<repository>::
The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch
- or pull operation. See the section <<URLS,GIT URLS>> below.
+ 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
+
[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