doc: git-pull: clarify DESCRIPTION section #1976

gitgitgadget · 2025-09-24T20:34:12Z

On the Git mailing list, "D. Ben Knoble" wrote (reply to this):

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 3:48 PM Julia Evans via GitGitGadget <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: Julia Evans <[email protected]> > > From user feedback: > > - One user is confused about the current default ("I was convinced that > the git default was still to merge on pull") > - One user is confused about why "git fetch" isn't mentioned earlier > - One user says they always forget what the arguments to `git pull` are > and that it's not immediately obvious that `--no-rebase` means "merge" > - One user wants `--ff-only` to be mentioned > > Resolve this by listing the options for integrating the the remote > branch. This should help users figure out at a glance which one they > want to do, and make it clearer that --ff-only is the default. > > Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <[email protected]> > --- > Documentation/git-pull.adoc | 25 ++++++++++++++----------- > 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/Documentation/git-pull.adoc b/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > index 50af7fde81..61d18fef36 100644 > --- a/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > +++ b/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > @@ -15,17 +15,20 @@ SYNOPSIS > DESCRIPTION > ----------- > > -Incorporates changes from a remote repository into the current branch. > -If the current branch is behind the remote, then by default it will > -fast-forward the current branch to match the remote. If the current > -branch and the remote have diverged, the user needs to specify how to > -reconcile the divergent branches with `--rebase` or `--no-rebase` (or > -the corresponding configuration option in `pull.rebase`). > - > -More precisely, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the given parameters > -and then depending on configuration options or command line flags, > -will call either `git rebase` or `git merge` to reconcile diverging > -branches. > +Integrate changes from a remote repository into the current branch. > + > +First, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the same arguments to fetch Hm. Is it worth saying "similar" rather than "same" since we don't pass e.g. `--rebase` to `git fetch`? Or is that detail unimportant in this context? > +remote branch(es). Then it integrates the remote branch into the current > +branch. Plural-singular here leaves me wondering how Git decides which of multiple fetched branches to integrate. A quick test of the form git pull origin refs/heads/\*:refs/remotes/origin/\* just gives an error in every mode I tried, so I'm now confused about this use :) I _do_ like that when I "git pull", Git will fetch all branches if I have fetch.all set. That seems related but different. Welp, more corners to explore! > There are 4 main options for integrating the remote branch: > + > +1. `git pull --ff-only` will only do "fast-forward" updates: it > + fails if the remote branch has diverged. This is the default. > +2. `git pull --rebase` runs `git rebase` > +3. `git pull --no-rebase` runs `git merge`. > +4. `git pull --squash` runs `git merge --squash` > + > +You can also set the configuration options `pull.rebase`, `pull.squash`, > +or `pull.ff` with your preferred behaviour. Lovely. -- D. Ben Knoble

On the Git mailing list, "Julia Evans" wrote (reply to this):

>> -More precisely, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the given parameters >> -and then depending on configuration options or command line flags, >> -will call either `git rebase` or `git merge` to reconcile diverging >> -branches. >> +Integrate changes from a remote repository into the current branch. >> + >> +First, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the same arguments to fetch > > Hm. Is it worth saying "similar" rather than "same" since we don't > pass e.g. `--rebase` to `git fetch`? Or is that detail unimportant in > this context? That's a good point, I'll try to think of a better way to phrase it. I guess the truth is that `git pull` has three categories of options, those it passes verbatim to `git fetch`, those it passes verbatim to `git merge`, and the others (-q, -v, and --recurse-submodules). That's a bit of a mouthful but maybe there's a way to say that explicitly that isn't too awkward, it does seem helpful to know when reading the OPTIONS section. >> +remote branch(es). Then it integrates the remote branch into the current >> +branch. > > Plural-singular here leaves me wondering how Git decides which of > multiple fetched branches to integrate. A quick test of the form > > git pull origin refs/heads/\*:refs/remotes/origin/\* > > just gives an error in every mode I tried, so I'm now confused about this use :) I find it confusing too. My current strategy for handling this here is to somewhat awkwardly say "it's explained in the DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR section" a bit further down. It's a tricky situation because I find the DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR section very confusing. It seems like there's a fair amount of duplication with other sections that could be cleaned up to make it easier. But removing the duplication and making it easier to understand feels like too many changes for this series, especially because really doing it well probably involves the sub-project of "clean up the <refspec> section of the `git fetch` man page". In any case, I'll see if I can find a way to make it a little less awkward.

On the Git mailing list, Chris Torek wrote (reply to this):

On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM D. Ben Knoble <[email protected]> wrote: > > +First, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the same arguments to fetch > > Hm. Is it worth saying "similar" rather than "same" since we don't > pass e.g. `--rebase` to `git fetch`? Or is that detail unimportant in > this context? I would suggest "equivalent" or (perhaps better) "appropriate". Perhaps even: First, `git pull` runs the equivalent of `git fetch` with the arguments needed to fetch necessary branches from the remote ... Definition of these arguments can be deferred (perhaps even indefinitely); but: > > +remote branch(es). Then it integrates the remote branch into the current > > +branch. > > Plural-singular here leaves me wondering how Git decides which of > multiple fetched branches to integrate. here we'd need something along the lines of: Then it integrates the appropriate remote branch ... and here we *do* have to define "appropriate". (Historically the merge step grabbed stuff from FETCH_HEAD, excluding all the "not-for-merge" parts, and I have never dug into what happens now...) Chris

On the Git mailing list, "Julia Evans" wrote (reply to this):

On Wed, Sep 24, 2025, at 6:38 PM, Chris Torek wrote: > On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM D. Ben Knoble <[email protected]> wrote: >> > +First, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the same arguments to fetch >> >> Hm. Is it worth saying "similar" rather than "same" since we don't >> pass e.g. `--rebase` to `git fetch`? Or is that detail unimportant in >> this context? > > I would suggest "equivalent" or (perhaps better) "appropriate". > Perhaps even: > > First, `git pull` runs the equivalent of `git fetch` with the > arguments needed to fetch necessary branches from > the remote ... > > Definition of these arguments can be deferred (perhaps > even indefinitely); but: > >> > +remote branch(es). Then it integrates the remote branch into the current >> > +branch. >> >> Plural-singular here leaves me wondering how Git decides which of >> multiple fetched branches to integrate. > > here we'd need something along the lines of: > > Then it integrates the appropriate remote branch ... > > and here we *do* have to define "appropriate". I like the idea of adding "appropriate" here. The question of how to define it is a little messy. We do define "appropriate" below under <refspec>, like this: > See <refspec> below under "Options related to fetching" for the full syntax, > and DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR below for how `git pull` uses this argument to > determine which remote branch to integrate. Like I mentioned in another reply I think deferring the question of what "the appropriate branch" is to the DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR section like this does is not a "good" long-term solution because that section is so confusing, but I think it's not worse than the current state and I don't want to expand the scope of this patch series too much. However! I think there's a question of what behaviour to "encourage". Over on the `git push` side, we decided to highlight using `git push origin main` to push, because the behaviour of `git push origin main` is simple to explain ("it pushes the local main branch to the main on the `origin` remote"). So a natural next question is: should we equivalently highlight "git pull origin main", to mirror the `git push` man page? Then it would be easy to say what "the appropriate branch" is, because in that case the branch is "whatever branch you specified" My initial instinct is "no": `git push origin main` also feels sort of "foolproof" to me, in the sense that if you accidentally run it while on the wrong branch, nothing really bad will happen, since it doesn't matter what your current branch is. But `git pull` is not the same, since running `git pull origin <wrong-branch>` will integrate <wrong-branch> into your current branch, which could get confusing if you accidentally pulled while on the wrong branch. Personally I use `git pull` without any arguments, and it feels safer to me that way because I know that I'm likely to have set my upstream to something reasonable. I also did some extremely informal and low-sample-size Mastodon polling and my sense so far is that folks tend to run `git pull` with no arguments in practice. So I think it makes sense to highlight the no-arguments version. And in any case if you want to get really specific about what you're pulling I think going straight to "manually fetch and then run `git merge` yourself" is a safer approach instead of passing arguments to `git pull`. All of that is to say: my best idea for how to resolve all of this is as follows: > First, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the same arguments > (excluding merge options) to fetch remote branch(es). > Then it decides which remote branch to integrate: if you run `git pull` > with no arguments this defaults to the upstream for the current branch. > Then it integrates that branch into the current branch. This explains what the "appropriate branch" is in (I think) the most common use case and deals with the "same arguments" issue.

gitgitgadget · 2025-10-08T21:41:52Z

On the Git mailing list, Junio C Hamano wrote (reply to this):

"Julia Evans via GitGitGadget" <[email protected]> writes: > +Integrate changes from a remote repository into the current branch. > + > +First, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the same arguments > +(excluding merge options) to fetch remote branch(es). > +Then it decides which remote branch to integrate: if you run `git pull` > +with no arguments this defaults to the <<UPSTREAM-BRANCHES,upstream>> > +for the current branch. > +Then it integrates that branch into the current branch. > +There are 4 main options for integrating the remote branch: > + > +1. `git pull --ff-only` will only do "fast-forward" updates: it > + fails if the remote branch has diverged. This is the default. Technically, you can pretend to be the king, the center of the world, and occasionally publish your very latest to the remote by pushing there, and it is technically possible that the remote to diverge from you by somehow acquiring its own commits, so the above is not wrong per-se, but the way it is phrased is a bit awkward. The operation fails when _you_ diverged from the remote branch. In other words, you cloned or made yourself in-sync with the remote earlier, the remote may or may not have progressed before your 'pull'. If you created your own commits on top of the state that was in sync with them, you diverged from them and --ff-only is stopped in such a case. If you haven't changed your branch since you were in sync with them the last time, --ff-only would fast-forward your branch to match what they have. > +2. `git pull --rebase` runs `git rebase` This technically does not integrate remote branch into our current branch. Rather, the commits on our current branch are integrated on top of their history. That may be worth noting? I dunno. > +3. `git pull --no-rebase` runs `git merge`. > +4. `git pull --squash` runs `git merge --squash` > + > +You can also set the configuration options `pull.rebase`, `pull.squash`, > +or `pull.ff` with your preferred behaviour. This part has two orthogonal things, each of which has its own default, which may be a bit confusing. (1) which branch we get from the remote integrates with the current branch. The default is to use the upstream of our current branch. (2) how the integration between the remote thing and our current branch is done. The default is only to accept fast-forward updates. Perhaps it may help clarify the flow if we said upfront that we describe two orthgonal things? E.g., First it fetches. Then it decides two things: what to integrage with the current branch, and how to do the integration. By default, the upstream branch of the current branch is what gets integrated, and by default "pull --ff-only" (described below) is how the integration is done. or something? I dunno.

gitgitgadget · 2025-09-24T17:25:32Z

On the Git mailing list, "Julia Evans" wrote (reply to this):

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025, at 3:45 PM, Julia Evans via GitGitGadget wrote: > From: Julia Evans <[email protected]> > > From user feedback: > > - One user is confused about why `git reset --merge` > (why not just `git reset`?). Handle this by mentioning > `git merge --abort` and `git reset --abort` instead, which have a > more obvious meaning. > - 2 users want to know what "In older versions of Git" means exactly > (in versions older than 1.7.0). Handle this by removing the warning > since it was added 15 years ago (in 3f8fc184c0e2c) > > Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <[email protected]> > --- > Documentation/git-pull.adoc | 12 +++--------- > 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/Documentation/git-pull.adoc b/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > index 91903b0a94..eec05ab6c7 100644 > --- a/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > +++ b/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > @@ -30,15 +30,9 @@ branch. There are 4 main options for integrating the > remote branch: > You can also set the configuration options `pull.rebase`, > `pull.squash`, > or `pull.ff` with your preferred behaviour. > > -In Git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use > -`git reset --merge`. *Warning*: In older versions of Git, running 'git pull' > -with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you > -in a state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict. > - > -If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes, > -the merge will be automatically canceled and the work tree untouched. > -It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before > -pulling or stash them away with linkgit:git-stash[1]. After sending this I thought to read the `git merge` man page, which has this warning: > WARNING: Running `git merge` with non-trivial uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it may leave you in a state that is hard to back out of in the case of a conflict. I think I was probably too hasty in removing the warning entirely, since I mainly use `git pull --rebase` and I hadn't fully thought through how `git merge` has a different approach to uncommitted changes than `git rebase`. I think a warning similar to that one would make sense, since any warning that applies to `git merge` should also apply to `git pull`. > +If there's a merge conflict during the merge or rebase that you don't > +want to handle, you can safely abort it with `git merge --abort` or `git > +--rebase abort`. Also I noticed a typo in `git --rebase abort` :)

gitgitgadget · 2025-09-24T20:35:03Z

On the Git mailing list, "D. Ben Knoble" wrote (reply to this):

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 3:48 PM Julia Evans via GitGitGadget <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: Julia Evans <[email protected]> > > From user feedback: > > - One user is confused about why `git reset --merge` > (why not just `git reset`?). Handle this by mentioning > `git merge --abort` and `git reset --abort` instead, which have a > more obvious meaning. "git reset --merge" _can_ be helpful when merging, but won't fully abort a rebase. Great. > --- a/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > +++ b/Documentation/git-pull.adoc > @@ -30,15 +30,9 @@ branch. There are 4 main options for integrating the remote branch: > You can also set the configuration options `pull.rebase`, `pull.squash`, > or `pull.ff` with your preferred behaviour. > > -In Git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use > -`git reset --merge`. *Warning*: In older versions of Git, running 'git pull' > -with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you > -in a state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict. > - > -If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes, > -the merge will be automatically canceled and the work tree untouched. > -It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before > -pulling or stash them away with linkgit:git-stash[1]. > +If there's a merge conflict during the merge or rebase that you don't > +want to handle, you can safely abort it with `git merge --abort` or `git > +--rebase abort`. This information is also mentioned in the advice given by conflicts (and git status), so while I originally wondered if we need to say "to know which to use, run…", I now think we can trust users to know whether they asked for a merge or rebase and read the advice/git status output when they don't. Hah, just kidding. Nobody* reads that output. But I still don't think it's worth muddying here, because the same folks are unlikely to see the help here, right? Or maybe we say "Information in `git status` will summarize these options for you." ? [*] Obviously untrue, but you all know what I mean -- D. Ben Knoble

On the Git mailing list, "Julia Evans" wrote (reply to this):

On Wed, Sep 24, 2025, at 4:29 PM, D. Ben Knoble wrote: > On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 3:48 PM Julia Evans via GitGitGadget > <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> From: Julia Evans <[email protected]> >> >> From user feedback: >> >> - One user is confused about why `git reset --merge` >> (why not just `git reset`?). Handle this by mentioning >> `git merge --abort` and `git reset --abort` instead, which have a >> more obvious meaning. > > "git reset --merge" _can_ be helpful when merging, but won't fully > abort a rebase. Great. > >> --- a/Documentation/git-pull.adoc >> +++ b/Documentation/git-pull.adoc >> @@ -30,15 +30,9 @@ branch. There are 4 main options for integrating the remote branch: >> You can also set the configuration options `pull.rebase`, `pull.squash`, >> or `pull.ff` with your preferred behaviour. >> >> -In Git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use >> -`git reset --merge`. *Warning*: In older versions of Git, running 'git pull' >> -with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you >> -in a state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict. >> - >> -If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes, >> -the merge will be automatically canceled and the work tree untouched. >> -It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before >> -pulling or stash them away with linkgit:git-stash[1]. >> +If there's a merge conflict during the merge or rebase that you don't >> +want to handle, you can safely abort it with `git merge --abort` or `git >> +--rebase abort`. > > This information is also mentioned in the advice given by conflicts > (and git status), so while I originally wondered if we need to say "to > know which to use, run…", I now think we can trust users to know > whether they asked for a merge or rebase and read the advice/git > status output when they don't. > > Hah, just kidding. Nobody* reads that output. But I still don't think > it's worth muddying here, because the same folks are unlikely to see > the help here, right? Or maybe we say "Information in `git status` > will summarize these options for you." ? I think it's a nice way to reiterate that `git pull` is running a merge or rebase under the hood, but if folks feel strongly that this isn't relevant I'd be happy to remove the `git merge --abort` / `git rebase --abort` note.

-Original file line number
+Diff line change
@@ Expand Up / @@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ ifndef::git-pull[] @@
     	(See linkgit:git-config[1]).
     endif::git-pull[]
+    [[fetch-refspec]]
     <refspec>::
     	Specifies which refs to fetch and which local refs to update.
     	When no <refspec>s appear on the command line, the refs to fetch
@@ Expand Down @@

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-Original file line number
+Diff line change
@@ Expand Up / @@ -15,28 +15,25 @@ SYNOPSIS @@
     DESCRIPTION
     -----------
-    Incorporates changes from a remote repository into the current branch.
-    If the current branch is behind the remote, then by default it will
-    fast-forward the current branch to match the remote.  If the current
-    branch and the remote have diverged, the user needs to specify how to
-    reconcile the divergent branches with `--rebase` or `--no-rebase` (or
-    the corresponding configuration option in `pull.rebase`).
-    More precisely, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the given parameters
-    and then depending on configuration options or command line flags,
-    will call either `git rebase` or `git merge` to reconcile diverging
-    branches.
-    <repository> should be the name of a remote repository as
-    passed to linkgit:git-fetch[1].  <refspec> can name an
-    arbitrary remote ref (for example, the name of a tag) or even
-    a collection of refs with corresponding remote-tracking branches
-    (e.g., refs/heads/{asterisk}:refs/remotes/origin/{asterisk}),
-    but usually it is the name of a branch in the remote repository.
-    Default values for <repository> and <branch> are read from the
-    "remote" and "merge" configuration for the current branch
-    as set by linkgit:git-branch[1] `--track`.
+    Integrate changes from a remote repository into the current branch.
+    First, `git pull` runs `git fetch` with the same arguments
+    (excluding merge options) to fetch remote branch(es).
+    Then it decides which remote branch to integrate: if you run `git pull`
+    with no arguments this defaults to the <<UPSTREAM-BRANCHES,upstream>>
+    for the current branch.
+    Then it integrates that branch into the current branch.
+    There are 4 main options for integrating the remote branch:
+. `git pull --ff-only` will only do "fast-forward" updates: it
+       fails if the remote branch has diverged. This is the default.
+. `git pull --rebase` runs `git rebase`
+. `git pull --no-rebase` runs `git merge`.
+. `git pull --squash` runs `git merge --squash`
+    You can also set the configuration options `pull.rebase`, `pull.squash`,
+    or `pull.ff` with your preferred behaviour.
     Assume the following history exists and the current branch is
     "`master`":
@@ Expand Down Expand Up / @@ -77,6 +74,26 @@ pulling or stash them away with linkgit:git-stash[1]. @@
     OPTIONS
     -------
+    <repository>::
+    	The "remote" repository to pull from.  This can be either
+    	a URL (see the section <<URLS,GIT URLS>> below) or the name
+    	of a remote (see the section <<REMOTES,REMOTES>> below).
+    +
+    Defaults to the configured upstream for the current branch, or `origin`.
+    See <<UPSTREAM-BRANCHES,UPSTREAM BRANCHES>> below for more on how to
+    configure upstreams.
+    <refspec>::
+    	Which branch or other reference(s) to fetch and integrate into the
+    	current branch, for example `main` in `git pull origin main`.
+    	Defaults to the configured upstream for the current branch.
+    +
+    This can be a branch, tag, or other collection of reference(s).
+    See <<fetch-refspec,<refspec>>> below under "Options related to fetching"
+    for the full syntax, and <<DEFAULT-BEHAVIOUR,DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR>> below
+    for how `git pull` uses this argument to determine which remote branch
+    to integrate.
     -q::
     --quiet::
     	This is passed to both underlying git-fetch to squelch reporting of
@@ Expand Down Expand Up / @@ -145,6 +162,7 @@ include::urls-remotes.adoc[] @@
     include::merge-strategies.adoc[]
+    [[DEFAULT-BEHAVIOUR]]
     DEFAULT BEHAVIOUR
     -----------------
@@ Expand Down @@

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