Difference between git fetch <remote> and git fetch <remote> <branch>

Question

I had a remote branch that I was already using and I wanted to update the refs on it, so I typed git fetch <remote> <branch> and the branch did not update with the latest refs. I found I had to use git fetch <remote> (without a branch) to get the current remote updates on that branch. Could someone please explain?

michas · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-16 15:53:24Z

4

git fetch <remote> <branch> will fetch the single given branch from the given remote and store it in FETCH_HEAD.

git fetch <remote> will use the default refspec which is usually configured as remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* and therefore will fetch all branches and stores them in the corresponding remote branch.

answered May 16, 2013 at 15:53

michas

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1 Comment

rpq Over a year ago

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see the specific (and apparently additional) step that git fetch <remote> is performing over git fetch <remote> <branch> when encountering the specific <branch>. Do you know what that is?

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