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 Specifies which refs to fetch and which local refs to update. 16 When no <refspec>s appear on the command line, the refs to fetch 17 are read from `remote.<repository>.fetch` variables instead 18ifndef::git-pull[] 19 (see <<CRTB,CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES>> below). 20endif::git-pull[] 21ifdef::git-pull[] 22 (see linkgit:git-fetch[1]). 23endif::git-pull[] 24+ 25The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus 26`+`, followed by the source <src>, followed 27by a colon `:`, followed by the destination ref <dst>. 28The colon can be omitted when <dst> is empty. <src> is 29typically a ref, but it can also be a fully spelled hex object 30name. 31+ 32`tag <tag>` means the same as `refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>`; 33it requests fetching everything up to the given tag. 34+ 35The remote ref that matches <src> 36is fetched, and if <dst> is not an empty string, the local 37ref that matches it is fast-forwarded using <src>. 38If the optional plus `+` is used, the local ref 39is updated even if it does not result in a fast-forward 40update. 41+ 42[NOTE] 43When the remote branch you want to fetch is known to 44be rewound and rebased regularly, it is expected that 45its new tip will not be descendant of its previous tip 46(as stored in your remote-tracking branch the last time 47you fetched). You would want 48to use the `+` sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates 49will be needed for such branches. There is no way to 50determine or declare that a branch will be made available 51in a repository with this behavior; the pulling user simply 52must know this is the expected usage pattern for a branch. 53ifdef::git-pull[] 54+ 55[NOTE] 56There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec> 57directly on 'git pull' command line and having multiple 58`remote.<repository>.fetch` entries in your configuration 59for a <repository> and running a 60'git pull' command without any explicit <refspec> parameters. 61<refspec>s listed explicitly on the command line are always 62merged into the current branch after fetching. In other words, 63if you list more than one remote ref, 'git pull' will create 64an Octopus merge. On the other hand, if you do not list any 65explicit <refspec> parameter on the command line, 'git pull' 66will fetch all the <refspec>s it finds in the 67`remote.<repository>.fetch` configuration and merge 68only the first <refspec> found into the current branch. 69This is because making an 70Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track 71of multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one 72is often useful. 73endif::git-pull[]