Incorporates changes from a remote repository into the current branch. In its default mode, git pull is shorthand for git fetch followed by git merge FETCH_HEAD.
More precisely, git pull runs git fetch with the given parameters and calls git merge to merge the retrieved branch heads into the current branch. With --rebase, it runs git rebase instead of git merge.
<repository> should be the name of a remote repository as passed to git-fetch(1). <refspec> can name an arbitrary remote ref (for example, the name of a tag) or even a collection of refs with corresponding remote-tracking branches (e.g., refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*), but usually it is the name of a branch in the remote repository.
Default values for <repository> and <branch> are read from the "remote" and "merge" configuration for the current branch as set by git-branch(1)--track.
Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "master":
A---B---C master on origin / D---E---F---G master
Then "git pull" will fetch and replay the changes from the remote master branch since it diverged from the local master (i.e., E) until its current commit (C) on top of master and record the result in a new commit along with the names of the two parent commits and a log message from the user describing the changes.
A---B---C remotes/origin/master / \ D---E---F---G---H master
See git-merge(1) for details, including how conflicts are presented and handled.
In git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use git reset --merge. Warning: In older versions of git, running git pull with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you in a state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict.
If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes, the merge will be automatically cancelled and the work tree untouched. It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before pulling or stash them away with git-stash(1).
In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
Git natively supports ssh, git, http, https, ftp, ftps, and rsync protocols. The following syntaxes may be used with them:
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ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
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git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
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http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
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ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
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rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
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ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
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git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
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[user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
For local repositories, also supported by git natively, the following syntaxes may be used:
These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except when cloning, when the former implies --local option. See git-clone(1) for details.
When git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked. Seegit-remote-helpers(1) for details.
If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"] insteadOf = <other url base>
[url "git://git.host.xz/"] insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/ insteadOf = work:
a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"] pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
[url "ssh://example.org/"] pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still use the original URL.
The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as <repository> argument:
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a remote in the git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
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a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
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a file in the $GIT_DIR/branches directory.
All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command line because they each contain a refspec which git will use by default.
Named remote in configuration file
You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had previously configured using git-remote(1), git-config(1) or even by a manual edit to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this remote will be used to access the repository. The refspec of this remote will be used by default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. The entry in the config file would appear like this:
[remote "<name>"] url = <url> pushurl = <pushurl> push = <refspec> fetch = <refspec>
The <pushurl> is used for pushes only. It is optional and defaults to <url>.
Named file in $GIT_DIR/remotes
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes. The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The refspec in this file will be used as default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. This file should have the following format:
URL: one of the above URL format Push: <refspec> Pull: <refspec>
Push: lines are used by git push and Pull: lines are used by git pull and git fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for additional branch mappings.
Named file in $GIT_DIR/branches
You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches. The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This file should have the following format:
<url> is required; #<head> is optional.
Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following refspecs, if you don’t provide one on the command line. <branch> is the name of this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults to master.
refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
Often people use git pull without giving any parameter. Traditionally, this has been equivalent to saying git pull origin. However, when configuration branch.<name>.remote is present while on branch <name>, that value is used instead of origin.
In order to determine what URL to use to fetch from, the value of the configuration remote.<origin>.url is consulted and if there is not any such variable, the value on URL: ` line in `$GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> file is used.
In order to determine what remote branches to fetch (and optionally store in the remote-tracking branches) when the command is run without any refspec parameters on the command line, values of the configuration variable remote.<origin>.fetch are consulted, and if there aren’t any,$GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin> file is consulted and its `Pull: ` lines are used. In addition to the refspec formats described in the OPTIONS section, you can have a globbing refspec that looks like this:
refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
A globbing refspec must have a non-empty RHS (i.e. must store what were fetched in remote-tracking branches), and its LHS and RHS must end with/*. The above specifies that all remote branches are tracked using remote-tracking branches in refs/remotes/origin/ hierarchy under the same name.
The rule to determine which remote branch to merge after fetching is a bit involved, in order not to break backward compatibility.
If explicit refspecs were given on the command line of git pull, they are all merged.
When no refspec was given on the command line, then git pull uses the refspec from the configuration or $GIT_DIR/remotes/<origin>. In such cases, the following rules apply:
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If branch.<name>.merge configuration for the current branch <name> exists, that is the name of the branch at the remote site that is merged.
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If the refspec is a globbing one, nothing is merged.
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Otherwise the remote branch of the first refspec is merged.