1<repository>:: 2 The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch 3 or pull operation. 4include::urls.txt[] 5 6<refspec>:: 7 The canonical format of a <refspec> parameter is 8 `+?<src>:<dst>`; that is, an optional plus `+`, followed 9 by the source ref, followed by a colon `:`, followed by 10 the destination ref. 11+ 12The remote ref that matches <src> 13is fetched, and if <dst> is not empty string, the local 14ref that matches it is fast forwarded using <src>. 15Again, if the optional plus `+` is used, the local ref 16is updated even if it does not result in a fast forward 17update. 18+ 19[NOTE] 20If the remote branch from which you want to pull is 21modified in non-linear ways such as being rewound and 22rebased frequently, then a pull will attempt a merge with 23an older version of itself, likely conflict, and fail. 24It is under these conditions that you would want to use 25the `+` sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates will 26be needed. There is currently no easy way to determine 27or declare that a branch will be made available in a 28repository with this behavior; the pulling user simply 29must know this is the expected usage pattern for a branch. 30+ 31[NOTE] 32You never do your own development on branches that appear 33on the right hand side of a <refspec> colon on `Pull:` lines; 34they are to be updated by `git-fetch`. If you intend to do 35development derived from a remote branch `B`, have a `Pull:` 36line to track it (i.e. `Pull: B:remote-B`), and have a separate 37branch `my-B` to do your development on top of it. The latter 38is created by `git branch my-B remote-B` (or its equivalent `git 39checkout -b my-B remote-B`). Run `git fetch` to keep track of 40the progress of the remote side, and when you see something new 41on the remote branch, merge it into your development branch with 42`git pull . remote-B`, while you are on `my-B` branch. 43The common `Pull: master:origin` mapping of a remote `master` 44branch to a local `origin` branch, which is then merged to a 45local development branch, again typically named `master`, is made 46when you run `git clone` for you to follow this pattern. 47+ 48[NOTE] 49There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec> 50directly on `git-pull` command line and having multiple 51`Pull:` <refspec> lines for a <repository> and running 52`git-pull` command without any explicit <refspec> parameters. 53<refspec> listed explicitly on the command line are always 54merged into the current branch after fetching. In other words, 55if you list more than one remote refs, you would be making 56an Octopus. While `git-pull` run without any explicit <refspec> 57parameter takes default <refspec>s from `Pull:` lines, it 58merges only the first <refspec> found into the current branch, 59after fetching all the remote refs. This is because making an 60Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track 61of multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one 62is often useful. 63+ 64Some short-cut notations are also supported. 65+ 66* `tag <tag>` means the same as `refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>`; 67 it requests fetching everything up to the given tag. 68* A parameter <ref> without a colon is equivalent to 69 <ref>: when pulling/fetching, so it merges <ref> into the current 70 branch without storing the remote branch anywhere locally