git pull [options] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
Incorporates changes from a remote repository into the current branch. In its default mode, git pull is shorthand for git fetch followed by git merge FETCH_HEAD.
More precisely, git pull runs git fetch with the given parameters and calls git merge to merge the retrieved branch heads into the current branch. With --rebase, it runs git rebase instead of git merge.
<repository> should be the name of a remote repository as passed to git-fetch(1). <refspec> can name an arbitrary remote ref (for example, the name of a tag) or even a collection of refs with corresponding remote tracking branches (e.g., refs/heads/:refs/remotes/origin/), but usually it is the name of a branch in the remote repository.
Default values for <repository> and <branch> are read from the "remote" and "merge" configuration for the current branch as set by git-branch(1) --track.
Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "master":
A---B---C master on origin
/
D---E---F---G master
Then "git pull" will fetch and replay the changes from the remote master branch since it diverged from the local master (i.e., E) until its current commit (C) on top of master and record the result in a new commit along with the names of the two parent commits and a log message from the user describing the changes.
A---B---C remotes/origin/master
/ \
D---E---F---G---H master
See git-merge(1) for details, including how conflicts are presented and handled.
In git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use git reset --merge. Warning: In older versions of git, running git pull with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you in a state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict.
If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes, the merge will be automatically cancelled and the work tree untouched. It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before pulling or stash them away with git-stash(1).
Options meant for git pull itself and the underlying git merge must be given before the options meant for git fetch.
-q, --quiet
-v, --verbose
--commit, --no-commit
With --no-commit perform the merge but pretend the merge failed and do not autocommit, to give the user a chance to inspect and further tweak the merge result before committing.
--ff, --no-ff
With --no-ff Generate a merge commit even if the merge resolved as a fast-forward.
--log, --no-log
With --no-log do not list one-line descriptions from the actual commits being merged.
--stat, -n, --no-stat
With -n or --no-stat do not show a diffstat at the end of the merge.
--squash, --no-squash
With --no-squash perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to override --squash.
--ff-only
-s <strategy>, --strategy=<strategy>
-X <option>, --strategy-option=<option>
--summary, --no-summary
-q, --quiet
-v, --verbose
--rebase
--no-rebase
--all
-a, --append
--depth=<depth>
-f, --force
-k, --keep
--no-tags
-t, --tags
-u, --update-head-ok
--upload-pack <upload-pack>
--progress
<repository>
<refspec>
The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if <dst> is not empty string, the local ref that matches it is fast-forwarded using <src>. If the optional plus + is used, the local ref is updated even if it does not result in a fast-forward update.
tag <tag> means the same as refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>; it requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
Git natively supports ssh, git, http, https, ftp, ftps, and rsync protocols. The following syntaxes may be used with them:
An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
For local repositories, also supported by git natively, the following syntaxes may be used:
m[blue]file:///path/to/repo.git/m[]
These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except when cloning, when the former implies --local option. See git-clone(1) for details.
When git doesn't know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked. See git-remote-helpers(1) for details.
If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
insteadOf = <other url base>
For example, with this:
[url "git://git.host.xz/"]
insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
insteadOf = work:
a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
For example, with this:
[url "ssh://example.org/"]
pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still use the original URL.
The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as <repository> argument:
All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command line because they each contain a refspec which git will use by default.
You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had previously configured using git-remote(1), git-config(1) or even by a manual edit to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this remote will be used to access the repository. The refspec of this remote will be used by default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. The entry in the config file would appear like this:
[remote "<name>"]
url = <url>
pushurl = <pushurl>
push = <refspec>
fetch = <refspec>
The <pushurl> is used for pushes only. It is optional and defaults to <url>.
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes. The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The refspec in this file will be used as default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. This file should have the following format:
URL: one of the above URL format
Push: <refspec>
Pull: <refspec>
Push: lines are used by git push and Pull: lines are used by git pull and git fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for additional branch mappings.
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches. The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This file should have the following format:
<url>#<head>
<url> is required; #<head> is optional.
Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following refspecs, if you don't provide one on the command line. <branch> is the name of this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults to master.
git fetch uses:
refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
git push uses:
HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
The merge mechanism (git-merge and git-pull commands) allows the backend merge strategies to be chosen with -s option. Some strategies can also take their own options, which can be passed by giving -X<option> arguments to git-merge and/or git-pull.
resolve
recursive
The recursive strategy can take the following options:
ours
This should not be confused with the ours merge strategy, which does not even look at what the other tree contains at all. It discards everything the other tree did, declaring our history contains all that happened in it.
theirs
subtree[=path]
octopus
ours
subtree
Often people use git pull without giving any parameter. Traditionally, this has been equivalent to saying git pull origin. However, when configuration branch.<name>.remote is present while on branch <name>, that value is used instead of origin.
In order to determine what URL to use to fetch from, the value of the configuration remote.<origin>.url is consulted and if there is not any such variable, the value on URL: ` line in `$GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> file is used.
In order to determine what remote branches to fetch (and optionally store in the tracking branches) when the command is run without any refspec parameters on the command line, values of the configuration variable remote.<origin>.fetch are consulted, and if there aren't any, $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> file is consulted and its `Pull: ` lines are used. In addition to the refspec formats described in the OPTIONS section, you can have a globbing refspec that looks like this:
refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
A globbing refspec must have a non-empty RHS (i.e. must store what were fetched in tracking branches), and its LHS and RHS must end with /*. The above specifies that all remote branches are tracked using tracking branches in refs/remotes/origin/ hierarchy under the same name.
The rule to determine which remote branch to merge after fetching is a bit involved, in order not to break backward compatibility.
If explicit refspecs were given on the command line of git pull, they are all merged.
When no refspec was given on the command line, then git pull uses the refspec from the configuration or $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>. In such cases, the following rules apply:
$ git pull, git pull origin
Normally the branch merged in is the HEAD of the remote repository, but the choice is determined by the branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options; see git-config(1) for details.
$ git pull origin next
This leaves a copy of next temporarily in FETCH_HEAD, but does not update any remote-tracking branches. Using remote-tracking branches, the same can be done by invoking fetch and merge:
$ git fetch origin $ git merge origin/next
If you tried a pull which resulted in a complex conflicts and would want to start over, you can recover with git reset.
git-fetch(1), git-merge(1), git-config(1)
Written by Linus Torvalds <m[blue]torvalds@osdl.orgm[][1]> and Junio C Hamano <m[blue]gitster@pobox.comm[][2]>
Documentation by Jon Loeliger, David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <m[blue]git@vger.kernel.orgm[][3]>.
Part of the git(1) suite