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, an attempt 37is made to update the local ref that matches it. 38+ 39Whether that update is allowed without `--force` depends on the ref 40namespace it's being fetched to, the type of object being fetched, and 41whether the update is considered to be a fast-forward. Generally, the 42same rules apply for fetching as when pushing, see the `<refspec>...` 43section of linkgit:git-push[1] for what those are. Exceptions to those 44rules particular to 'git fetch' are noted below. 45+ 46Unlike when pushing with linkgit:git-push[1], any updates to 47`refs/tags/*` will be accepted without `+` in the refspec (or 48`--force`). The receiving promiscuously considers all tag updates from 49a remote to be forced fetches. 50+ 51Unlike when pushing with linkgit:git-push[1], any updates outside of 52`refs/{tags,heads}/*` will be accepted without `+` in the refspec (or 53`--force`), whether that's swapping e.g. a tree object for a blob, or 54a commit for another commit that's doesn't have the previous commit as 55an ancestor etc. 56+ 57As with pushing with linkgit:git-push[1], all of the rules described 58above about what's not allowed as an update can be overridden by 59adding an the optional leading `+` to a refspec (or using `--force` 60command line option). The only exception to this is that no amount of 61forcing will make the `refs/heads/*` namespace accept a non-commit 62object. 63+ 64[NOTE] 65When the remote branch you want to fetch is known to 66be rewound and rebased regularly, it is expected that 67its new tip will not be descendant of its previous tip 68(as stored in your remote-tracking branch the last time 69you fetched). You would want 70to use the `+` sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates 71will be needed for such branches. There is no way to 72determine or declare that a branch will be made available 73in a repository with this behavior; the pulling user simply 74must know this is the expected usage pattern for a branch. 75ifdef::git-pull[] 76+ 77[NOTE] 78There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec> 79directly on 'git pull' command line and having multiple 80`remote.<repository>.fetch` entries in your configuration 81for a <repository> and running a 82'git pull' command without any explicit <refspec> parameters. 83<refspec>s listed explicitly on the command line are always 84merged into the current branch after fetching. In other words, 85if you list more than one remote ref, 'git pull' will create 86an Octopus merge. On the other hand, if you do not list any 87explicit <refspec> parameter on the command line, 'git pull' 88will fetch all the <refspec>s it finds in the 89`remote.<repository>.fetch` configuration and merge 90only the first <refspec> found into the current branch. 91This is because making an 92Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track 93of multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one 94is often useful. 95endif::git-pull[]