GIT-FETCH(1) 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 or shorten the history of a shallow repository created by git clone with --depth=<depth> option
(see git-clone(1)) to the specified number of commits from the tip of each remote branch history. Tags for
the deepened commits are not fetched.
--unshallow
Convert a shallow repository to a complete one, removing all the limitations imposed by shallow
repositories.
--dry-run
Show what would be done, without making any changes.
-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.
--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).
--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(5) 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)).
<refspec>
The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus +, followed by the source ref <src>, followed by a
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
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 supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp, and ftps can be used for fetching and
rsync can be used for fetching and pushing, but these are inefficient and deprecated; do not use them).
The following syntaxes may be used with them:
· ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
· [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
· ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
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:
· <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 gitremote-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/
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:
· a remote in the Git configuration file: $GIT_DIR/config,
· a file in the $GIT_DIR/remotes directory, or
· 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.
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>#<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
· 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.
· 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.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 1.8.3.1 03/23/2016 GIT-FETCH(1)
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