From: Junio C Hamano Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:01:57 +0000 (-0700) Subject: tutorial: clarify "pull" is "fetch + merge" X-Git-Tag: v1.6.0-rc0~76 X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=dc29bc8bd243fcd20815c7dddc15dbae30747c28;p=git.git tutorial: clarify "pull" is "fetch + merge" The document says that a fetch with a configured remote stores what are fetched in the remote tracking branches "Unlike the longhand form", but there is no longhand form "fetch" demonstrated earlier. This adds a missing demonstration of the longhand form, and a new paragraph to explain why some people might want to fetch before pull. Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- diff --git a/Documentation/gittutorial.txt b/Documentation/gittutorial.txt index e4248b624..48d1454a9 100644 --- a/Documentation/gittutorial.txt +++ b/Documentation/gittutorial.txt @@ -306,6 +306,32 @@ is the default.) The "pull" command thus performs two operations: it fetches changes from a remote branch, then merges them into the current branch. +Note that in general, Alice would want her local changes committed before +initiating this "pull". If Bob's work conflicts with what Alice did since +their histories forked, Alice will use her working tree and the index to +resolve conflicts, and existing local changes will interfere with the +conflict resolution process (git will still perform the fetch but will +refuse to merge --- Alice will have to get rid of her local changes in +some way and pull again when this happens). + +Alice can peek at what Bob did without merging first, using the "fetch" +command; this allows Alice to inspect what Bob did, using a special +symbol "FETCH_HEAD", in order to determine if he has anything worth +pulling, like this: + +------------------------------------------------ +alice$ git fetch /home/bob/myrepo master +alice$ git log -p ..FETCH_HEAD +------------------------------------------------ + +This operation is safe even if Alice has uncommitted local changes. + +After inspecting what Bob did, if there is nothing urgent, Alice may +decide to continue working without pulling from Bob. If Bob's history +does have something Alice would immediately need, Alice may choose to +stash her work-in-progress first, do a "pull", and then finally unstash +her work-in-progress on top of the resulting history. + When you are working in a small closely knit group, it is not unusual to interact with the same repository over and over again. By defining 'remote' repository shorthand, you can make @@ -315,7 +341,7 @@ it easier: alice$ git remote add bob /home/bob/myrepo ------------------------------------------------ -With this, Alice can perform the first operation alone using the +With this, Alice can perform the first part of the "pull" operation alone using the 'git-fetch' command without merging them with her own branch, using: