<repository>::
The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch
- or pull operation.
-include::urls.txt[]
+ or pull operation. This parameter can be either a URL
+ (see the section <<URLS,GIT URLS>> below) or the name
+ of a remote (see the section <<REMOTES,REMOTES>> below).
<refspec>::
The canonical format of a <refspec> parameter is
- `+?<src>:<dst>`; that is, an optional plus `+`, followed
+ `+?<src>:<dst>`; that is, an optional plus `{plus}`, followed
by the source ref, followed by a colon `:`, followed by
the destination ref.
+
[NOTE]
You never do your own development on branches that appear
on the right hand side of a <refspec> colon on `Pull:` lines;
-they are to be updated by `git-fetch`. If you intend to do
+they are to be updated by 'git-fetch'. If you intend to do
development derived from a remote branch `B`, have a `Pull:`
line to track it (i.e. `Pull: B:remote-B`), and have a separate
branch `my-B` to do your development on top of it. The latter
the progress of the remote side, and when you see something new
on the remote branch, merge it into your development branch with
`git pull . remote-B`, while you are on `my-B` branch.
-The common `Pull: master:origin` mapping of a remote `master`
-branch to a local `origin` branch, which is then merged to a
-local development branch, again typically named `master`, is made
-when you run `git clone` for you to follow this pattern.
+
[NOTE]
There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec>
-directly on `git-pull` command line and having multiple
+directly on 'git-pull' command line and having multiple
`Pull:` <refspec> lines for a <repository> and running
-`git-pull` command without any explicit <refspec> parameters.
+'git-pull' command without any explicit <refspec> parameters.
<refspec> listed explicitly on the command line are always
merged into the current branch after fetching. In other words,
if you list more than one remote refs, you would be making
-an Octopus. While `git-pull` run without any explicit <refspec>
+an Octopus. While 'git-pull' run without any explicit <refspec>
parameter takes default <refspec>s from `Pull:` lines, it
merges only the first <refspec> found into the current branch,
after fetching all the remote refs. This is because making an
+
Some short-cut notations are also supported.
+
-* `tag <tag>` means the same as `refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>`;
+* `tag <tag>` means the same as `refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>`;
it requests fetching everything up to the given tag.
* A parameter <ref> without a colon is equivalent to
<ref>: when pulling/fetching, so it merges <ref> into the current