GIT-FETCH(1) Git Manual GIT-FETCH(1)NAMEgit-fetch - Download objects and refs from another repository
SYNOPSISgit-fetch <options> <repository> <refspec>...
DESCRIPTION
Fetches named heads or tags from another repository, 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 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.
OPTIONS-q, --quiet
Pass --quiet to git-fetch-pack and silence any other internally
used programs.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
-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.
--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.
-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.
-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.
-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.
-k, --keep
Keep downloaded pack.
-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.
--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.
<repository>
The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch or pull
operation. See the section GIT URLS below.
<refspec>
The canonical format of a <refspec> parameter is ?<src>:<dst>;
that is, an optional plus , followed by the source ref, followed
by a colon :, followed by the destination ref.
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>. Again, 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, 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.
· 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
branch without storing the remote branch anywhere locally
GIT URLS
One of the following notations can be used to name the remote
repository:
· rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· http://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· https://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz/~user/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/~user/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/~/path/to/repo.git
SSH is the default transport protocol over the network. You can
optionally specify which user to log-in as, and an alternate,
scp-like syntax is also supported. Both syntaxes support username
expansion, as does the native git protocol, but only the former
supports port specification. The following three are identical to
the last three above, respectively:
· [user@]host.xz:/path/to/repo.git/
· [user@]host.xz:~user/path/to/repo.git/
· [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git
To sync with a local directory, you can use:
· /path/to/repo.git/
· file:///path/to/repo.git/
They are mostly equivalent, except when cloning. See git-clone(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".
REMOTES
In addition to the above, as a short-hand, the name of a file in
$GIT_DIR/remotes directory can be given; the named file should be in
the following format:
URL: one of the above URL format
Push: <refspec>
Pull: <refspec>
Then such a short-hand is specified in place of <repository> without
<refspec> parameters on the command line, <refspec> specified on Push:
lines or Pull: lines are used for git-push and git-fetch/git-pull,
respectively. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for
additional branch mappings.
Or, equivalently, in the $GIT_DIR/config (note the use of fetch instead
of Pull:):
[remote "<remote>"]
url = <url>
push = <refspec>
fetch = <refspec>
The name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches directory can be specified as
an older notation short-hand; the named file should contain a single
line, a URL in one of the above formats, optionally followed by a hash
# and the name of remote head (URL fragment notation).
$GIT_DIR/branches/<remote> file that stores a <url> without the
fragment is equivalent to have this in the corresponding file in the
$GIT_DIR/remotes/ directory.
URL: <url>
Pull: refs/heads/master:<remote>
while having <url>#<head> is equivalent to
URL: <url>
Pull: refs/heads/<head>:<remote>
SEE ALSOgit-pull(1)AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano
<junkio@cox.net>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list
<git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite
Git 1.5.5.2 10/21/2008 GIT-FETCH(1)
