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   1<repository>::
   2        The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch
   3        or pull operation.  This parameter can be either a URL
   4        (see the section <<URLS,GIT URLS>> below) or the name
   5        of a remote (see the section <<REMOTES,REMOTES>> below).
   6
   7ifndef::git-pull[]
   8<group>::
   9        A name referring to a list of repositories as the value
  10        of remotes.<group> in the configuration file.
  11        (See linkgit:git-config[1]).
  12endif::git-pull[]
  13
  14<refspec>::
  15        The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus
  16        `+`, followed by the source ref <src>, followed
  17        by a colon `:`, followed by the destination ref <dst>.
  18+
  19The remote ref that matches <src>
  20is fetched, and if <dst> is not empty string, the local
  21ref that matches it is fast-forwarded using <src>.
  22If the optional plus `+` is used, the local ref
  23is updated even if it does not result in a fast-forward
  24update.
  25+
  26[NOTE]
  27When the remote branch you want to fetch is known to
  28be rewound and rebased regularly, it is expected that
  29its new tip will not be descendant of its previous tip
  30(as stored in your remote-tracking branch the last time
  31you fetched).  You would want
  32to use the `+` sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates
  33will be needed for such branches.  There is no way to
  34determine or declare that a branch will be made available
  35in a repository with this behavior; the pulling user simply
  36must know this is the expected usage pattern for a branch.
  37+
  38[NOTE]
  39There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec>
  40directly on 'git pull' command line and having multiple
  41`Pull:` <refspec> lines for a <repository> and running
  42'git pull' command without any explicit <refspec> parameters.
  43<refspec> listed explicitly on the command line are always
  44merged into the current branch after fetching.  In other words,
  45if you list more than one remote refs, you would be making
  46an Octopus.  While 'git pull' run without any explicit <refspec>
  47parameter takes default <refspec>s from `Pull:` lines, it
  48merges only the first <refspec> found into the current branch,
  49after fetching all the remote refs.  This is because making an
  50Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track
  51of multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one
  52is often useful.
  53+
  54Some short-cut notations are also supported.
  55+
  56* `tag <tag>` means the same as `refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>`;
  57  it requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
  58ifndef::git-pull[]
  59* A parameter <ref> without a colon fetches that ref into FETCH_HEAD,
  60endif::git-pull[]
  61ifdef::git-pull[]
  62* A parameter <ref> without a colon merges <ref> into the current
  63  branch,
  64endif::git-pull[]
  65  and updates the remote-tracking branches (if any).