Git Pull

git pull is two commands in one: it fetches from the remote, then integrates what it fetched into your current branch. Both halves matter, because the second one is where conflicts and surprises come from.

Knowing that it is a fetch plus a merge is what lets you choose the other option when either half is a bad idea — see Fetch Without Merge.

Pull changes

git pull

for a specific branch example:-main branch

git pull origin main

Updates the local repository with changes from the remote repository. It pulls the changes from the remote repository and merges them with the local changes.

Merge or rebase

Newer Git asks which you want, and the answer matters:

git pull --rebase     # replay your unpushed commits on top of theirs
git pull --no-rebase  # record a merge commit instead

Rebasing keeps the history straight, which is usually what you want on a feature branch. Merging preserves the fact that you synced, which matters more on a shared or long-lived branch. Whichever you pick, set it once:

git config --global pull.rebase true

Uncommitted changes block a pull

Git refuses to pull when a file it needs to change is one you have edited but not committed. Stash, pull, and pop:

git stash
git pull
git stash pop

If it goes wrong

A conflicted pull is finished the same way as any other merge: resolve the files, git add them, and commit. If you would rather not deal with it now, git merge --abort puts everything back.

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