Documentation / pull-fetch-param.txton commit Show usage string for 'git show-ref -h' (e62b393)
   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
   7<refspec>::
   8        The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus
   9        `{plus}`, followed by the source ref <src>, followed
  10        by a colon `:`, followed by the destination ref <dst>.
  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>.
  15If 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.
  43+
  44[NOTE]
  45There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec>
  46directly on 'git-pull' command line and having multiple
  47`Pull:` <refspec> lines for a <repository> and running
  48'git-pull' command without any explicit <refspec> parameters.
  49<refspec> listed explicitly on the command line are always
  50merged into the current branch after fetching.  In other words,
  51if you list more than one remote refs, you would be making
  52an Octopus.  While 'git-pull' run without any explicit <refspec>
  53parameter takes default <refspec>s from `Pull:` lines, it
  54merges only the first <refspec> found into the current branch,
  55after fetching all the remote refs.  This is because making an
  56Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track
  57of multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one
  58is often useful.
  59+
  60Some short-cut notations are also supported.
  61+
  62* `tag <tag>` means the same as `refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>`;
  63  it requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
  64* A parameter <ref> without a colon is equivalent to
  65  <ref>: when pulling/fetching, so it merges <ref> into the current
  66  branch without storing the remote branch anywhere locally