summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/pull-fetch-param.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/pull-fetch-param.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/pull-fetch-param.txt65
1 files changed, 65 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/pull-fetch-param.txt b/Documentation/pull-fetch-param.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b6eb7fc618
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/pull-fetch-param.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+<repository>::
+ The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch
+ or pull operation. See the section <<URLS,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