fetch

Resources

git fetch in Git docs.

Default behavior

Run without flags. This will fetch all branches - see Verbose section output for more details.

$ git fetch

This runs for the default remote only.

This will not fetch tags or other remotes.

Fetch one branch only

If for some reason you only want to fetch a single branch, you can do this.

g fetch origin abc
From github.com:MichaelCurrin/my-repo
 * branch            abc             -> FETCH_HEAD

Fetch all remotes

You probably don’t need this.

If you have multiple remotes, then use this.

$ git fetch --all

For example, if you created a fork and want to keep your fork in sync with the original repo (or “upstream” as it is conventionally named).

Here are two remotes and both will be fetched.

origin - the remote in use for your own branches. Including if your repo is a fork.
upstream - the remote used for the original repo’s branches.

Fetch tags

$ git fetch --tags

Verbose

Here we see the names of branches on origin which were fetched.

$ git fetch -v

remote: Enumerating objects: 21, done.
...
From github.com:MichaelCurrin/my-repo
 = [up to date]      abc       -> origin/abc
 = [up to date]      master    -> origin/master
   e63d881..9b27383  def       -> origin/def

Dealing with branches that are out of sync

The flows below are based on the verbose output above.

The abc and master branches are up to date. However, even if abc branch does not exist locally as a checked out branch, it still shows the same in the output above, in all 3 columns.

The def branch above is out of sync.

For example:

Maybe you just need to push local changes.

If remote changes need to be pulled in:

  $ git checkout def

  $ git merge origin/def

  $ # Or do a fetch and merge in one step:
  $ git pull
  $ # Longer form:
  $ git pull origin def

If there was a force push, you need to delete and recreate the branch. This has the same effect:
```
  $ git checkout def
  $ git reset --hard origin/def
```