git pull — Downloading Changes

git pull downloads changes from the remote AND immediately merges them into your current branch. It is a convenience shortcut combining git fetch (download) followed by git merge (integrate) into a single command.

01.What Pull Does in Two Phases

Phase 1 (fetch): downloads all new commits from the remote and updates the remote-tracking references like origin/main — your local branches are untouched. Phase 2 (merge): merges origin/main into your current local branch. This can produce merge commits or conflicts, just like any merge.

Distributed Architecture

💻

Your Local

push / pull

☁️

GitHub (Remote)

push / pull

💻

Teammate's Local

02.git pull --rebase (Recommended)

Instead of creating a merge commit, --rebase replays your local commits on top of the updated remote branch. Result: clean linear history with no merge commits. Many teams configure this as the default. Great rule of thumb: pull --rebase on feature branches, regular pull on main.

Commit Timeline

a1b2c3d

init

b2c3d4e

feat

c3d4e5f

fix

d4e5f6a

HEAD

Commands

commands — click to reveal output

git pull

Pull from the tracked upstream branch

▼ show output

git pull origin main

Explicitly pull from origin main

git pull --rebase

Pull and rebase instead of merge (cleaner linear history)

git pull --rebase origin main

Rebase against a specific remote branch

git config --global pull.rebase true

Set --rebase as the default behavior for all pulls

KNOWLEDGE CHECK

git pull is equivalent to which two commands run in sequence?

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