Differences between Git Fetch and Git Pull
This article will discuss the practical uses of the git pulland git fetchcommands to understand how they differ and when to use each.
What is Git Fetch
In our remote repository we have files like below.
Notice that our remote and local repositories are in sync. Let's change Sample.txta file in the remote repository.
Write something random in the file and commit the changes.
At this point, our remote repository has two commits, and our local repository has one commit. This means our local repository needs to be updated.
At this point, git fetchit's handy. Let's run a git logcommand to check our commit history in our local repository.
Our local repository has no Updated Sample.txtcommits. We git fetchcheck in changes using .
pc@JOHN MINGW64 ~/Git/Delftscopetech (main)
$ git fetch
remote: Enumerating objects: 5, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (5/5), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), 709 bytes | 2.00 KiB/s, done.
From https://github.com/Wachira11ke/Delftscopetech
c43169e..2445daf main -> origin/main
From the above command, we can see the changes made to the master branch in the remote repository. We can git mergeapply these changes to our local repository using the command.
pc@JOHN MINGW64 ~/Git/Delftscopetech (main)
$ git merge origin main
Updating c43169e..2445daf
Fast-forward
Sample.txt | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
Let's run git logthe command to check our commit history.
$ git log
commit 2445dafc118748a5cb53c5262b393ab0e1a9e235 (HEAD -> main, origin/main, origin/HEAD)
Author: Wachira11ke <100116527+Wachira11ke@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue Mar 15 22:07:11 2022 +0300
Update Sample.txt
First Update
commit c43169e587ab7ab996087ff460e54032e83030f0
Author: Wachira11ke <100116527+Wachira11ke@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue Mar 15 21:45:50 2022 +0300
Second commit
commit b2f77108396c9ae867d8e9d69c575eda99dd1436
Author: Wachira11ke <100116527+Wachira11ke@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon Feb 21 10:00:23 2022 +0300
Initial commit
At this point, our local and remote repositories are in sync. Let's look at git pullthe commands.
What is Git pull
Let's go back to our remote repository and make some more changes to our files. Write a random number and commit the changes.
Now, our remote repository has one more commit than our local repository. We can run git pullthe command to update our local repository.
pc@JOHN MINGW64 ~/Git/Delftscopetech (main)
$ git pull origin main
remote: Enumerating objects: 5, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (5/5), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3/3), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), 730 bytes | 3.00 KiB/s, done.
From https://github.com/Wachira11ke/Delftscopetech
* branch main -> FETCH_HEAD
2445daf..8089f2b main -> origin/main
Updating 2445daf..8089f2b
Fast-forward
Sample.txt | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
Our local repository is now in sync with our remote repository. We can conclude that git pullit is a compound command ( git fetch+ git merge).
It fetches and merges the changes directly.
Differences between Git Fetch and Git Pull
git fetch |
git pull |
|---|---|
| Check in changes made to the remote repository. | Directly merge changes from the remote repository with your local repository. |
The fetched changes will be updated to .gitthe folder. |
Make changes directly to your local repository. |
| You can review the commits before merging them. | You will be updated with the changes immediately. |
| Conflicts rarely arise. | Merge conflicts may occur. |
For reprinting, please send an email to 1244347461@qq.com for approval. After obtaining the author's consent, kindly include the source as a link.
Related Articles
Changing drives in Git Bash
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：56 Category：Git
-
This short article will discuss how we can use Git Bash to have a Unix-style command line environment in Windows operating system and run multiple commands in this terminal. Git Bash Git is a collection of command-line utilities created to
Adding a remote branch in Git
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：142 Category：Git
-
Git does not allow its developers to create new branches on remote repositories. But instead, we can push an already existing local branch, and after doing so, we can bring it to the remote repository using some Git commands. In every versi
Synchronize your local repository with a remote repository in Git
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：92 Category：Git
-
This article outlines the process of syncing your local repository with a remote repository. We will also see how to sync a GitHub branch with a remote repository on the command line. Synchronize your local repository with a remote reposito
Creating a remote repository from a local repository in Git
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：105 Category：Git
-
This article discusses the necessary steps to create a remote repository based on a local repository. This is ideal when you have a local repository that needs to be available on a remote or SSH-enabled server. Creating a remote repository
Removing the upstream repository in Git
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：177 Category：Git
-
This article will teach you how to delete an upstream repository in Git. We may sometimes need to delete or change the remote repository that we use with our local repository. To do this, we can use the Git command git remote . Removing the
Git remote add SSH
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：53 Category：Git
-
In this day and age, the most widely used version control system is Git, which is operated by most developers within a team structure. This is mainly used to increase code efficiency, no matter how big or critical the project is. In this se
Differences between Git Reset, Revert and Checkout commands
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：185 Category：Git
-
This article discusses the differences between the git reset , , git revert and git checkout commands. These are some of the most useful Git utilities that allow us to undo certain changes in our repository. It’s easy to get confused with
Git revert local commits
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：84 Category：Git
-
When a software engineer or a web developer uses Git, it is obvious that he pushes a lot of code and commits to the Git repository every day, and while doing so, the need to undo or revert a particular commit or a set of commits arises from
Deleting local and remote Git branches
Publish Date：2025/03/30 Views：146 Category：Git
-
Git comes into play in version control systems when you are working with a team and the entire team is making changes to the same code repository. Creating a new branch in Git is relatively easy than other version control systems and deleti
