git-fetch
(1)
Name
git-fetch - Download objects and refs from another
repository
Synopsis
git fetch [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
git fetch [<options>] <group>
git fetch --multiple [<options>] [(<repository> | <group>)...]
git fetch --all [<options>]
Description
Git Manual GIT-FETCH(1)
NAME
git-fetch - Download objects and refs from another
repository
SYNOPSIS
git fetch [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
git fetch [<options>] <group>
git fetch --multiple [<options>] [(<repository> | <group>)...]
git fetch --all [<options>]
DESCRIPTION
Fetches named heads or tags from one or more other
repositories, along with the objects necessary to complete
them.
The ref names and their object names of fetched refs are
stored in .git/FETCH_HEAD. This information is left for a
later merge operation done by git merge.
When <refspec> stores the fetched result in remote-tracking
branches, the tags that point at these branches are
automatically followed. This is done by first fetching from
the remote using the given <refspec>s, and if the repository
has objects that are pointed by remote tags that it does not
yet have, then fetch those missing tags. If the other end
has tags that point at branches you are not interested in,
you will not get them.
git fetch can fetch from either a single named repository,
or from several repositories at once if <group> is given and
there is a remotes.<group> entry in the configuration file.
(See git-config(1)).
OPTIONS
--all
Fetch all remotes.
-a, --append
Append ref names and object names of fetched refs to the
existing contents of .git/FETCH_HEAD. Without this
option old data in .git/FETCH_HEAD will be overwritten.
--depth=<depth>
Deepen the history of a shallow repository created by
git clone with --depth=<depth> option (see git-clone(1))
by the specified number of commits.
--dry-run
Show what would be done, without making any changes.
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-f, --force
When git fetch is used with <rbranch>:<lbranch> refspec,
it refuses to update the local branch <lbranch> unless
the remote branch <rbranch> it fetches is a descendant
of <lbranch>. This option overrides that check.
-k, --keep
Keep downloaded pack.
--multiple
Allow several <repository> and <group> arguments to be
specified. No <refspec>s may be specified.
-p, --prune
After fetching, remove any remote-tracking branches
which no longer exist on the remote.
-n, --no-tags
By default, tags that point at objects that are
downloaded from the remote repository are fetched and
stored locally. This option disables this automatic tag
following. The default behavior for a remote may be
specified with the remote.<name>.tagopt setting. See
git-config(1).
-t, --tags
Most of the tags are fetched automatically as branch
heads are downloaded, but tags that do not point at
objects reachable from the branch heads that are being
tracked will not be fetched by this mechanism. This flag
lets all tags and their associated objects be
downloaded. The default behavior for a remote may be
specified with the remote.<name>.tagopt setting. See
git-config(1).
--recurse-submodules[=yes|on-demand|no]
This option controls if and under what conditions new
commits of populated submodules should be fetched too.
It can be used as a boolean option to completely disable
recursion when set to no or to unconditionally recurse
into all populated submodules when set to yes, which is
the default when this option is used without any value.
Use on-demand to only recurse into a populated submodule
when the superproject retrieves a commit that updates
the submodule's reference to a commit that isn't already
in the local submodule clone.
--no-recurse-submodules
Disable recursive fetching of submodules (this has the
same effect as using the --recurse-submodules=no
option).
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--submodule-prefix=<path>
Prepend <path> to paths printed in informative messages
such as "Fetching submodule foo". This option is used
internally when recursing over submodules.
--recurse-submodules-default=[yes|on-demand]
This option is used internally to temporarily provide a
non-negative default value for the --recurse-submodules
option. All other methods of configuring fetch's
submodule recursion (such as settings in gitmodules(4)
and git-config(1)) override this option, as does
specifying --[no-]recurse-submodules directly.
-u, --update-head-ok
By default git fetch refuses to update the head which
corresponds to the current branch. This flag disables
the check. This is purely for the internal use for git
pull to communicate with git fetch, and unless you are
implementing your own Porcelain you are not supposed to
use it.
--upload-pack <upload-pack>
When given, and the repository to fetch from is handled
by git fetch-pack, --exec=<upload-pack> is passed to the
command to specify non-default path for the command run
on the other end.
-q, --quiet
Pass --quiet to git-fetch-pack and silence any other
internally used git commands. Progress is not reported
to the standard error stream.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
--progress
Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
<repository>
The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch or
pull operation. This parameter can be either a URL (see
the section GIT URLS below) or the name of a remote (see
the section REMOTES below).
<group>
A name referring to a list of repositories as the value
of remotes.<group> in the configuration file. (See git-
config(1)).
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<refspec>
The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus
+, followed by the source ref <src>, followed by a colon
:, followed by the destination ref <dst>.
The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if
<dst> is not empty string, the local ref that matches it
is fast-forwarded using <src>. If the optional plus + is
used, the local ref is updated even if it does not
result in a fast-forward update.
Note
If the remote branch from which you want to pull is
modified in non-linear ways such as being rewound
and rebased frequently, then a pull will attempt a
merge with an older version of itself, likely
conflict, and fail. It is under these conditions
that you would want to use the + sign to indicate
non-fast-forward updates will be needed. There is
currently no easy way to determine or declare that a
branch will be made available in a repository with
this behavior; the pulling user simply must know
this is the expected usage pattern for a branch.
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 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 is
created by git branch my-B remote-B (or its
equivalent git checkout -b my-B remote-B). Run git
fetch to keep track of 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.
Note
There is a difference between listing multiple
<refspec> 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. <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> parameter takes
default <refspec>s from Pull: lines, it merges only
the first <refspec> found into the current branch,
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after fetching all the remote refs. This is because
making an Octopus from remote refs is rarely done,
while keeping track of multiple remote heads in
one-go by fetching more than one is often useful.
Some short-cut notations are also supported.
o tag <tag> means the same as
refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>; it requests
fetching everything up to the given tag.
o A parameter <ref> without a colon is equivalent to
<ref>: when pulling/fetching, so it merges <ref>
into the current branch without storing the remote
branch anywhere locally
GIT URLS
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:
o ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh
protocol:
o [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username
expansion:
o ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
o git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
o [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
For local repositories, also supported by git natively, the
following syntaxes may be used:
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o /path/to/repo.git/
o file:///path/to/repo.git/
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:
o <transport>::<address>
where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an
arbitrary URL-like string recognized by the specific remote
helper being invoked. See git-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>
For example, with this:
[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>
For example, with this:
[url "ssh://example.org/"]
pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
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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.
REMOTES
The name of one of the following can be used instead of a
URL as <repository> argument:
o a remote in the git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
o a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
o 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.
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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>#<head>
<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.
git fetch uses:
refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
git push uses:
HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
EXAMPLES
o Update the remote-tracking branches:
$ git fetch origin
The above command copies all branches from the remote
refs/heads/ namespace and stores them to the local
refs/remotes/origin/ namespace, unless the
branch.<name>.fetch option is used to specify a
non-default refspec.
o Using refspecs explicitly:
$ git fetch origin +pu:pu maint:tmp
This updates (or creates, as necessary) branches pu and
tmp in the local repository by fetching from the
branches (respectively) pu and maint from the remote
repository.
The pu branch will be updated even if it is does not
fast-forward, because it is prefixed with a plus sign;
tmp will not be.
BUGS
Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in
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already checked out submodules right now. When e.g. upstream
added a new submodule in the just fetched commits of the
superproject the submodule itself can not be fetched, making
it impossible to check out that submodule later without
having to do a fetch again. This is expected to be fixed in
a future git version.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+--------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Availability | developer/versioning/git |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+--------------------------+
SEE ALSO
git-pull(1)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://git-
core.googlecode.com/files/git-1.7.9.2.tar.gz
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://git-scm.com/.
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