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How Do I 'git fetch' and 'git merge' from a Remote Tracking Branch (like 'git pull')

Asked 2010-04-08T18:45:02.923
120

I have set up some remote tracking branches in git, but I never seem to be able to merge them into the local branch once I have updated them with 'git fetch'.

For example, suppose I have remote branch called 'an-other-branch'. I set that up locally as a tracking branch using

git branch --track an-other-branch origin/an-other-branch

So far, so good. But if that branch gets updated (usually by me moving machine and commiting from that machine), and I want to update it on the original machine, I'm running into trouble with fetch/merge:

git fetch origin an-other-branch
git merge origin/an-other-branch

Whenever I do this, I get an 'Already up-to-date' message and nothing merges.

However, a

git pull origin an-other-branch

always updates it like you would expect.

Also, running git diff

git diff origin/an-other-branch

shows that there are differences, so I think I have my syntax wrong.

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT [2010-04-09]: I have checked a couple of times, and I'm definitely not on a different branch. Should my 'git fetch' followed by a 'git merge' (as shown above) do the exact same thing as a git pull? I will get some workflow showing the results of a git status etc.

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2 Answers

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Git pull is actually a combo tool: it runs git fetch (getting the changes) and git merge (merging them with your current copy)

Are you sure you are on the correct branch?

answered 2010-04-08T18:54:12.267
2

these are the commands:

git fetch origin
git merge origin/somebranch somebranch

if you do this on the second line:

git merge origin somebranch

it will try to merge the local master into your current branch.

The question, as I've understood it, was you fetched already locally and want to now merge your branch to the latest of the same branch.

answered 2013-07-21T17:50:18.827

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