1GIT-FETCH(1) Git Manual GIT-FETCH(1)
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6 git-fetch - Download objects and refs from another repository
7
9 git fetch [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
10 git fetch [<options>] <group>
12 git fetch --multiple [<options>] [<repository> | <group>]...
14 git fetch --all [<options>]
16
18 Fetches named heads or tags from one or more other repositories, along
19 with the objects necessary to complete them.
20 The ref names and their object names of fetched refs are stored in
22 .git/FETCH_HEAD. This information is left for a later merge operation
23 done by git merge.
24 When <refspec> stores the fetched result in tracking branches, the tags
26 that point at these branches are automatically followed. This is done
27 by first fetching from the remote using the given <refspec>s, and if
28 the repository has objects that are pointed by remote tags that it does
29 not yet have, then fetch those missing tags. If the other end has tags
30 that point at branches you are not interested in, you will not get
31 them.
32 git fetch can fetch from either a single named repository, or or from
34 several repositories at once if <group> is given and there is a
35 remotes.<group> entry in the configuration file. (See git-config(1)).
36
38 --all
39 Fetch all remotes.
40 -a, --append
42 Append ref names and object names of fetched refs to the existing
43 contents of .git/FETCH_HEAD. Without this option old data in
44 .git/FETCH_HEAD will be overwritten.
45 --depth=<depth>
47 Deepen the history of a shallow repository created by git clone
48 with --depth=<depth> option (see git-clone(1)) by the specified
49 number of commits.
50 --dry-run
52 Show what would be done, without making any changes.
53 -f, --force
55 When git fetch is used with <rbranch>:<lbranch> refspec, it refuses
56 to update the local branch <lbranch> unless the remote branch
57 <rbranch> it fetches is a descendant of <lbranch>. This option
58 overrides that check.
59 -k, --keep
61 Keep downloaded pack.
62 --multiple
64 Allow several <repository> and <group> arguments to be specified.
65 No <refspec>s may be specified.
66 --prune
68 After fetching, remove any remote tracking branches which no longer
69 exist on the remote.
70 -n, --no-tags
72 By default, tags that point at objects that are downloaded from the
73 remote repository are fetched and stored locally. This option
74 disables this automatic tag following.
75 -t, --tags
77 Most of the tags are fetched automatically as branch heads are
78 downloaded, but tags that do not point at objects reachable from
79 the branch heads that are being tracked will not be fetched by this
80 mechanism. This flag lets all tags and their associated objects be
81 downloaded.
82 -u, --update-head-ok
84 By default git fetch refuses to update the head which corresponds
85 to the current branch. This flag disables the check. This is purely
86 for the internal use for git pull to communicate with git fetch,
87 and unless you are implementing your own Porcelain you are not
88 supposed to use it.
89 --upload-pack <upload-pack>
91 When given, and the repository to fetch from is handled by git
92 fetch-pack, --exec=<upload-pack> is passed to the command to
93 specify non-default path for the command run on the other end.
94 -q, --quiet
96 Pass --quiet to git-fetch-pack and silence any other internally
97 used git commands. Progress is not reported to the standard error
98 stream.
99 -v, --verbose
101 Be verbose.
102 --progress
104 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
105 when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This
106 flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is
107 not directed to a terminal.
108 <repository>
110 The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch or pull
111 operation. This parameter can be either a URL (see the section GIT
112 URLS below) or the name of a remote (see the section REMOTES
113 below).
114 <group>
116 A name referring to a list of repositories as the value of
117 remotes.<group> in the configuration file. (See git-config(1)).
118 <refspec>
120 The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus +, followed
121 by the source ref <src>, followed by a colon :, followed by the
122 destination ref <dst>.
123 The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if <dst> is not
125 empty string, the local ref that matches it is fast-forwarded using
126 <src>. If the optional plus + is used, the local ref is updated
127 even if it does not result in a fast-forward update.
128 Note
130 If the remote branch from which you want to pull is modified in
131 non-linear ways such as being rewound and rebased frequently,
132 then a pull will attempt a merge with an older version of
133 itself, likely conflict, and fail. It is under these conditions
134 that you would want to use the + sign to indicate
135 non-fast-forward updates will be needed. There is currently no
136 easy way to determine or declare that a branch will be made
137 available in a repository with this behavior; the pulling user
138 simply must know this is the expected usage pattern for a
139 branch.
140 Note
142 You never do your own development on branches that appear on
143 the right hand side of a <refspec> colon on Pull: lines; they
144 are to be updated by git fetch. If you intend to do development
145 derived from a remote branch B, have a Pull: line to track it
146 (i.e. Pull: B:remote-B), and have a separate branch my-B to do
147 your development on top of it. The latter is created by git
148 branch my-B remote-B (or its equivalent git checkout -b my-B
149 remote-B). Run git fetch to keep track of the progress of the
150 remote side, and when you see something new on the remote
151 branch, merge it into your development branch with git pull .
152 remote-B, while you are on my-B branch.
153 Note
155 There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec>
156 directly on git pull command line and having multiple Pull:
157 <refspec> lines for a <repository> and running git pull command
158 without any explicit <refspec> parameters. <refspec> listed
159 explicitly on the command line are always merged into the
160 current branch after fetching. In other words, if you list more
161 than one remote refs, you would be making an Octopus. While git
162 pull run without any explicit <refspec> parameter takes default
163 <refspec>s from Pull: lines, it merges only the first <refspec>
164 found into the current branch, after fetching all the remote
165 refs. This is because making an Octopus from remote refs is
166 rarely done, while keeping track of multiple remote heads in
167 one-go by fetching more than one is often useful.
168 Some short-cut notations are also supported.
169 · tag <tag> means the same as refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>;
171 it requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
172 · A parameter <ref> without a colon is equivalent to <ref>: when
174 pulling/fetching, so it merges <ref> into the current branch
175 without storing the remote branch anywhere locally
176
178 In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the
179 address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending
180 on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
181 Git natively supports ssh, git, http, https, ftp, ftps, and rsync
183 protocols. The following syntaxes may be used with them:
184 · ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
186 · git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
188 · http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
190 · ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
192 · rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
194 An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
196 · [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
198 The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
200 · ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
202 · git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
204 · [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
206 For local respositories, also supported by git natively, the following
208 syntaxes may be used:
209 · /path/to/repo.git/
211 · file:///path/to/repo.git/
213 These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except when cloning, when the
215 former implies --local option. See git-clone(1) for details.
216 When git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it
218 attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To
219 explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
220 · <transport>::<address>
222 where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
224 URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked.
225 See git-remote-helpers(1) for details.
226 If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
228 you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
229 will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration
230 section of the form:
231 [url "<actual url base>"]
233 insteadOf = <other url base>
234 For example, with this:
237 [url "git://git.host.xz/"]
239 insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
240 insteadOf = work:
241 a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
244 rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
245 "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
246 If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
248 configuration section of the form:
249 [url "<actual url base>"]
251 pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
252 For example, with this:
255 [url "ssh://example.org/"]
257 pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
258 a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to
261 "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still
262 use the original URL.
263
265 The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as
266 <repository> argument:
267 · a remote in the git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
269 · a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
271 · a file in the $GIT_DIR/branches directory.
273 All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command line
275 because they each contain a refspec which git will use by default.
276 Named remote in configuration file
278 You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had previously
279 configured using git-remote(1), git-config(1) or even by a manual edit
280 to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this remote will be used to
281 access the repository. The refspec of this remote will be used by
282 default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. The
283 entry in the config file would appear like this:
284 [remote "<name>"]
286 url = <url>
287 pushurl = <pushurl>
288 push = <refspec>
289 fetch = <refspec>
290 The <pushurl> is used for pushes only. It is optional and defaults to
293 <url>.
294 Named file in $GIT_DIR/remotes
296 You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes. The
297 URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The refspec in
298 this file will be used as default when you do not provide a refspec on
299 the command line. This file should have the following format:
300 URL: one of the above URL format
302 Push: <refspec>
303 Pull: <refspec>
304 Push: lines are used by git push and Pull: lines are used by git pull
307 and git fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for
308 additional branch mappings.
309 Named file in $GIT_DIR/branches
311 You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches. The
312 URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This file
313 should have the following format:
314 <url>#<head>
316 <url> is required; #<head> is optional.
319 Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following refspecs,
321 if you don’t provide one on the command line. <branch> is the name of
322 this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults to master.
323 git fetch uses:
325 refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
327 git push uses:
330 HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
332
335 · Update the remote-tracking branches:
336 $ git fetch origin
338 The above command copies all branches from the remote refs/heads/
340 namespace and stores them to the local refs/remotes/origin/
341 namespace, unless the branch.<name>.fetch option is used to specify
342 a non-default refspec.
343 · Using refspecs explicitly:
345 $ git fetch origin +pu:pu maint:tmp
347 This updates (or creates, as necessary) branches pu and tmp in the
349 local repository by fetching from the branches (respectively) pu
350 and maint from the remote repository.
351 The pu branch will be updated even if it is does not fast-forward,
353 because it is prefixed with a plus sign; tmp will not be.
354
356 git-pull(1)
357
359 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org[1]> and Junio C Hamano
360 <gitster@pobox.com[2]>
361
363 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list
364 <git@vger.kernel.org[3]>.
365
367 Part of the git(1) suite
368
370 1. torvalds@osdl.org
371 mailto:torvalds@osdl.org
372 2. gitster@pobox.com
374 mailto:gitster@pobox.com
375 3. git@vger.kernel.org
377 mailto:git@vger.kernel.org
378Git 1.7.1 08/16/2017 GIT-FETCH(1)