1. git fetch#

The git fetch command downloads commits, files, and refs from a remote repository into your local repo. Fetching is what you do when you want to see what everybody else has been working on. Git isolates fetched content from existing local content; it has absolutely no effect on your local development work.

Fetch all of the branches from the repository. This also downloads all of the required commits and files from the other repository.

$ git fetch <remote>

Same as the above command, but only fetch the specified branch.

# e.g., git fetch origin master
$ git fetch <remote> <branch>

2. What is origin#

<remote> here is the url of the remote repository, we usually set an alias (often set as origin) so that we can refer it conveniently. Check here, we set the alias when specify the remote repository to local:

# means: [email protected]:shwezhu/MyProject.git
git remote add origin [email protected]:shwezhu/your-repo.git

You can set the alias to other name like this:

git remote add my-repo-github [email protected]:shwezhu/your-repo.git

But you have to use my-repo-github when you want to refer that url:

# equals to: git fetch [email protected]:shwezhu/your-repo.git your-branch
git push my-repo-github your-branch
git fetch my-repo-github your-branch

You can change the alias:

git remote rename repo origin

3. git remote command#

The git remote command is also a convenience or ‘helper’ method for modifying a repo’s ./.git/config file. The commands presented below let you manage connections with other repositories. The following commands will modify the repo’s /.git/config file. The result of the following commands can also be achieved by directly editing the ./.git/config file with a text editor.

git remote add <name> <url>

Create a new connection to a remote repository. After adding a remote, you’ll be able to use ＜name＞ as a convenient shortcut for ＜url＞ in other Git commands.

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