git pull question

git pull question

[Geoff Russell]

Hi,

Assuming I already have a branch called brA

$ git checkout master
$ git pull origin refs/heads/brA:brA

The pull here seems to update both the current branch as well as brA?
Is this intentional?

Cheers,
Geoff.

PS. git is at 1.6.2.3

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Re: git pull question

[Bradley Wagner]

> Hi,
>
> Assuming I already have a branch called brA
>
> $ git checkout master
> $ git pull origin refs/heads/brA:brA
>
> The pull here seems to update both the current branch as well as brA?
> Is this intentional?

I believe this is intentional.

A git pull always pulls into (at least) the currently checked out
branch, in your case "master". By adding the <dst> param after the
colon in the <refspec> you're saying to go ahead and fast-forward
merge the local branch called "brA" if possible.

This is almost equivalent to saying:

git checkout brA
git pull origin brA
git checkout master
git pull origin brA

assuming everything can be fast-forward merged.

Read the the portion of git-pull man entry regarding the <refspec> for
a more thorough explanation:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-pull.html

However, I'm not entirely clear myself on the meaning of this note in
the documentation:

Note
You never do your own development on branches that appear on the right
hand side of a <refspec> colon on Pull: lines; they are to be updated
by git fetch. If you intend to do development derived from a remote
branch B, have a Pull: line to track it (i.e.  Pull: B:remote-B), and
have a separate branch my-B to do your development on top of it. The
latter is created by git branch my-B remote-B (or its equivalent git
checkout -b my-B remote-B). Run git fetch to keep track of the
progress of the remote side, and when you see something new on the
remote branch, merge it into your development branch with git pull .
remote-B, while you are on my-B branch.

>
> Cheers,
> Geoff.
>
> PS. git is at 1.6.2.3
>
> --
> 6 Fifth Ave,
> St Morris, S.A. 5068
> Australia
> Ph: 041 8805 184 / 08 8332 5069
> http://perfidy.com.au
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Re: git pull question

[Geoff Russell]

On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 1:13 PM, Bradley Wagner
<bradley.wagner@hannonhill.com> wrote:
>> ...
>> $ git checkout master
>> $ git pull origin refs/heads/brA:brA
>>
>> The pull here seems to update both the current branch as well as brA?
>> Is this intentional?
>
> I believe this is intentional.
>
> A git pull always pulls into (at least) the currently checked out
> branch, in your case "master". By adding the <dst> param after the
> colon in the <refspec> you're saying to go ahead and fast-forward
> merge the local branch called "brA" if possible.

Okay.


> However, I'm not entirely clear myself on the meaning of this note in
> the documentation:
>
> Note
> You never do your own development on branches that appear on the right
> hand side of a <refspec> colon on Pull: lines; they are to be updated
> by git fetch. If you intend to do development derived from a remote
> branch B, have a Pull: line to track it (i.e.  Pull: B:remote-B), and
> have a separate branch my-B to do your development on top of it. The
> latter is created by git branch my-B remote-B (or its equivalent git
> checkout -b my-B remote-B). Run git fetch to keep track of the
> progress of the remote side, and when you see something new on the
> remote branch, merge it into your development branch with git pull .
> remote-B, while you are on my-B branch.

Yes, I was wondering about this ... I can't see any downside


Geoff.