Documentation / pull-fetch-param.txton commit GIT 1.4.3-rc1 (1965efb)
   1<repository>::
   2        The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch
   3        or pull operation.  See the section <<URLS,GIT URLS>> below.
   4
   5<refspec>::
   6        The canonical format of a <refspec> parameter is
   7        `+?<src>:<dst>`; that is, an optional plus `+`, followed
   8        by the source ref, followed by a colon `:`, followed by
   9        the destination ref.
  10+
  11The remote ref that matches <src>
  12is fetched, and if <dst> is not empty string, the local
  13ref that matches it is fast forwarded using <src>.
  14Again, if the optional plus `+` is used, the local ref
  15is updated even if it does not result in a fast forward
  16update.
  17+
  18[NOTE]
  19If the remote branch from which you want to pull is
  20modified in non-linear ways such as being rewound and
  21rebased frequently, then a pull will attempt a merge with
  22an older version of itself, likely conflict, and fail.
  23It is under these conditions that you would want to use
  24the `+` sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates will
  25be needed.  There is currently no easy way to determine
  26or declare that a branch will be made available in a
  27repository with this behavior; the pulling user simply
  28must know this is the expected usage pattern for a branch.
  29+
  30[NOTE]
  31You never do your own development on branches that appear
  32on the right hand side of a <refspec> colon on `Pull:` lines;
  33they are to be updated by `git-fetch`.  If you intend to do
  34development derived from a remote branch `B`, have a `Pull:`
  35line to track it (i.e. `Pull: B:remote-B`), and have a separate
  36branch `my-B` to do your development on top of it.  The latter
  37is created by `git branch my-B remote-B` (or its equivalent `git
  38checkout -b my-B remote-B`).  Run `git fetch` to keep track of
  39the progress of the remote side, and when you see something new
  40on the remote branch, merge it into your development branch with
  41`git pull . remote-B`, while you are on `my-B` branch.
  42The common `Pull: master:origin` mapping of a remote `master`
  43branch to a local `origin` branch, which is then merged to a
  44local development branch, again typically named `master`, is made
  45when you run `git clone` for you to follow this pattern.
  46+
  47[NOTE]
  48There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec>
  49directly on `git-pull` command line and having multiple
  50`Pull:` <refspec> lines for a <repository> and running
  51`git-pull` command without any explicit <refspec> parameters.
  52<refspec> listed explicitly on the command line are always
  53merged into the current branch after fetching.  In other words,
  54if you list more than one remote refs, you would be making
  55an Octopus.  While `git-pull` run without any explicit <refspec>
  56parameter takes default <refspec>s from `Pull:` lines, it
  57merges only the first <refspec> found into the current branch,
  58after fetching all the remote refs.  This is because making an
  59Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track
  60of multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one
  61is often useful.
  62+
  63Some short-cut notations are also supported.
  64+
  65* `tag <tag>` means the same as `refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>`; 
  66  it requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
  67* A parameter <ref> without a colon is equivalent to
  68  <ref>: when pulling/fetching, so it merges <ref> into the current
  69  branch without storing the remote branch anywhere locally