will be interpreted as a negative
482 refspec. Rather than specifying which refs to fetch or which local
483 refs to update, such a refspec will instead specify refs to
484 exclude. A ref will be considered to match if it matches at least
485 one positive refspec, and does not match any negative refspec.
486 Negative refspecs can be useful to restrict the scope of a pattern
487 refspec so that it will not include specific refs. Negative
488 refspecs can themselves be pattern refspecs. However, they may only
489 contain a <src> and do not specify a <dst>. Fully spelled out hex
490 object names are also not supported.
491
492 tag <tag> means the same as refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>; it
493 requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
494
495 The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if <dst> is not
496 an empty string, an attempt is made to update the local ref that
497 matches it.
498
499 Whether that update is allowed without --force depends on the ref
500 namespace it’s being fetched to, the type of object being fetched,
501 and whether the update is considered to be a fast-forward.
502 Generally, the same rules apply for fetching as when pushing, see
503 the <refspec>... section of git-push(1) for what those are.
504 Exceptions to those rules particular to git fetch are noted below.
505
506 Until Git version 2.20, and unlike when pushing with git-push(1),
507 any updates to refs/tags/* would be accepted without + in the
508 refspec (or --force). When fetching, we promiscuously considered
509 all tag updates from a remote to be forced fetches. Since Git
510 version 2.20, fetching to update refs/tags/* works the same way as
511 when pushing. I.e. any updates will be rejected without + in the
512 refspec (or --force).
513
514 Unlike when pushing with git-push(1), any updates outside of
515 refs/{tags,heads}/* will be accepted without + in the refspec (or
516 --force), whether that’s swapping e.g. a tree object for a blob, or
517 a commit for another commit that doesn’t have the previous commit
518 as an ancestor etc.
519
520 Unlike when pushing with git-push(1), there is no configuration
521 which’ll amend these rules, and nothing like a pre-fetch hook
522 analogous to the pre-receive hook.
523
524 As with pushing with git-push(1), all of the rules described above
525 about what’s not allowed as an update can be overridden by adding
526 an optional leading + to a refspec (or using the --force command
527 line option). The only exception to this is that no amount of
528 forcing will make the refs/heads/* namespace accept a non-commit
529 object.
530
531 Note
532 When the remote branch you want to fetch is known to be rewound
533 and rebased regularly, it is expected that its new tip will not
534 be a descendant of its previous tip (as stored in your
535 remote-tracking branch the last time you fetched). You would
536 want to use the + sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates
537 will be needed for such branches. There is no way to determine
538 or declare that a branch will be made available in a repository
539 with this behavior; the pulling user simply must know this is
540 the expected usage pattern for a branch.
541
542 Note
543 There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec>
544 directly on git pull command line and having multiple
545 remote.<repository>.fetch entries in your configuration for a
546 <repository> and running a git pull command without any
547 explicit <refspec> parameters. <refspec>s listed explicitly on
548 the command line are always merged into the current branch
549 after fetching. In other words, if you list more than one
550 remote ref, git pull will create an Octopus merge. On the other
551 hand, if you do not list any explicit <refspec> parameter on
552 the command line, git pull will fetch all the <refspec>s it
553 finds in the remote.<repository>.fetch configuration and merge
554 only the first <refspec> found into the current branch. This is
555 because making an Octopus from remote refs is rarely done,
556 while keeping track of multiple remote heads in one-go by
557 fetching more than one is often useful.
558
560 In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the
561 address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending
562 on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
563
564 Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp and
565 ftps can be used for fetching, but this is inefficient and deprecated;
566 do not use them).
567
568 The native transport (i.e. git:// URL) does no authentication and
569 should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
570
571 The following syntaxes may be used with them:
572
573 • ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
574
575 • git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
576
577 • http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
578
579 • ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
580
581 An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
582
583 • [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
584
585 This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the first
586 colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a colon. For
587 example the local path foo:bar could be specified as an absolute path
588 or ./foo:bar to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh url.
589
590 The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
591
592 • ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
593
594 • git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
595
596 • [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
597
598 For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the following
599 syntaxes may be used:
600
601 • /path/to/repo.git/
602
603 • file:///path/to/repo.git/
604
605 These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except when cloning, when the
606 former implies --local option. See git-clone(1) for details.
607
608 git clone, git fetch and git pull, but not git push, will also accept a
609 suitable bundle file. See git-bundle(1).
610
611 When Git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it
612 attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To
613 explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
614
615 • <transport>::<address>
616
617 where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
618 URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked.
619 See gitremote-helpers(7) for details.
620
621 If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
622 you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
623 will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration
624 section of the form:
625
626 [url "<actual url base>"]
627 insteadOf = <other url base>
628
629 For example, with this:
630
631 [url "git://git.host.xz/"]
632 insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
633 insteadOf = work:
634
635 a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
636 rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
637 "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
638
639 If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
640 configuration section of the form:
641
642 [url "<actual url base>"]
643 pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
644
645 For example, with this:
646
647 [url "ssh://example.org/"]
648 pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
649
650 a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to
651 "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still
652 use the original URL.
653
655 The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as
656 <repository> argument:
657
658 • a remote in the Git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
659
660 • a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
661
662 • a file in the $GIT_DIR/branches directory.
663
664 All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command line
665 because they each contain a refspec which git will use by default.
666
667 Named remote in configuration file
668 You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had previously
669 configured using git-remote(1), git-config(1) or even by a manual edit
670 to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this remote will be used to
671 access the repository. The refspec of this remote will be used by
672 default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. The
673 entry in the config file would appear like this:
674
675 [remote "<name>"]
676 url = <URL>
677 pushurl = <pushurl>
678 push = <refspec>
679 fetch = <refspec>
680
681 The <pushurl> is used for pushes only. It is optional and defaults to
682 <URL>. Pushing to a remote affects all defined pushurls or all defined
683 urls if no pushurls are defined. Fetch, however, will only fetch from
684 the first defined url if multiple urls are defined.
685
686 Named file in $GIT_DIR/remotes
687 You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes. The
688 URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The refspec in
689 this file will be used as default when you do not provide a refspec on
690 the command line. This file should have the following format:
691
692 URL: one of the above URL formats
693 Push: <refspec>
694 Pull: <refspec>
695
696 Push: lines are used by git push and Pull: lines are used by git pull
697 and git fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for
698 additional branch mappings.
699
700 Named file in $GIT_DIR/branches
701 You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches. The
702 URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This file
703 should have the following format:
704
705 <URL>#<head>
706
707 <URL> is required; #<head> is optional.
708
709 Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following refspecs,
710 if you don’t provide one on the command line. <branch> is the name of
711 this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults to master.
712
713 git fetch uses:
714
715 refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
716
717 git push uses:
718
719 HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
720
722 The merge mechanism (git merge and git pull commands) allows the
723 backend merge strategies to be chosen with -s option. Some strategies
724 can also take their own options, which can be passed by giving
725 -X<option> arguments to git merge and/or git pull.
726
727 ort
728 This is the default merge strategy when pulling or merging one
729 branch. This strategy can only resolve two heads using a 3-way
730 merge algorithm. When there is more than one common ancestor that
731 can be used for 3-way merge, it creates a merged tree of the common
732 ancestors and uses that as the reference tree for the 3-way merge.
733 This has been reported to result in fewer merge conflicts without
734 causing mismerges by tests done on actual merge commits taken from
735 Linux 2.6 kernel development history. Additionally this strategy
736 can detect and handle merges involving renames. It does not make
737 use of detected copies. The name for this algorithm is an acronym
738 ("Ostensibly Recursive’s Twin") and came from the fact that it was
739 written as a replacement for the previous default algorithm,
740 recursive.
741
742 The ort strategy can take the following options:
743
744 ours
745 This option forces conflicting hunks to be auto-resolved
746 cleanly by favoring our version. Changes from the other tree
747 that do not conflict with our side are reflected in the merge
748 result. For a binary file, the entire contents are taken from
749 our side.
750
751 This should not be confused with the ours merge strategy, which
752 does not even look at what the other tree contains at all. It
753 discards everything the other tree did, declaring our history
754 contains all that happened in it.
755
756 theirs
757 This is the opposite of ours; note that, unlike ours, there is
758 no theirs merge strategy to confuse this merge option with.
759
760 ignore-space-change, ignore-all-space, ignore-space-at-eol,
761 ignore-cr-at-eol
762 Treats lines with the indicated type of whitespace change as
763 unchanged for the sake of a three-way merge. Whitespace changes
764 mixed with other changes to a line are not ignored. See also
765 git-diff(1) -b, -w, --ignore-space-at-eol, and
766 --ignore-cr-at-eol.
767
768 • If their version only introduces whitespace changes to a
769 line, our version is used;
770
771 • If our version introduces whitespace changes but their
772 version includes a substantial change, their version is
773 used;
774
775 • Otherwise, the merge proceeds in the usual way.
776
777 renormalize
778 This runs a virtual check-out and check-in of all three stages
779 of a file when resolving a three-way merge. This option is
780 meant to be used when merging branches with different clean
781 filters or end-of-line normalization rules. See "Merging
782 branches with differing checkin/checkout attributes" in
783 gitattributes(5) for details.
784
785 no-renormalize
786 Disables the renormalize option. This overrides the
787 merge.renormalize configuration variable.
788
789 find-renames[=<n>]
790 Turn on rename detection, optionally setting the similarity
791 threshold. This is the default. This overrides the
792 merge.renames configuration variable. See also git-diff(1)
793 --find-renames.
794
795 rename-threshold=<n>
796 Deprecated synonym for find-renames=<n>.
797
798 subtree[=<path>]
799 This option is a more advanced form of subtree strategy, where
800 the strategy makes a guess on how two trees must be shifted to
801 match with each other when merging. Instead, the specified path
802 is prefixed (or stripped from the beginning) to make the shape
803 of two trees to match.
804
805 recursive
806 This can only resolve two heads using a 3-way merge algorithm. When
807 there is more than one common ancestor that can be used for 3-way
808 merge, it creates a merged tree of the common ancestors and uses
809 that as the reference tree for the 3-way merge. This has been
810 reported to result in fewer merge conflicts without causing
811 mismerges by tests done on actual merge commits taken from Linux
812 2.6 kernel development history. Additionally this can detect and
813 handle merges involving renames. It does not make use of detected
814 copies. This was the default strategy for resolving two heads from
815 Git v0.99.9k until v2.33.0.
816
817 The recursive strategy takes the same options as ort. However,
818 there are three additional options that ort ignores (not documented
819 above) that are potentially useful with the recursive strategy:
820
821 patience
822 Deprecated synonym for diff-algorithm=patience.
823
824 diff-algorithm=[patience|minimal|histogram|myers]
825 Use a different diff algorithm while merging, which can help
826 avoid mismerges that occur due to unimportant matching lines
827 (such as braces from distinct functions). See also git-diff(1)
828 --diff-algorithm. Note that ort specifically uses
829 diff-algorithm=histogram, while recursive defaults to the
830 diff.algorithm config setting.
831
832 no-renames
833 Turn off rename detection. This overrides the merge.renames
834 configuration variable. See also git-diff(1) --no-renames.
835
836 resolve
837 This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch and
838 another branch you pulled from) using a 3-way merge algorithm. It
839 tries to carefully detect criss-cross merge ambiguities. It does
840 not handle renames.
841
842 octopus
843 This resolves cases with more than two heads, but refuses to do a
844 complex merge that needs manual resolution. It is primarily meant
845 to be used for bundling topic branch heads together. This is the
846 default merge strategy when pulling or merging more than one
847 branch.
848
849 ours
850 This resolves any number of heads, but the resulting tree of the
851 merge is always that of the current branch head, effectively
852 ignoring all changes from all other branches. It is meant to be
853 used to supersede old development history of side branches. Note
854 that this is different from the -Xours option to the recursive
855 merge strategy.
856
857 subtree
858 This is a modified ort strategy. When merging trees A and B, if B
859 corresponds to a subtree of A, B is first adjusted to match the
860 tree structure of A, instead of reading the trees at the same
861 level. This adjustment is also done to the common ancestor tree.
862
863 With the strategies that use 3-way merge (including the default, ort),
864 if a change is made on both branches, but later reverted on one of the
865 branches, that change will be present in the merged result; some people
866 find this behavior confusing. It occurs because only the heads and the
867 merge base are considered when performing a merge, not the individual
868 commits. The merge algorithm therefore considers the reverted change as
869 no change at all, and substitutes the changed version instead.
870
872 Often people use git pull without giving any parameter. Traditionally,
873 this has been equivalent to saying git pull origin. However, when
874 configuration branch.<name>.remote is present while on branch <name>,
875 that value is used instead of origin.
876
877 In order to determine what URL to use to fetch from, the value of the
878 configuration remote.<origin>.url is consulted and if there is not any
879 such variable, the value on the URL: line in $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>
880 is used.
881
882 In order to determine what remote branches to fetch (and optionally
883 store in the remote-tracking branches) when the command is run without
884 any refspec parameters on the command line, values of the configuration
885 variable remote.<origin>.fetch are consulted, and if there aren’t any,
886 $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> is consulted and its Pull: lines are used. In
887 addition to the refspec formats described in the OPTIONS section, you
888 can have a globbing refspec that looks like this:
889
890 refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
891
892 A globbing refspec must have a non-empty RHS (i.e. must store what were
893 fetched in remote-tracking branches), and its LHS and RHS must end with
894 /*. The above specifies that all remote branches are tracked using
895 remote-tracking branches in refs/remotes/origin/ hierarchy under the
896 same name.
897
898 The rule to determine which remote branch to merge after fetching is a
899 bit involved, in order not to break backward compatibility.
900
901 If explicit refspecs were given on the command line of git pull, they
902 are all merged.
903
904 When no refspec was given on the command line, then git pull uses the
905 refspec from the configuration or $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>. In such
906 cases, the following rules apply:
907
908 1. If branch.<name>.merge configuration for the current branch <name>
909 exists, that is the name of the branch at the remote site that is
910 merged.
911
912 2. If the refspec is a globbing one, nothing is merged.
913
914 3. Otherwise the remote branch of the first refspec is merged.
915
917 • Update the remote-tracking branches for the repository you cloned
918 from, then merge one of them into your current branch:
919
920 $ git pull
921 $ git pull origin
922
923 Normally the branch merged in is the HEAD of the remote repository,
924 but the choice is determined by the branch.<name>.remote and
925 branch.<name>.merge options; see git-config(1) for details.
926
927 • Merge into the current branch the remote branch next:
928
929 $ git pull origin next
930
931 This leaves a copy of next temporarily in FETCH_HEAD, and updates
932 the remote-tracking branch origin/next. The same can be done by
933 invoking fetch and merge:
934
935 $ git fetch origin
936 $ git merge origin/next
937
938 If you tried a pull which resulted in complex conflicts and would want
939 to start over, you can recover with git reset.
940
942 The fetch and push protocols are not designed to prevent one side from
943 stealing data from the other repository that was not intended to be
944 shared. If you have private data that you need to protect from a
945 malicious peer, your best option is to store it in another repository.
946 This applies to both clients and servers. In particular, namespaces on
947 a server are not effective for read access control; you should only
948 grant read access to a namespace to clients that you would trust with
949 read access to the entire repository.
950
951 The known attack vectors are as follows:
952
953 1. The victim sends "have" lines advertising the IDs of objects it has
954 that are not explicitly intended to be shared but can be used to
955 optimize the transfer if the peer also has them. The attacker
956 chooses an object ID X to steal and sends a ref to X, but isn’t
957 required to send the content of X because the victim already has
958 it. Now the victim believes that the attacker has X, and it sends
959 the content of X back to the attacker later. (This attack is most
960 straightforward for a client to perform on a server, by creating a
961 ref to X in the namespace the client has access to and then
962 fetching it. The most likely way for a server to perform it on a
963 client is to "merge" X into a public branch and hope that the user
964 does additional work on this branch and pushes it back to the
965 server without noticing the merge.)
966
967 2. As in #1, the attacker chooses an object ID X to steal. The victim
968 sends an object Y that the attacker already has, and the attacker
969 falsely claims to have X and not Y, so the victim sends Y as a
970 delta against X. The delta reveals regions of X that are similar to
971 Y to the attacker.
972
974 Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in already
975 checked out submodules right now. When e.g. upstream added a new
976 submodule in the just fetched commits of the superproject the submodule
977 itself cannot be fetched, making it impossible to check out that
978 submodule later without having to do a fetch again. This is expected to
979 be fixed in a future Git version.
980
982 git-fetch(1), git-merge(1), git-config(1)
983
985 Part of the git(1) suite
986
987
988
989Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GIT-PULL(1)