git pull

git pull: pull changes from a remote repository.

The git pull command in Git is used to fetch changes from a remote repository and immediately update the local repository to match that content. In simple terms, git pull is a combination of two other commands, git fetch followed by git merge.

When you work on a project with other developers, or even on different devices, the code repository may be updated by others. The git pull command allows you to synchronize your local copy of the repository with the latest changes made by others. This command is essential for collaborative projects to ensure that everyone's changes are incorporated and conflicts are resolved effectively.

Before the merge or rebase happens, git pull refreshes your remote-tracking branches (such as origin/main), so you can always see what changed on the remote before your local branch is updated.

Rebase instead of merge

When you run git pull, Git performs a merge operation to integrate the changes from the remote repository into your local branch. However, you can also use the --rebase option with git pull to rebase your local changes on top of the fetched changes instead of merging them. This can result in a cleaner commit history and avoid unnecessary merge commits.

You can make rebase the default behavior for git pull by setting the pull.rebase configuration option to true:

git config --global pull.rebase true

Examples

git pull

git pull origin main

git pull --rebase

git config pull.rebase true