include::urls-remotes.txt[]
+CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES[[CRTB]]
+-------------------------------------------
+
+You often interact with the same remote repository by
+regularly and repeatedly fetching from it. In order to keep track
+of the progress of such a remote repository, `git fetch` allows you
+to configure `remote.<repository>.fetch` configuration variables.
+
+Typically such a variable may look like this:
+
+------------------------------------------------
+[remote "origin"]
+ fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
+------------------------------------------------
+
+This configuration is used in two ways:
+
+* When `git fetch` is run without specifying what branches
+ and/or tags to fetch on the command line, e.g. `git fetch origin`
+ or `git fetch`, `remote.<repository>.fetch` values are used as
+ the refspecs---they specify which refs to fetch and which local refs
+ to update. The example above will fetch
+ all branches that exist in the `origin` (i.e. any ref that matches
+ the left-hand side of the value, `refs/heads/*`) and update the
+ corresponding remote-tracking branches in the `refs/remotes/origin/*`
+ hierarchy.
+
+* When `git fetch` is run with explicit branches and/or tags
+ to fetch on the command line, e.g. `git fetch origin master`, the
+ <refspec>s given on the command line determine what are to be
+ fetched (e.g. `master` in the example,
+ which is a short-hand for `master:`, which in turn means
+ "fetch the 'master' branch but I do not explicitly say what
+ remote-tracking branch to update with it from the command line"),
+ and the example command will
+ fetch _only_ the 'master' branch. The `remote.<repository>.fetch`
+ values determine which
+ remote-tracking branch, if any, is updated. When used in this
+ way, the `remote.<repository>.fetch` values do not have any
+ effect in deciding _what_ gets fetched (i.e. the values are not
+ used as refspecs when the command-line lists refspecs); they are
+ only used to decide _where_ the refs that are fetched are stored
+ by acting as a mapping.
+
+The latter use of the `remote.<repository>.fetch` values can be
+overridden by giving the `--refmap=<refspec>` parameter(s) on the
+command line.
+
+
EXAMPLES
--------