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