# git-fetch

## NAME



           git-fetch - Download objects and refs from another repository
    


## SYNOPSIS



           _git fetch_ [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
           _git fetch_ [<options>] <group>
           _git fetch_ --multiple [<options>] [(<repository> | <group>)...]
           _git fetch_ --all [<options>]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Fetch branches and/or tags (collectively, "refs") from one or more
           other repositories, along with the objects necessary to complete
           their histories. Remote-tracking branches are updated (see the
           description of <refspec> below for ways to control this behavior).
    
           By default, any tag that points into the histories being fetched
           is also fetched; the effect is to fetch tags that point at
           branches that you are interested in. This default behavior can be
           changed by using the --tags or --no-tags options or by configuring
           remote.<name>.tagOpt. By using a refspec that fetches tags
           explicitly, you can fetch tags that do not point into branches you
           are interested in as well.
    
           _git fetch_ can fetch from either a single named repository or URL,
           or from several repositories at once if <group> is given and there
           is a remotes.<group> entry in the configuration file. (See
           git-config(1)).
    
           When no remote is specified, by default the **origin** remote will be
           used, unless there’s an upstream branch configured for the current
           branch.
    
           The names of refs that are fetched, together with the object names
           they point at, are written to **.git/FETCH_HEAD**. This information
           may be used by scripts or other git commands, such as git-pull(1).
    


## OPTIONS



           --[no-]all
               Fetch all remotes, except for the ones that has 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-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.
    
               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.
    
           --negotiate-only
               Do not fetch anything from the server, and instead print the
               ancestors of the provided **--negotiation-tip=*** 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.
    
           --[no-]write-fetch-head
               Write the list of remote refs fetched in the **FETCH_HEAD** file
               directly under **$GIT_DIR**. This is the default. Passing
               **--no-write-fetch-head** from the command line tells Git not to
               write the file. Under **--dry-run** option, the file is never
               written.
    
           -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
               below. This option overrides that check.
    
           -k, --keep
               Keep downloaded pack.
    
           --multiple
               Allow several <repository> and <group> arguments to be
               specified. No <refspec>s may be specified.
    
           --[no-]auto-maintenance, --[no-]auto-gc
               Run **git maintenance run --auto** at the end to perform automatic
               repository maintenance if needed. (**--**[**no-**]**auto-gc** is a
               synonym.) This is enabled by default.
    
           --[no-]write-commit-graph
               Write a commit-graph after fetching. This overrides the config
               setting **fetch.writeCommitGraph**.
    
           --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.
    
               See the PRUNING section below for more details.
    
           -P, --prune-tags
               Before fetching, remove any local tags that no longer exist on
               the remote if **--prune** is enabled. This option should be used
               more carefully, unlike **--prune** it will remove any local
               references (local tags) that have been created. This option is
               a shorthand for providing the explicit tag refspec along with
               **--prune** , see the discussion about that in its documentation.
    
               See the PRUNING section below for more details.
    
           -n, --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).
    
           --refetch
               Instead of negotiating with the server to avoid transferring
               commits and associated objects that are already present
               locally, this option fetches all objects as a fresh clone
               would. Use this to reapply a partial clone filter from
               configuration or using **--filter=** when the filter definition
               has changed. Automatic post-fetch maintenance will perform
               object database pack consolidation to remove any duplicate
               objects.
    
           --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.*.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**).
    
           --recurse-submodules[=(yes|on-demand|no)]
               This option controls if and under what conditions new commits
               of submodules should be fetched too. When recursing through
               submodules, **git fetch** always attempts to fetch "changed"
               submodules, that is, a submodule that has commits that are
               referenced by a newly fetched superproject commit but are
               missing in the local submodule clone. A changed submodule can
               be fetched as long as it is present locally e.g. in
               **$GIT_DIR/modules/**(see gitsubmodules(7)); if the upstream adds
               a new submodule, that submodule cannot be fetched until it is
               cloned e.g. by **git submodule update**.
    
               When set to _on-demand_ , only changed submodules are fetched.
               When set to _yes_ , all populated submodules are fetched and
               submodules that are both unpopulated and changed are fetched.
               When set to _no_ , submodules are never fetched.
    
               When unspecified, this uses the value of
               **fetch.recurseSubmodules** if it is set (see git-config(1)),
               defaulting to _on-demand_ if unset. When this option is used
               without any value, it defaults to _yes_.
    
           -j, --jobs=<n>
               Number of parallel children to be used for all forms of
               fetching.
    
               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.
    
           --no-recurse-submodules
               Disable recursive fetching of submodules (this has the same
               effect as using the **--recurse-submodules=no** option).
    
           --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).
    
           --submodule-prefix=<path>
               Prepend <path> to paths printed in informative messages such
               as "Fetching submodule foo". This option is used internally
               when recursing over submodules.
    
           --recurse-submodules-default=[yes|on-demand]
               This option is used internally to temporarily provide a
               non-negative default value for the --recurse-submodules
               option. All other methods of configuring fetch’s submodule
               recursion (such as settings in gitmodules(5) and
               git-config(1)) override this option, as does specifying
               --[no-]recurse-submodules directly.
    
           -u, --update-head-ok
               By default _git fetch_ refuses to update the head which
               corresponds to the current branch. This flag disables the
               check. This is purely for the internal use for _git pull_ to
               communicate with _git fetch_ , and unless you are implementing
               your own Porcelain you are not supposed to use it.
    
           --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.
    
           -q, --quiet
               Pass --quiet to git-fetch-pack and silence any other
               internally used git commands. Progress is not reported to the
               standard error stream.
    
           -v, --verbose
               Be verbose.
    
           --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).
    
           <group>
               A name referring to a list of repositories as the value of
               remotes.<group> in the configuration file. (See
               git-config(1)).
    
           <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 CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES below).
    
               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.
    
           --stdin
               Read refspecs, one per line, from stdin in addition to those
               provided as arguments. The "tag <name>" format is not
               supported.
    


## GIT URLS



           In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol,
           the address of the remote server, and the path to the repository.
           Depending on the transport protocol, some of this information may
           be absent.
    
           Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp
           and ftps can be used for fetching, but this is inefficient and
           deprecated; do not use them).
    
           The native transport (i.e. **git://** URL) does no authentication and
           should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
    
           The following syntaxes may be used with them:
    
           •   **ssh://**[_< user>_**@**]_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **git://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **http**[**s**]**://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **ftp**[**s**]**://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh
           protocol:
    
           •   [_< user>_**@**]_< host>_**:/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the
           first colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a
           colon. For example the local path **foo:bar** could be specified as an
           absolute path or **./foo:bar** to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh
           url.
    
           The ssh and git protocols additionally support **~**_< username>_
           expansion:
    
           •   **ssh://**[_< user>_**@**]_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/~**_< user>_**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **git://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/~**_< user>_**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   [_< user>_**@**]_< host>_**:~**_< user>_**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the
           following syntaxes may be used:
    
           •   **/path/to/repo.git/**
    
           •   **file:///path/to/repo.git/**
    
           These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except when cloning,
           when the former implies **--local** option. See git-clone(1) for
           details.
    
           **git clone** , **git fetch** and **git pull** , but not **git push** , will also
           accept a suitable bundle file. See git-bundle(1).
    
           When Git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol,
           it attempts to use the **remote-**_< transport>_ remote helper, if one
           exists. To explicitly request a remote helper, the following
           syntax may be used:
    
           •   _< transport>_**::**_< address>_
    
           where _< address>_ may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
           URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being
           invoked. See gitremote-helpers(7) for details.
    
           If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories
           and you want to use a different format for them (such that the
           URLs you use will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can
           create a configuration section of the form:
    
                       [url "_< actual-url-base>_"]
                               insteadOf = _< other-url-base>_
    
           For example, with this:
    
                       [url "git://git.host.xz/"]
                               insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
                               insteadOf = work:
    
           a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git"
           will be rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
           "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
    
           If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
           configuration section of the form:
    
                       [url "_< actual-url-base>_"]
                               pushInsteadOf = _< other-url-base>_
    
           For example, with this:
    
                       [url "ssh://example.org/"]
                               pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
    
           a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten
           to "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will
           still use the original URL.
    


## REMOTES



           The name of one of the following can be used instead of a URL as
           _< repository>_ argument:
    
           •   a remote in the Git configuration file: **$GIT_DIR/config** ,
    
           •   a file in the **$GIT_DIR/remotes** directory, or
    
           •   a file in the **$GIT_DIR/branches** directory.
    
           All of these also allow you to omit the refspec from the command
           line because they each contain a refspec which git will use by
           default.
    
       **Named remote in configuration file**
           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:
    
                       [remote "<name>"]
                               url = <URL>
                               pushurl = <pushurl>
                               push = <refspec>
                               fetch = <refspec>
    
           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.
    
       **Named file in $GIT_DIR/remotes**
           You can choose to provide the name of a file in **$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:
    
                       URL: one of the above URL formats
                       Push: <refspec>
                       Pull: <refspec>
    
           **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.
    
       **Named file in $GIT_DIR/branches**
           You can choose to provide the name of a file in **$GIT_DIR/branches**.
           The URL in this file will be used to access the repository. This
           file should have the following format:
    
                       <URL>#<head>
    
           _< 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:
    
                       refs/heads/<head>:refs/heads/<branch>
    
           git push uses:
    
                       HEAD:refs/heads/<head>
    


## CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES



           You often interact with the same remote repository by regularly
           and repeatedly fetching from it. In order to keep track of the
           progress of such a remote repository, **git fetch** allows you to
           configure **remote.**_< repository>_**.fetch** configuration variables.
    
           Typically such a variable may look like this:
    
               [remote "origin"]
                       fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
    
           This configuration is used in two ways:
    
           •   When **git fetch** is run without specifying what branches and/or
               tags to fetch on the command line, e.g.  **git fetch origin** or
               **git fetch** , **remote.**_< repository>_**.fetch** values are used as the
               refspecs—they specify which refs to fetch and which local refs
               to update. The example above will fetch all branches that
               exist in the **origin**(i.e. any ref that matches the left-hand
               side of the value, **refs/heads/***) and update the corresponding
               remote-tracking branches in the **refs/remotes/origin/***
               hierarchy.
    
           •   When **git fetch** is run with explicit branches and/or tags to
               fetch on the command line, e.g.  **git fetch origin master** , the
               <refspec>s given on the command line determine what are to be
               fetched (e.g.  **master** in the example, which is a short-hand
               for **master:** , which in turn means "fetch the _master_ branch but
               I do not explicitly say what remote-tracking branch to update
               with it from the command line"), and the example command will
               fetch _only_ the _master_ branch. The **remote.**_< repository>_**.fetch**
               values determine which remote-tracking branch, if any, is
               updated. When used in this way, the **remote.**_< repository>_**.fetch**
               values do not have any effect in deciding _what_ gets fetched
               (i.e. the values are not used as refspecs when the
               command-line lists refspecs); they are only used to decide
               _where_ the refs that are fetched are stored by acting as a
               mapping.
    
           The latter use of the **remote.**_< repository>_**.fetch** values can be
           overridden by giving the **--refmap=**_< refspec>_ parameter(s) on the
           command line.
    


## PRUNING



           Git has a default disposition of keeping data unless it’s
           explicitly thrown away; this extends to holding onto local
           references to branches on remotes that have themselves deleted
           those branches.
    
           If left to accumulate, these stale references might make
           performance worse on big and busy repos that have a lot of branch
           churn, and e.g. make the output of commands like **git branch -a**
           **--contains** _< commit>_ needlessly verbose, as well as impacting
           anything else that’ll work with the complete set of known
           references.
    
           These remote-tracking references can be deleted as a one-off with
           either of:
    
               # While fetching
               $ git fetch --prune <name>
    
               # Only prune, don't fetch
               $ git remote prune <name>
    
           To prune references as part of your normal workflow without
           needing to remember to run that, set **fetch.prune** globally, or
           **remote.**_< name>_**.prune** per-remote in the config. See git-config(1).
    
           Here’s where things get tricky and more specific. The pruning
           feature doesn’t actually care about branches, instead it’ll prune
           local ←→ remote-references as a function of the refspec of the
           remote (see _< refspec>_ and CONFIGURED REMOTE-TRACKING BRANCHES
           above).
    
           Therefore if the refspec for the remote includes e.g.
           **refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*** , or you manually run e.g. **git fetch**
           **--prune** _< name>_ "refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*" it won’t be stale remote
           tracking branches that are deleted, but any local tag that doesn’t
           exist on the remote.
    
           This might not be what you expect, i.e. you want to prune remote
           _< name>_, but also explicitly fetch tags from it, so when you fetch
           from it you delete all your local tags, most of which may not have
           come from the _< name>_ remote in the first place.
    
           So be careful when using this with a refspec like
           **refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*** , or any other refspec which might map
           references from multiple remotes to the same local namespace.
    
           Since keeping up-to-date with both branches and tags on the remote
           is a common use-case the **--prune-tags** option can be supplied along
           with **--prune** to prune local tags that don’t exist on the remote,
           and force-update those tags that differ. Tag pruning can also be
           enabled with **fetch.pruneTags** or **remote.**_< name>_**.pruneTags** in the
           config. See git-config(1).
    
           The **--prune-tags** option is equivalent to having
           **refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*** declared in the refspecs of the remote.
           This can lead to some seemingly strange interactions:
    
               # These both fetch tags
               $ git fetch --no-tags origin 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'
               $ git fetch --no-tags --prune-tags origin
    
           The reason it doesn’t error out when provided without **--prune** or
           its config versions is for flexibility of the configured versions,
           and to maintain a 1=1 mapping between what the command line flags
           do, and what the configuration versions do.
    
           It’s reasonable to e.g. configure **fetch.pruneTags=true** in
           **~/.gitconfig** to have tags pruned whenever **git fetch --prune** is
           run, without making every invocation of **git fetch** without **--prune**
           an error.
    
           Pruning tags with **--prune-tags** also works when fetching a URL
           instead of a named remote. These will all prune tags not found on
           origin:
    
               $ git fetch origin --prune --prune-tags
               $ git fetch origin --prune 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'
               $ git fetch <url-of-origin> --prune --prune-tags
               $ git fetch <url-of-origin> --prune 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'
    


## OUTPUT



           The output of "git fetch" depends on the transport method used;
           this section describes the output when fetching over the Git
           protocol (either locally or via ssh) and Smart HTTP protocol.
    
           The status of the fetch is output in tabular form, with each line
           representing the status of a single ref. Each line is of the form:
    
                <flag> <summary> <from> -> <to> [<reason>]
    
           When using **--porcelain** , the output format is intended to be
           machine-parseable. In contrast to the human-readable output
           formats it thus prints to standard output instead of standard
           error. Each line is of the form:
    
               <flag> <old-object-id> <new-object-id> <local-reference>
    
           The status of up-to-date refs is shown only if the --verbose
           option is used.
    
           In compact output mode, specified with configuration variable
           fetch.output, if either entire _< from>_ or _< to>_ is found in the
           other string, it will be substituted with ***** in the other string.
           For example, **master -** > **origin/master** becomes **master -** > **origin/***.
    
           flag
               A single character indicating the status of the ref:
    
               (space)
                   for a successfully fetched fast-forward;
    
               **+**
                   for a successful forced update;
    
               **-**
                   for a successfully pruned ref;
    
               **t**
                   for a successful tag update;
    
               *****
                   for a successfully fetched new ref;
    
               !
                   for a ref that was rejected or failed to update; and
    
               **=**
                   for a ref that was up to date and did not need fetching.
    
           summary
               For a successfully fetched ref, the summary shows the old and
               new values of the ref in a form suitable for using as an
               argument to **git log**(this is _< old>_**..**_< new>_ in most cases, and
               _< old>_**...**_< new>_ for forced non-fast-forward updates).
    
           from
               The name of the remote ref being fetched from, minus its
               **refs/**_< type>_**/** prefix. In the case of deletion, the name of the
               remote ref is "(none)".
    
           to
               The name of the local ref being updated, minus its
               **refs/**_< type>_**/** prefix.
    
           reason
               A human-readable explanation. In the case of successfully
               fetched refs, no explanation is needed. For a failed ref, the
               reason for failure is described.
    


## EXAMPLES



           •   Update the remote-tracking branches:
    
                   $ git fetch origin
    
               The above command copies all branches from the remote
               **refs/heads/** namespace and stores them to the local
               **refs/remotes/origin/** namespace, unless the
               **remote.**_< repository>_**.fetch** option is used to specify a
               non-default refspec.
    
           •   Using refspecs explicitly:
    
                   $ git fetch origin +seen:seen maint:tmp
    
               This updates (or creates, as necessary) branches **seen** and **tmp**
               in the local repository by fetching from the branches
               (respectively) **seen** and **maint** from the remote repository.
    
               The **seen** branch will be updated even if it does not
               fast-forward, because it is prefixed with a plus sign; **tmp**
               will not be.
    
           •   Peek at a remote’s branch, without configuring the remote in
               your local repository:
    
                   $ git fetch git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git maint
                   $ git log FETCH_HEAD
    
               The first command fetches the **maint** branch from the repository
               at **git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git** and the second
               command uses **FETCH_HEAD** to examine the branch with git-log(1).
               The fetched objects will eventually be removed by git’s
               built-in housekeeping (see git-gc(1)).
    


## SECURITY



           The fetch and push protocols are not designed to prevent one side
           from stealing data from the other repository that was not intended
           to be shared. If you have private data that you need to protect
           from a malicious peer, your best option is to store it in another
           repository. This applies to both clients and servers. In
           particular, namespaces on a server are not effective for read
           access control; you should only grant read access to a namespace
           to clients that you would trust with read access to the entire
           repository.
    
           The known attack vectors are as follows:
    
            1. The victim sends "have" lines advertising the IDs of objects
               it has that are not explicitly intended to be shared but can
               be used to optimize the transfer if the peer also has them.
               The attacker chooses an object ID X to steal and sends a ref
               to X, but isn’t required to send the content of X because the
               victim already has it. Now the victim believes that the
               attacker has X, and it sends the content of X back to the
               attacker later. (This attack is most straightforward for a
               client to perform on a server, by creating a ref to X in the
               namespace the client has access to and then fetching it. The
               most likely way for a server to perform it on a client is to
               "merge" X into a public branch and hope that the user does
               additional work on this branch and pushes it back to the
               server without noticing the merge.)
    
            2. As in #1, the attacker chooses an object ID X to steal. The
               victim sends an object Y that the attacker already has, and
               the attacker falsely claims to have X and not Y, so the victim
               sends Y as a delta against X. The delta reveals regions of X
               that are similar to Y to the attacker.
    


## CONFIGURATION



           Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
           from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
           what’s found there:
    
           fetch.recurseSubmodules
               This option controls whether **git fetch**(and the underlying
               fetch in **git pull**) will recursively fetch into populated
               submodules. This option can be set either to a boolean value
               or to _on-demand_. Setting it to a boolean changes the behavior
               of fetch and pull to recurse unconditionally into submodules
               when set to true or to not recurse at all when set to false.
               When set to _on-demand_ , fetch and pull will only recurse into a
               populated submodule when its superproject retrieves a commit
               that updates the submodule’s reference. Defaults to _on-demand_ ,
               or to the value of _submodule.recurse_ if set.
    
           fetch.fsckObjects
               If it is set to true, git-fetch-pack will check all fetched
               objects. See **transfer.fsckObjects** for what’s checked. Defaults
               to false. If not set, the value of **transfer.fsckObjects** is
               used instead.
    
           fetch.fsck.<msg-id>
               Acts like **fsck.**_< msg-id>_, but is used by git-fetch-pack(1)
               instead of git-fsck(1). See the **fsck.**_< msg-id>_ documentation
               for details.
    
           fetch.fsck.skipList
               Acts like **fsck.skipList** , but is used by git-fetch-pack(1)
               instead of git-fsck(1). See the **fsck.skipList** documentation
               for details.
    
           fetch.unpackLimit
               If the number of objects fetched over the Git native transfer
               is below this limit, then the objects will be unpacked into
               loose object files. However if the number of received objects
               equals or exceeds this limit then the received pack will be
               stored as a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.
               Storing the pack from a push can make the push operation
               complete faster, especially on slow filesystems. If not set,
               the value of **transfer.unpackLimit** is used instead.
    
           fetch.prune
               If true, fetch will automatically behave as if the **--prune**
               option was given on the command line. See also
               **remote.**_< name>_**.prune** and the PRUNING section of git-fetch(1).
    
           fetch.pruneTags
               If true, fetch will automatically behave as if the
               **refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*** refspec was provided when pruning, if
               not set already. This allows for setting both this option and
               **fetch.prune** to maintain a 1=1 mapping to upstream refs. See
               also **remote.**_< name>_**.pruneTags** and the PRUNING section of
               git-fetch(1).
    
           fetch.all
               If true, fetch will attempt to update all available remotes.
               This behavior can be overridden by passing **--no-all** or by
               explicitly specifying one or more remote(s) to fetch from.
               Defaults to false.
    
           fetch.output
               Control how ref update status is printed. Valid values are
               **full** and **compact**. Default value is **full**. See the OUTPUT
               section in git-fetch(1) for details.
    
           fetch.negotiationAlgorithm
               Control how information about the commits in the local
               repository is sent when negotiating the contents of the
               packfile to be sent by the server. Set to "consecutive" to use
               an algorithm that walks over consecutive commits checking each
               one. Set to "skipping" to use an algorithm that skips commits
               in an effort to converge faster, but may result in a
               larger-than-necessary packfile; or set to "noop" to not send
               any information at all, which will almost certainly result in
               a larger-than-necessary packfile, but will skip the
               negotiation step. Set to "default" to override settings made
               previously and use the default behaviour. The default is
               normally "consecutive", but if **feature.experimental** is true,
               then the default is "skipping". Unknown values will cause _git_
               _fetch_ to error out.
    
               See also the **--negotiate-only** and **--negotiation-tip** options to
               git-fetch(1).
    
           fetch.showForcedUpdates
               Set to false to enable **--no-show-forced-updates** in
               git-fetch(1) and git-pull(1) commands. Defaults to true.
    
           fetch.parallel
               Specifies the maximal number of fetch operations to be run in
               parallel at a time (submodules, or remotes when the **--multiple**
               option of git-fetch(1) is in effect).
    
               A value of 0 will give some reasonable default. If unset, it
               defaults to 1.
    
               For submodules, this setting can be overridden using the
               **submodule.fetchJobs** config setting.
    
           fetch.writeCommitGraph
               Set to true to write a commit-graph after every **git fetch**
               command that downloads a pack-file from a remote. Using the
               **--split** option, most executions will create a very small
               commit-graph file on top of the existing commit-graph file(s).
               Occasionally, these files will merge and the write may take
               longer. Having an updated commit-graph file helps performance
               of many Git commands, including **git merge-base** , **git push -f** ,
               and **git log --graph**. Defaults to false.
    
           fetch.bundleURI
               This value stores a URI for downloading Git object data from a
               bundle URI before performing an incremental fetch from the
               origin Git server. This is similar to how the **--bundle-uri**
               option behaves in git-clone(1).  **git clone --bundle-uri** will
               set the **fetch.bundleURI** value if the supplied bundle URI
               contains a bundle list that is organized for incremental
               fetches.
    
               If you modify this value and your repository has a
               **fetch.bundleCreationToken** value, then remove that
               **fetch.bundleCreationToken** value before fetching from the new
               bundle URI.
    
           fetch.bundleCreationToken
               When using **fetch.bundleURI** to fetch incrementally from a
               bundle list that uses the "creationToken" heuristic, this
               config value stores the maximum **creationToken** value of the
               downloaded bundles. This value is used to prevent downloading
               bundles in the future if the advertised **creationToken** is not
               strictly larger than this value.
    
               The creation token values are chosen by the provider serving
               the specific bundle URI. If you modify the URI at
               **fetch.bundleURI** , then be sure to remove the value for the
               **fetch.bundleCreationToken** value before fetching.
    


## BUGS



           Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in
           submodules that are present locally e.g. in **$GIT_DIR/modules/**. If
           the upstream adds a new submodule, that submodule cannot be
           fetched until it is cloned e.g. by **git submodule update**. This is
           expected to be fixed in a future Git version.
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


* * *