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diff --git a/Documentation/git-fetch.txt b/Documentation/git-fetch.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..5b1909fdf4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/git-fetch.txt @@ -0,0 +1,299 @@ +git-fetch(1) +============ + +NAME +---- +git-fetch - Download objects and refs from another repository + + +SYNOPSIS +-------- +[verse] +'git fetch' [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]] +'git fetch' [<options>] <group> +'git fetch' --multiple [<options>] [(<repository> | <group>)...] +'git fetch' --all [<options>] + + +DESCRIPTION +----------- +Fetch branches and/or tags (collectively, "refs") from one or more +other repositories, along with the objects necessary to complete their +histories. Remote-tracking branches are updated (see the description +of <refspec> below for ways to control this behavior). + +By default, any tag that points into the histories being fetched is +also fetched; the effect is to fetch tags that +point at branches that you are interested in. This default behavior +can be changed by using the --tags or --no-tags options or by +configuring remote.<name>.tagOpt. By using a refspec that fetches tags +explicitly, you can fetch tags that do not point into branches you +are interested in as well. + +'git fetch' can fetch from either a single named repository or URL, +or from several repositories at once if <group> is given and +there is a remotes.<group> entry in the configuration file. +(See linkgit:git-config[1]). + +When no remote is specified, by default the `origin` remote will be used, +unless there's an upstream branch configured for the current branch. + +The names of refs that are fetched, together with the object names +they point at, are written to `.git/FETCH_HEAD`. This information +may be used by scripts or other git commands, such as linkgit:git-pull[1]. + +OPTIONS +------- +include::fetch-options.txt[] + +include::pull-fetch-param.txt[] + +include::urls-remotes.txt[] + + +CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES[[CRTB]] +------------------------------------------- + +You often interact with the same remote repository by +regularly and repeatedly fetching from it. In order to keep track +of the progress of such a remote repository, `git fetch` allows you +to configure `remote.<repository>.fetch` configuration variables. + +Typically such a variable may look like this: + +------------------------------------------------ +[remote "origin"] + fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* +------------------------------------------------ + +This configuration is used in two ways: + +* When `git fetch` is run without specifying what branches + and/or tags to fetch on the command line, e.g. `git fetch origin` + or `git fetch`, `remote.<repository>.fetch` values are used as + the refspecs--they specify which refs to fetch and which local refs + to update. The example above will fetch + all branches that exist in the `origin` (i.e. any ref that matches + the left-hand side of the value, `refs/heads/*`) and update the + corresponding remote-tracking branches in the `refs/remotes/origin/*` + hierarchy. + +* When `git fetch` is run with explicit branches and/or tags + to fetch on the command line, e.g. `git fetch origin master`, the + <refspec>s given on the command line determine what are to be + fetched (e.g. `master` in the example, + which is a short-hand for `master:`, which in turn means + "fetch the 'master' branch but I do not explicitly say what + remote-tracking branch to update with it from the command line"), + and the example command will + fetch _only_ the 'master' branch. The `remote.<repository>.fetch` + values determine which + remote-tracking branch, if any, is updated. When used in this + way, the `remote.<repository>.fetch` values do not have any + effect in deciding _what_ gets fetched (i.e. the values are not + used as refspecs when the command-line lists refspecs); they are + only used to decide _where_ the refs that are fetched are stored + by acting as a mapping. + +The latter use of the `remote.<repository>.fetch` values can be +overridden by giving the `--refmap=<refspec>` parameter(s) on the +command line. + +PRUNING +------- + +Git has a default disposition of keeping data unless it's explicitly +thrown away; this extends to holding onto local references to branches +on remotes that have themselves deleted those branches. + +If left to accumulate, these stale references might make performance +worse on big and busy repos that have a lot of branch churn, and +e.g. make the output of commands like `git branch -a --contains +<commit>` needlessly verbose, as well as impacting anything else +that'll work with the complete set of known references. + +These remote-tracking references can be deleted as a one-off with +either of: + +------------------------------------------------ +# While fetching +$ git fetch --prune <name> + +# Only prune, don't fetch +$ git remote prune <name> +------------------------------------------------ + +To prune references as part of your normal workflow without needing to +remember to run that, set `fetch.prune` globally, or +`remote.<name>.prune` per-remote in the config. See +linkgit:git-config[1]. + +Here's where things get tricky and more specific. The pruning feature +doesn't actually care about branches, instead it'll prune local <-> +remote-references as a function of the refspec of the remote (see +`<refspec>` and <<CRTB,CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES>> above). + +Therefore if the refspec for the remote includes +e.g. `refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*`, or you manually run e.g. `git fetch +--prune <name> "refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*"` it won't be stale remote +tracking branches that are deleted, but any local tag that doesn't +exist on the remote. + +This might not be what you expect, i.e. you want to prune remote +`<name>`, but also explicitly fetch tags from it, so when you fetch +from it you delete all your local tags, most of which may not have +come from the `<name>` remote in the first place. + +So be careful when using this with a refspec like +`refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*`, or any other refspec which might map +references from multiple remotes to the same local namespace. + +Since keeping up-to-date with both branches and tags on the remote is +a common use-case the `--prune-tags` option can be supplied along with +`--prune` to prune local tags that don't exist on the remote, and +force-update those tags that differ. Tag pruning can also be enabled +with `fetch.pruneTags` or `remote.<name>.pruneTags` in the config. See +linkgit:git-config[1]. + +The `--prune-tags` option is equivalent to having +`refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*` declared in the refspecs of the remote. This +can lead to some seemingly strange interactions: + +------------------------------------------------ +# These both fetch tags +$ git fetch --no-tags origin 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*' +$ git fetch --no-tags --prune-tags origin +------------------------------------------------ + +The reason it doesn't error out when provided without `--prune` or its +config versions is for flexibility of the configured versions, and to +maintain a 1=1 mapping between what the command line flags do, and +what the configuration versions do. + +It's reasonable to e.g. configure `fetch.pruneTags=true` in +`~/.gitconfig` to have tags pruned whenever `git fetch --prune` is +run, without making every invocation of `git fetch` without `--prune` +an error. + +Pruning tags with `--prune-tags` also works when fetching a URL +instead of a named remote. These will all prune tags not found on +origin: + +------------------------------------------------ +$ git fetch origin --prune --prune-tags +$ git fetch origin --prune 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*' +$ git fetch <url of origin> --prune --prune-tags +$ git fetch <url of origin> --prune 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*' +------------------------------------------------ + +OUTPUT +------ + +The output of "git fetch" depends on the transport method used; this +section describes the output when fetching over the Git protocol +(either locally or via ssh) and Smart HTTP protocol. + +The status of the fetch is output in tabular form, with each line +representing the status of a single ref. Each line is of the form: + +------------------------------- + <flag> <summary> <from> -> <to> [<reason>] +------------------------------- + +The status of up-to-date refs is shown only if the --verbose option is +used. + +In compact output mode, specified with configuration variable +fetch.output, if either entire `<from>` or `<to>` is found in the +other string, it will be substituted with `*` in the other string. For +example, `master -> origin/master` becomes `master -> origin/*`. + +flag:: + A single character indicating the status of the ref: +(space);; for a successfully fetched fast-forward; +`+`;; for a successful forced update; +`-`;; for a successfully pruned ref; +`t`;; for a successful tag update; +`*`;; for a successfully fetched new ref; +`!`;; for a ref that was rejected or failed to update; and +`=`;; for a ref that was up to date and did not need fetching. + +summary:: + For a successfully fetched ref, the summary shows the old and new + values of the ref in a form suitable for using as an argument to + `git log` (this is `<old>..<new>` in most cases, and + `<old>...<new>` for forced non-fast-forward updates). + +from:: + The name of the remote ref being fetched from, minus its + `refs/<type>/` prefix. In the case of deletion, the name of + the remote ref is "(none)". + +to:: + The name of the local ref being updated, minus its + `refs/<type>/` prefix. + +reason:: + A human-readable explanation. In the case of successfully fetched + refs, no explanation is needed. For a failed ref, the reason for + failure is described. + +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. ++ +The `pu` branch will be updated even if it does not fast-forward, +because it is prefixed with a plus sign; `tmp` will not be. + +* Peek at a remote's branch, without configuring the remote in your local + repository: ++ +------------------------------------------------ +$ git fetch git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git maint +$ git log FETCH_HEAD +------------------------------------------------ ++ +The first command fetches the `maint` branch from the repository at +`git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git` and the second command uses +`FETCH_HEAD` to examine the branch with linkgit:git-log[1]. The fetched +objects will eventually be removed by git's built-in housekeeping (see +linkgit:git-gc[1]). + +include::transfer-data-leaks.txt[] + +BUGS +---- +Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in 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 cannot 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. + +SEE ALSO +-------- +linkgit:git-pull[1] + +GIT +--- +Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |