GeezerVison

--commit

--no-commit

Perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to override --no-commit. Only useful when merging.

With --no-commit perform the merge and stop just before creating a merge commit, to give the user a chance to inspect and further tweak the merge result before committing.

Note that fast-forward updates do not create a merge commit and therefore there is no way to stop those merges with --no-commit. Thus, if you want to ensure your branch is not changed or updated by the merge command, use --no-ff with --no-commit.

--edit

-e

--no-edit

Invoke an editor before committing successful mechanical merge to further edit the auto-generated merge message, so that the user can explain and justify the merge. The --no-edit option can be used to accept the auto-generated message (this is generally discouraged).

Older scripts may depend on the historical behaviour of not allowing the user to edit the merge log message. They will see an editor opened when they run git merge. To make it easier to adjust such scripts to the updated behaviour, the environment variable GIT_MERGE_AUTOEDIT can be set to no at the beginning of them.

--cleanup=<mode>

This option determines how the merge message will be cleaned up before committing. See git-commit[1] for more details. In addition, if the <mode> is given a value of scissors, scissors will be appended to MERGE_MSG before being passed on to the commit machinery in the case of a merge conflict.

--ff-only

Only update to the new history if there is no divergent local history. This is the default when no method for reconciling divergent histories is provided (via the --rebase flags).

--ff

--no-ff

When merging rather than rebasing, specifies how a merge is handled when the merged-in history is already a descendant of the current history. If merging is requested, --ff is the default unless merging an annotated (and possibly signed) tag that is not stored in its natural place in the refs/tags/ hierarchy, in which case --no-ff is assumed.

With --ff, when possible resolve the merge as a fast-forward (only update the branch pointer to match the merged branch; do not create a merge commit). When not possible (when the merged-in history is not a descendant of the current history), create a merge commit.

With --no-ff, create a merge commit in all cases, even when the merge could instead be resolved as a fast-forward.

-S[<key-id>]

--gpg-sign[=<key-id>]

--no-gpg-sign

GPG-sign the resulting merge commit. The <key-id> argument is optional and defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be stuck to the option without a space. --no-gpg-sign is useful to countermand both commit.gpgSign configuration variable, and earlier --gpg-sign.

--log[=<n>]

--no-log

In addition to branch names, populate the log message with one-line descriptions from at most <n> actual commits that are being merged. See also git-fmt-merge-msg[1]. Only useful when merging.

With --no-log do not list one-line descriptions from the actual commits being merged.

--signoff

--no-signoff

Add a Signed-off-by trailer by the committer at the end of the commit log message. The meaning of a signoff depends on the project to which you’re committing. For example, it may certify that the committer has the rights to submit the work under the project’s license or agrees to some contributor representation, such as a Developer Certificate of Origin. (See https://developercertificate.org for the one used by the Linux kernel and Git projects.) Consult the documentation or leadership of the project to which you’re contributing to understand how the signoffs are used in that project.

The --no-signoff option can be used to countermand an earlier --signoff option on the command line.

Git does not (and will not) have a configuration variable to enable the --signoff command line option by default; see the commit.signoff entry in gitfaq[7] for more details.

--stat

-n

--no-stat

Show a diffstat at the end of the merge. The diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option merge.stat.

With -n or --no-stat do not show a diffstat at the end of the merge.

--compact-summary

Show a compact-summary at the end of the merge.

--squash

--no-squash

Produce the working tree and index state as if a real merge happened (except for the merge information), but do not actually make a commit, move the HEAD, or record $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD (to cause the next git commit command to create a merge commit). This allows you to create a single commit on top of the current branch whose effect is the same as merging another branch (or more in case of an octopus).

With --no-squash perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to override --squash.

With --squash, --commit is not allowed, and will fail.

Only useful when merging.

--verify

--no-verify

By default, the pre-merge and commit-msg hooks are run. When --no-verify is given, these are bypassed. See also githooks[5]. Only useful when merging.

-s <strategy>

--strategy=<strategy>

Use the given merge strategy; can be supplied more than once to specify them in the order they should be tried. If there is no -s option, a built-in list of strategies is used instead (ort when merging a single head, octopus otherwise).

-X <option>

--strategy-option=<option>

Pass merge strategy specific option through to the merge strategy.

--verify-signatures

--no-verify-signatures

Verify that the tip commit of the side branch being merged is signed with a valid key, i.e. a key that has a valid uid: in the default trust model, this means the signing key has been signed by a trusted key. If the tip commit of the side branch is not signed with a valid key, the merge is aborted.

Only useful when merging.

--summary

--no-summary

Synonyms to --stat and --no-stat; these are deprecated and will be removed in the future.

--autostash

--no-autostash

Automatically create a temporary stash entry before the operation begins, record it in the ref MERGE_AUTOSTASH and apply it after the operation ends. This means that you can run the operation on a dirty worktree. However, use with care: the final stash application after a successful merge might result in non-trivial conflicts.

--allow-unrelated-histories

By default, git merge command refuses to merge histories that do not share a common ancestor. This option can be used to override this safety when merging histories of two projects that started their lives independently. As that is a very rare occasion, no configuration variable to enable this by default exists or will be added.

Only useful when merging.

-r

--rebase[=(true|merges|false|interactive)]

true

rebase the current branch on top of the upstream branch after fetching. If there is a remote-tracking branch corresponding to the upstream branch and the upstream branch was rebased since last fetched, the rebase uses that information to avoid rebasing non-local changes. This is the default.

merges

rebase using git rebase --rebase-merges so that the local merge commits are included in the rebase (see git-rebase[1] for details).

false

merge the upstream branch into the current branch.

interactive

enable the interactive mode of rebase.

See pull.rebase, branch.<name>.rebase and branch.autoSetupRebase in git-config[1] if you want to make git pull always use --rebase instead of merging.

+

Note	This is a potentially dangerous mode of operation. It rewrites history, which does not bode well when you published that history already. Do not use this option unless you have read git-rebase[1] carefully.

--no-rebase

This is shorthand for --rebase=false.

--all

--no-all

Fetch all remotes, except for the ones that have the remote.<name>.skipFetchAll configuration variable set. This overrides the configuration variable fetch.all.

-a

--append

Append ref names and object names of fetched refs to the existing contents of .git/FETCH_HEAD. Without this option old data in .git/FETCH_HEAD will be overwritten.

--atomic

Use an atomic transaction to update local refs. Either all refs are updated, or on error, no refs are updated.

--depth=<depth>

Limit fetching to the specified number of commits from the tip of each remote branch history. If fetching to a shallow repository created by git clone with --depth=<depth> option (see git-clone[1]), deepen or shorten the history to the specified number of commits. Tags for the deepened commits are not fetched.

--deepen=<depth>

Similar to --depth, except it specifies the number of commits from the current shallow boundary instead of from the tip of each remote branch history.

--shallow-since=<date>

Deepen or shorten the history of a shallow repository to include all reachable commits after <date>.

--shallow-exclude=<ref>

Deepen or shorten the history of a shallow repository to exclude commits reachable from a specified remote branch or tag. This option can be specified multiple times.

--unshallow

If the source repository is complete, convert a shallow repository to a complete one, removing all the limitations imposed by shallow repositories.

If the source repository is shallow, fetch as much as possible so that the current repository has the same history as the source repository.

--update-shallow

By default when fetching from a shallow repository, git fetch refuses refs that require updating .git/shallow. This option updates .git/shallow and accepts such refs.

--negotiation-restrict=(<commit>|<glob>)

--negotiation-tip=(<commit>|<glob>)

By default, Git will report, to the server, commits reachable from all local refs to find common commits in an attempt to reduce the size of the to-be-received packfile. If specified, Git will only report commits reachable from the given tips. This is useful to speed up fetches when the user knows which local ref is likely to have commits in common with the upstream ref being fetched.

--negotiation-restrict is the preferred name for this option; --negotiation-tip is accepted as a synonym.

This option may be specified more than once; if so, Git will report commits reachable from any of the given commits.

The argument to this option may be a glob on ref names, a ref, or the (possibly abbreviated) SHA-1 of a commit. Specifying a glob is equivalent to specifying this option multiple times, one for each matching ref name.

See also the fetch.negotiationAlgorithm and push.negotiate configuration variables documented in git-config[1], and the --negotiate-only option below.

--negotiation-include=(<commit>|<glob>)

Ensure that the commits at the given tips are always sent as "have" lines during fetch negotiation, regardless of what the negotiation algorithm selects. This is useful to guarantee that common history reachable from specific refs is always considered, even when --negotiation-restrict restricts the set of tips or when the negotiation algorithm would otherwise skip them.

This option may be specified more than once; if so, each commit is sent unconditionally.

The argument may be an exact ref name (e.g. refs/heads/release), an object hash, or a glob pattern (e.g. refs/heads/release/{asterisk}). The pattern syntax is the same as for --negotiation-restrict.

If --negotiation-restrict is used, the have set is first restricted by that option and then increased to include the tips specified by --negotiation-include.

If this option is not specified on the command line, then any remote.<name>.negotiationInclude config values for the current remote are used instead.

--negotiate-only

Do not fetch anything from the server, and instead print the ancestors of the provided --negotiation-restrict= arguments, which we have in common with the server.

This is incompatible with --recurse-submodules=(yes|on-demand). Internally this is used to implement the push.negotiate option, see git-config[1].

--dry-run

Show what would be done, without making any changes.

--porcelain

Print the output to standard output in an easy-to-parse format for scripts. See section OUTPUT in git-fetch[1] for details.

This is incompatible with --recurse-submodules=(yes|on-demand) and takes precedence over the fetch.output config option.

--filter=<filter-spec>

Use the partial clone feature and request that the server sends a subset of reachable objects according to a given object filter. When using --filter, the supplied <filter-spec> is used for the partial fetch.

If --filter=auto is used, the filter specification is determined automatically by combining the filter specifications advertised by the server for the promisor remotes that the client accepts (see gitprotocol-v2[5] and the promisor.acceptFromServer configuration option in git-config[1]).

For details on all other available filter specifications, see the --filter=<filter-spec> option in git-rev-list[1].

For example, --filter=blob:none will filter out all blobs (file contents) until needed by Git. Also, --filter=blob:limit=<size> will filter out all blobs of size at least <size>.

-f

--force

When git fetch is used with <src>:<dst> refspec, it may refuse to update the local branch as discussed in the <refspec> part of the git-fetch[1] documentation. This option overrides that check.

-k

--keep

Keep downloaded pack.

--prefetch

Modify the configured refspec to place all refs into the refs/prefetch/ namespace. See the prefetch task in git-maintenance[1].

-p

--prune

Before fetching, remove any remote-tracking references that no longer exist on the remote. Tags are not subject to pruning if they are fetched only because of the default tag auto-following or due to a --tags option. However, if tags are fetched due to an explicit refspec (either on the command line or in the remote configuration, for example if the remote was cloned with the --mirror option), then they are also subject to pruning. Supplying --prune-tags is a shorthand for providing the tag refspec.

--no-tags

By default, tags that point at objects that are downloaded from the remote repository are fetched and stored locally. This option disables this automatic tag following. The default behavior for a remote may be specified with the remote.<name>.tagOpt setting. See git-config[1].

--refmap=<refspec>

When fetching refs listed on the command line, use the specified refspec (can be given more than once) to map the refs to remote-tracking branches, instead of the values of remote.<name>.fetch configuration variables for the remote repository. Providing an empty <refspec> to the --refmap option causes Git to ignore the configured refspecs and rely entirely on the refspecs supplied as command-line arguments. See section on "Configured Remote-tracking Branches" for details.

-t

--tags

Fetch all tags from the remote (i.e., fetch remote tags refs/tags/* into local tags with the same name), in addition to whatever else would otherwise be fetched. Using this option alone does not subject tags to pruning, even if --prune is used (though tags may be pruned anyway if they are also the destination of an explicit refspec; see --prune).

-j <n>

--jobs=<n>

Parallelize all forms of fetching up to <n> jobs at a time.

A value of 0 will use some reasonable default.

If the --multiple option was specified, the different remotes will be fetched in parallel. If multiple submodules are fetched, they will be fetched in parallel. To control them independently, use the config settings fetch.parallel and submodule.fetchJobs (see git-config[1]).

Typically, parallel recursive and multi-remote fetches will be faster. By default fetches are performed sequentially, not in parallel.

--set-upstream

If the remote is fetched successfully, add upstream (tracking) reference, used by argument-less git-pull[1] and other commands. For more information, see branch.<name>.merge and branch.<name>.remote in git-config[1].

--upload-pack <upload-pack>

When given, and the repository to fetch from is handled by git fetch-pack, --exec=<upload-pack> is passed to the command to specify non-default path for the command run on the other end.

--progress

Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.

-o <option>

--server-option=<option>

Transmit the given string to the server when communicating using protocol version 2. The given string must not contain a NUL or LF character. The server’s handling of server options, including unknown ones, is server-specific. When multiple --server-option=<option> are given, they are all sent to the other side in the order listed on the command line. When no --server-option=<option> is given from the command line, the values of configuration variable remote.<name>.serverOption are used instead.

--show-forced-updates

By default, git checks if a branch is force-updated during fetch. This can be disabled through fetch.showForcedUpdates, but the --show-forced-updates option guarantees this check occurs. See git-config[1].

--no-show-forced-updates

By default, git checks if a branch is force-updated during fetch. Pass --no-show-forced-updates or set fetch.showForcedUpdates to false to skip this check for performance reasons. If used during git-pull the --ff-only option will still check for forced updates before attempting a fast-forward update. See git-config[1].

-4

--ipv4

Use IPv4 addresses only, ignoring IPv6 addresses.

-6

--ipv6

Use IPv6 addresses only, ignoring IPv4 addresses.

<repository>

The "remote" repository that is the source of a fetch or pull operation. This parameter can be either a URL (see the section GIT URLS below) or the name of a remote (see the section REMOTES below).

<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 are read from remote.<repository>.fetch variables instead (see the section "CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES" in git-fetch[1]).

The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus +, followed by the source <src>, followed by a colon :, followed by the destination <dst>. The colon can be omitted when <dst> is empty. <src> is typically a ref, or a glob pattern with a single * that is used to match a set of refs, but it can also be a fully spelled hex object name.

A <refspec> may contain a * in its <src> to indicate a simple pattern match. Such a refspec functions like a glob that matches any ref with the pattern. A pattern <refspec> must have one and only one * in both the <src> and <dst>. It will map refs to the destination by replacing the * with the contents matched from the source.

If a refspec is prefixed by ^, it will be interpreted as a negative refspec. Rather than specifying which refs to fetch or which local refs to update, such a refspec will instead specify refs to exclude. A ref will be considered to match if it matches at least one positive refspec, and does not match any negative refspec. Negative refspecs can be useful to restrict the scope of a pattern refspec so that it will not include specific refs. Negative refspecs can themselves be pattern refspecs. However, they may only contain a <src> and do not specify a <dst>. Fully spelled out hex object names are also not supported.

tag <tag> means the same as refs/tags/<tag>:refs/tags/<tag>; it requests fetching everything up to the given tag.

The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if <dst> is not an empty string, an attempt is made to update the local ref that matches it.

Whether that update is allowed without --force depends on the ref namespace it’s being fetched to, the type of object being fetched, and whether the update is considered to be a fast-forward. Generally, the same rules apply for fetching as when pushing, see the <refspec>... section of git-push[1] for what those are. Exceptions to those rules particular to git fetch are noted below.

Until Git version 2.20, and unlike when pushing with git-push[1], any updates to refs/tags/* would be accepted without + in the refspec (or --force). When fetching, we promiscuously considered all tag updates from a remote to be forced fetches. Since Git version 2.20, fetching to update refs/tags/* works the same way as when pushing. I.e. any updates will be rejected without + in the refspec (or --force).

Unlike when pushing with git-push[1], any updates outside of refs/{tags,heads}/* will be accepted without + in the refspec (or --force), whether that’s swapping e.g. a tree object for a blob, or a commit for another commit that doesn’t have the previous commit as an ancestor etc.

Unlike when pushing with git-push[1], there is no configuration which’ll amend these rules, and nothing like a pre-fetch hook analogous to the pre-receive hook.

As with pushing with git-push[1], all of the rules described above about what’s not allowed as an update can be overridden by adding an optional leading + to a refspec (or using the --force command line option). The only exception to this is that no amount of forcing will make the refs/heads/* namespace accept a non-commit object.

Note

When the remote branch you want to fetch is known to be rewound and rebased regularly, it is expected that its new tip will not be a descendant of its previous tip (as stored in your remote-tracking branch the last time you fetched). You would want to use the + sign to indicate non-fast-forward updates will be needed for such branches. There is no way to determine or declare that a branch will be made available in a repository with this behavior; the pulling user simply must know this is the expected usage pattern for a branch.

Note

There is a difference between listing multiple <refspec> directly on git pull command line and having multiple remote.<repository>.fetch entries in your configuration for a <repository> and running a git pull command without any explicit <refspec> parameters. <refspec>s listed explicitly on the command line are always merged into the current branch after fetching. In other words, if you list more than one remote ref, git pull will create an Octopus merge. On the other hand, if you do not list any explicit <refspec> parameter on the command line, git pull will fetch all the <refspec>s it finds in the remote.<repository>.fetch configuration and merge only the first <refspec> found into the current branch. This is because making an Octopus from remote refs is rarely done, while keeping track of multiple remote heads in one-go by fetching more than one is often useful.

	[url "git://git.host.xz/"]
		insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
		insteadOf = work:

	[url "ssh://example.org/"]
		pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/

You can choose to provide the name of a remote which you had previously configured using git-remote[1], git-config[1] or even by a manual edit to the $GIT_DIR/config file. The URL of this remote will be used to access the repository. The refspec of this remote will be used by default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. The entry in the config file would appear like this:

The <pushurl> is used for pushes only. It is optional and defaults to <URL>. Pushing to a remote affects all defined pushurls or all defined urls if no pushurls are defined. Fetch, however, will only fetch from the first defined url if multiple urls are defined.

You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/remotes. The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. The refspec in this file will be used as default when you do not provide a refspec on the command line. This file should have the following format:

Push: lines are used by git push and Pull: lines are used by git pull and git fetch. Multiple Push: and Pull: lines may be specified for additional branch mappings.

You can choose to provide the name of a file in $GIT_DIR/branches. The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This file should have the following format:

<URL> is required; #<head> is optional.

Depending on the operation, git will use one of the following refspecs, if you don’t provide one on the command line. <branch> is the name of this file in $GIT_DIR/branches and <head> defaults to master.

git fetch uses:

git push uses:

[branch "main"]
   remote = origin
   merge = refs/heads/main

refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*