Documentation / git-pull.txton commit Kick-off the 1.7.9 cycle (7e02a6c)
   1git-pull(1)
   2===========
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-pull - Fetch from and merge with another repository or a local branch
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git pull' [options] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
  13
  14
  15DESCRIPTION
  16-----------
  17
  18Incorporates changes from a remote repository into the current
  19branch.  In its default mode, `git pull` is shorthand for
  20`git fetch` followed by `git merge FETCH_HEAD`.
  21
  22More precisely, 'git pull' runs 'git fetch' with the given
  23parameters and calls 'git merge' to merge the retrieved branch
  24heads into the current branch.
  25With `--rebase`, it runs 'git rebase' instead of 'git merge'.
  26
  27<repository> should be the name of a remote repository as
  28passed to linkgit:git-fetch[1].  <refspec> can name an
  29arbitrary remote ref (for example, the name of a tag) or even
  30a collection of refs with corresponding remote-tracking branches
  31(e.g., refs/heads/{asterisk}:refs/remotes/origin/{asterisk}),
  32but usually it is the name of a branch in the remote repository.
  33
  34Default values for <repository> and <branch> are read from the
  35"remote" and "merge" configuration for the current branch
  36as set by linkgit:git-branch[1] `--track`.
  37
  38Assume the following history exists and the current branch is
  39"`master`":
  40
  41------------
  42          A---B---C master on origin
  43         /
  44    D---E---F---G master
  45------------
  46
  47Then "`git pull`" will fetch and replay the changes from the remote
  48`master` branch since it diverged from the local `master` (i.e., `E`)
  49until its current commit (`C`) on top of `master` and record the
  50result in a new commit along with the names of the two parent commits
  51and a log message from the user describing the changes.
  52
  53------------
  54          A---B---C remotes/origin/master
  55         /         \
  56    D---E---F---G---H master
  57------------
  58
  59See linkgit:git-merge[1] for details, including how conflicts
  60are presented and handled.
  61
  62In git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use
  63`git reset --merge`.  *Warning*: In older versions of git, running 'git pull'
  64with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you
  65in a state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict.
  66
  67If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes,
  68the merge will be automatically cancelled and the work tree untouched.
  69It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before
  70pulling or stash them away with linkgit:git-stash[1].
  71
  72OPTIONS
  73-------
  74
  75Options meant for 'git pull' itself and the underlying 'git merge'
  76must be given before the options meant for 'git fetch'.
  77
  78-q::
  79--quiet::
  80        This is passed to both underlying git-fetch to squelch reporting of
  81        during transfer, and underlying git-merge to squelch output during
  82        merging.
  83
  84-v::
  85--verbose::
  86        Pass --verbose to git-fetch and git-merge.
  87
  88--[no-]recurse-submodules[=yes|on-demand|no]::
  89        This option controls if new commits of all populated submodules should
  90        be fetched too (see linkgit:git-config[1] and linkgit:gitmodules[5]).
  91        That might be necessary to get the data needed for merging submodule
  92        commits, a feature git learned in 1.7.3. Notice that the result of a
  93        merge will not be checked out in the submodule, "git submodule update"
  94        has to be called afterwards to bring the work tree up to date with the
  95        merge result.
  96
  97Options related to merging
  98~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  99
 100include::merge-options.txt[]
 101
 102:git-pull: 1
 103
 104--rebase::
 105        Rebase the current branch on top of the upstream branch after
 106        fetching.  If there is a remote-tracking branch corresponding to
 107        the upstream branch and the upstream branch was rebased since last
 108        fetched, the rebase uses that information to avoid rebasing
 109        non-local changes.
 110+
 111See `branch.<name>.rebase` and `branch.autosetuprebase` in
 112linkgit:git-config[1] if you want to make `git pull` always use
 113`{litdd}rebase` instead of merging.
 114+
 115[NOTE]
 116This is a potentially _dangerous_ mode of operation.
 117It rewrites history, which does not bode well when you
 118published that history already.  Do *not* use this option
 119unless you have read linkgit:git-rebase[1] carefully.
 120
 121--no-rebase::
 122        Override earlier --rebase.
 123
 124Options related to fetching
 125~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 126
 127include::fetch-options.txt[]
 128
 129include::pull-fetch-param.txt[]
 130
 131include::urls-remotes.txt[]
 132
 133include::merge-strategies.txt[]
 134
 135DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR
 136-----------------
 137
 138Often people use `git pull` without giving any parameter.
 139Traditionally, this has been equivalent to saying `git pull
 140origin`.  However, when configuration `branch.<name>.remote` is
 141present while on branch `<name>`, that value is used instead of
 142`origin`.
 143
 144In order to determine what URL to use to fetch from, the value
 145of the configuration `remote.<origin>.url` is consulted
 146and if there is not any such variable, the value on `URL: ` line
 147in `$GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>` file is used.
 148
 149In order to determine what remote branches to fetch (and
 150optionally store in the remote-tracking branches) when the command is
 151run without any refspec parameters on the command line, values
 152of the configuration variable `remote.<origin>.fetch` are
 153consulted, and if there aren't any, `$GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>`
 154file is consulted and its `Pull: ` lines are used.
 155In addition to the refspec formats described in the OPTIONS
 156section, you can have a globbing refspec that looks like this:
 157
 158------------
 159refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
 160------------
 161
 162A globbing refspec must have a non-empty RHS (i.e. must store
 163what were fetched in remote-tracking branches), and its LHS and RHS
 164must end with `/*`.  The above specifies that all remote
 165branches are tracked using remote-tracking branches in
 166`refs/remotes/origin/` hierarchy under the same name.
 167
 168The rule to determine which remote branch to merge after
 169fetching is a bit involved, in order not to break backward
 170compatibility.
 171
 172If explicit refspecs were given on the command
 173line of `git pull`, they are all merged.
 174
 175When no refspec was given on the command line, then `git pull`
 176uses the refspec from the configuration or
 177`$GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>`.  In such cases, the following
 178rules apply:
 179
 180. If `branch.<name>.merge` configuration for the current
 181  branch `<name>` exists, that is the name of the branch at the
 182  remote site that is merged.
 183
 184. If the refspec is a globbing one, nothing is merged.
 185
 186. Otherwise the remote branch of the first refspec is merged.
 187
 188
 189EXAMPLES
 190--------
 191
 192* Update the remote-tracking branches for the repository
 193  you cloned from, then merge one of them into your
 194  current branch:
 195+
 196------------------------------------------------
 197$ git pull, git pull origin
 198------------------------------------------------
 199+
 200Normally the branch merged in is the HEAD of the remote repository,
 201but the choice is determined by the branch.<name>.remote and
 202branch.<name>.merge options; see linkgit:git-config[1] for details.
 203
 204* Merge into the current branch the remote branch `next`:
 205+
 206------------------------------------------------
 207$ git pull origin next
 208------------------------------------------------
 209+
 210This leaves a copy of `next` temporarily in FETCH_HEAD, but
 211does not update any remote-tracking branches. Using remote-tracking
 212branches, the same can be done by invoking fetch and merge:
 213+
 214------------------------------------------------
 215$ git fetch origin
 216$ git merge origin/next
 217------------------------------------------------
 218
 219
 220If you tried a pull which resulted in a complex conflicts and
 221would want to start over, you can recover with 'git reset'.
 222
 223
 224BUGS
 225----
 226Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in already checked
 227out submodules right now. When e.g. upstream added a new submodule in the
 228just fetched commits of the superproject the submodule itself can not be
 229fetched, making it impossible to check out that submodule later without
 230having to do a fetch again. This is expected to be fixed in a future git
 231version.
 232
 233SEE ALSO
 234--------
 235linkgit:git-fetch[1], linkgit:git-merge[1], linkgit:git-config[1]
 236
 237GIT
 238---
 239Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite