git fetch

The non-destructive half of git pull.

🎯 What & why

Download new commits, trees, blobs, and refs from a remote — but don't change your working tree or current branch. The non-destructive half of git pull.

🧠 Mental model

Fetch updates refs/remotes/<remote>/*. Your local branches and working tree are untouched. After fetch, git log @{u}..HEAD (commits you have that upstream doesn't) and git log HEAD..@{u} (commits upstream has that you don't) become meaningful queries.

🛠️ Synopsis

git fetch [<options>] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]
git fetch [<options>] <group>
git fetch --multiple [<options>] [(<repository> | <group>)...]
git fetch --all [<options>]

🎚️ Switches & options

Flag	What it does
`--all`	Fetch from all remotes.
`--prune, -p`	Delete local remote-tracking branches whose remotes are gone.
`--tags`	Fetch tags.
`--depth=<n>`	Shallow fetch.
`--unshallow`	Convert a shallow clone to a full one.
`--dry-run`	Show what would happen.

💡 Use cases

Refreshing upstream view before deciding what to merge or rebase.
Keeping mirrors and backups current.
CI: fetch the target branch to compare changes.

🧪 Examples

Fetch from origin.

$ git fetch

Fetch and prune deleted upstream branches.

$ git fetch --prune

Fetch a specific branch into a tracking ref.

$ git fetch origin feature/login:refs/remotes/origin/feature/login

🎓 Recommendations

Set fetch.prune = true globally — keeps your remote-tracking refs honest.
Default to git fetch && git log @{u} over git pull. Fetch first, decide what to do.
Run git fetch --all periodically if you have multiple remotes.

🪤 Common pitfalls

Fetch doesn't update your local branches. Many people expect it to. It updates remote-tracking refs.
Without --prune, deleted upstream branches linger forever in refs/remotes/origin/*.

🔗 Related modules

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.