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