Merge pull request #921 from rpjday/refspec

Minor tweaks and rewording to "The Refspec" section.

Author: ben

book/10-git-internals/sections/refspec.asc

@@ -2,14 +2,14 @@
 === The Refspec
 
 Throughout this book, we've used simple mappings from remote branches to local references, but they can be more complex.
-Suppose you add a remote like this:
+Suppose you were following along with the last couple sections and had created a small local Git repository, and now wanted to add a _remote_ to it:
 
 [source,console]
 ----
 $ git remote add origin https://github.com/schacon/simplegit-progit
 ----
 
-Running the above adds a section to your `.git/config` file, specifying the name of the remote (`origin`), the URL of the remote repository, and the refspec for fetching:
+Running the command above adds a section to your repository's `.git/config` file, specifying the name of the remote (`origin`), the URL of the remote repository, and the _refspec_ to be used for fetching:
 
 [source,ini]
 ----
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@ Running the above adds a section to your `.git/config` file, specifying the name
 	fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
 ----
 
-The format of the refspec is an optional `+`, followed by `<src>:<dst>`, where `<src>` is the pattern for references on the remote side and `<dst>` is where those references will be written locally.
+The format of the refspec is, first, an optional `+`, followed by `<src>:<dst>`, where `<src>` is the pattern for references on the remote side and `<dst>` is where those references will be tracked locally.
 The `+` tells Git to update the reference even if it isn't a fast-forward.
 
 In the default case that is automatically written by a `git remote add` command, Git fetches all the references under `refs/heads/` on the server and writes them to `refs/remotes/origin/` locally.
-So, if there is a `master` branch on the server, you can access the log of that branch locally via
+So, if there is a `master` branch on the server, you can access the log of that branch locally via any of the following:
 
 [source,console]
 ----
@@ -33,16 +33,16 @@ $ git log refs/remotes/origin/master
 
 They're all equivalent, because Git expands each of them to `refs/remotes/origin/master`.
 
-If you want Git instead to pull down only the `master` branch each time, and not every other branch on the remote server, you can change the fetch line to
+If you want Git instead to pull down only the `master` branch each time, and not every other branch on the remote server, you can change the fetch line to refer to that branch only:
 
 [source]
 ----
 fetch = +refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master
 ----
 
 This is just the default refspec for `git fetch` for that remote.
-If you want to do something one time, you can specify the refspec on the command line, too.
-To pull the `master` branch on the remote down to `origin/mymaster` locally, you can run
+If you want to do a one-time only fetch, you can specify the specific refspec on the command line, too.
+To pull the `master` branch on the remote down to `origin/mymaster` locally, you can run:
 
 [source,console]
 ----
@@ -61,11 +61,11 @@ From [email protected]:schacon/simplegit
  * [new branch]      topic      -> origin/topic
 ----
 
-In this case, the `master` branch pull was rejected because it wasn't a fast-forward reference.
+In this case, the `master` branch pull was rejected because it wasn't listed as a fast-forward reference.
 You can override that by specifying the `+` in front of the refspec.
 
 You can also specify multiple refspecs for fetching in your configuration file.
-If you want to always fetch the `master` and `experiment` branches, add two lines:
+If you want to always fetch the `master` and `experiment` branches from the `origin` remote, add two lines:
 
 [source,ini]
 ----
@@ -130,3 +130,10 @@ $ git push origin :topic
 ----
 
 Because the refspec is `<src>:<dst>`, by leaving off the `<src>` part, this basically says to make the `topic` branch on the remote nothing, which deletes it.
+
+Or you can use the newer syntax (available since Git v1.7.0):
+
+[source,console]
+----
+$ git push origin --delete topic
+----