6 git-fetch - Download objects and refs from another repository
12 'git fetch' [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
13 'git fetch' [<options>] <group>
14 'git fetch' --multiple [<options>] [(<repository> | <group>)...]
15 'git fetch' --all [<options>]
20 Fetch branches and/or tags (collectively, "refs") from one or more
21 other repositories, along with the objects necessary to complete their
22 histories. Remote-tracking branches are updated (see the description
23 of <refspec> below for ways to control this behavior).
25 By default, any tag that points into the histories being fetched is
26 also fetched; the effect is to fetch tags that
27 point at branches that you are interested in. This default behavior
28 can be changed by using the --tags or --no-tags options or by
29 configuring remote.<name>.tagOpt. By using a refspec that fetches tags
30 explicitly, you can fetch tags that do not point into branches you
31 are interested in as well.
33 'git fetch' can fetch from either a single named repository or URL,
34 or from several repositories at once if <group> is given and
35 there is a remotes.<group> entry in the configuration file.
36 (See linkgit:git-config[1]).
38 When no remote is specified, by default the `origin` remote will be used,
39 unless there's an upstream branch configured for the current branch.
41 The names of refs that are fetched, together with the object names
42 they point at, are written to `.git/FETCH_HEAD`. This information
43 may be used by scripts or other git commands, such as linkgit:git-pull[1].
47 include::fetch-options.txt[]
49 include::pull-fetch-param.txt[]
51 include::urls-remotes.txt[]
54 CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES[[CRTB]]
55 -------------------------------------------
57 You often interact with the same remote repository by
58 regularly and repeatedly fetching from it. In order to keep track
59 of the progress of such a remote repository, `git fetch` allows you
60 to configure `remote.<repository>.fetch` configuration variables.
62 Typically such a variable may look like this:
64 ------------------------------------------------
66 fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
67 ------------------------------------------------
69 This configuration is used in two ways:
71 * When `git fetch` is run without specifying what branches
72 and/or tags to fetch on the command line, e.g. `git fetch origin`
73 or `git fetch`, `remote.<repository>.fetch` values are used as
74 the refspecs--they specify which refs to fetch and which local refs
75 to update. The example above will fetch
76 all branches that exist in the `origin` (i.e. any ref that matches
77 the left-hand side of the value, `refs/heads/*`) and update the
78 corresponding remote-tracking branches in the `refs/remotes/origin/*`
81 * When `git fetch` is run with explicit branches and/or tags
82 to fetch on the command line, e.g. `git fetch origin master`, the
83 <refspec>s given on the command line determine what are to be
84 fetched (e.g. `master` in the example,
85 which is a short-hand for `master:`, which in turn means
86 "fetch the 'master' branch but I do not explicitly say what
87 remote-tracking branch to update with it from the command line"),
88 and the example command will
89 fetch _only_ the 'master' branch. The `remote.<repository>.fetch`
90 values determine which
91 remote-tracking branch, if any, is updated. When used in this
92 way, the `remote.<repository>.fetch` values do not have any
93 effect in deciding _what_ gets fetched (i.e. the values are not
94 used as refspecs when the command-line lists refspecs); they are
95 only used to decide _where_ the refs that are fetched are stored
96 by acting as a mapping.
98 The latter use of the `remote.<repository>.fetch` values can be
99 overridden by giving the `--refmap=<refspec>` parameter(s) on the
105 The output of "git fetch" depends on the transport method used; this
106 section describes the output when fetching over the Git protocol
107 (either locally or via ssh) and Smart HTTP protocol.
109 The status of the fetch is output in tabular form, with each line
110 representing the status of a single ref. Each line is of the form:
112 -------------------------------
113 <flag> <summary> <from> -> <to> [<reason>]
114 -------------------------------
116 The status of up-to-date refs is shown only if the --verbose option is
119 In compact output mode, specified with configuration variable
120 fetch.output, if either entire `<from>` or `<to>` is found in the
121 other string, it will be substituted with `*` in the other string. For
122 example, `master -> origin/master` becomes `master -> origin/*`.
125 A single character indicating the status of the ref:
126 (space);; for a successfully fetched fast-forward;
127 `+`;; for a successful forced update;
128 `-`;; for a successfully pruned ref;
129 `t`;; for a successful tag update;
130 `*`;; for a successfully fetched new ref;
131 `!`;; for a ref that was rejected or failed to update; and
132 `=`;; for a ref that was up to date and did not need fetching.
135 For a successfully fetched ref, the summary shows the old and new
136 values of the ref in a form suitable for using as an argument to
137 `git log` (this is `<old>..<new>` in most cases, and
138 `<old>...<new>` for forced non-fast-forward updates).
141 The name of the remote ref being fetched from, minus its
142 `refs/<type>/` prefix. In the case of deletion, the name of
143 the remote ref is "(none)".
146 The name of the local ref being updated, minus its
147 `refs/<type>/` prefix.
150 A human-readable explanation. In the case of successfully fetched
151 refs, no explanation is needed. For a failed ref, the reason for
152 failure is described.
157 * Update the remote-tracking branches:
159 ------------------------------------------------
161 ------------------------------------------------
163 The above command copies all branches from the remote refs/heads/
164 namespace and stores them to the local refs/remotes/origin/ namespace,
165 unless the branch.<name>.fetch option is used to specify a non-default
168 * Using refspecs explicitly:
170 ------------------------------------------------
171 $ git fetch origin +pu:pu maint:tmp
172 ------------------------------------------------
174 This updates (or creates, as necessary) branches `pu` and `tmp` in
175 the local repository by fetching from the branches (respectively)
176 `pu` and `maint` from the remote repository.
178 The `pu` branch will be updated even if it is does not fast-forward,
179 because it is prefixed with a plus sign; `tmp` will not be.
181 * Peek at a remote's branch, without configuring the remote in your local
184 ------------------------------------------------
185 $ git fetch git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git maint
187 ------------------------------------------------
189 The first command fetches the `maint` branch from the repository at
190 `git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git` and the second command uses
191 `FETCH_HEAD` to examine the branch with linkgit:git-log[1]. The fetched
192 objects will eventually be removed by git's built-in housekeeping (see
197 Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in already checked
198 out submodules right now. When e.g. upstream added a new submodule in the
199 just fetched commits of the superproject the submodule itself can not be
200 fetched, making it impossible to check out that submodule later without
201 having to do a fetch again. This is expected to be fixed in a future Git
210 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite