Hey Devs 👋
Ever got confused between git merge and git pull? 😵
You’re not alone — this one trips up even experienced developers sometimes!
Let’s break it down nice and simple 👇
🧩 1️⃣ git merge — combine changes
Think of it like mixing two branches together 🍹
🔹 You’re in develop
🔹 You finished a feature in feature/menu-module
You can do:
git checkout develop
git merge feature/menu-module
👉 This combines your feature branch into develop. \
✅ Great for: merging feature → develop (through PR) \
⚠️ But it creates a merge commit in history.
🔄 2. git pull: The Server Sync
git pull is the "bring me everything from the server" command 🛒. It's actually a convenience command that does two separate Git operations for you in sequence:
git pull=git fetch+git merge
git fetch: Downloads all the latest changes and commits from the remote repository.git merge: Immediately merges those newly downloaded changes into your current local branch.
How It Works
git pull origin develop
Key Takeaway
Purpose: Updates your local branch with the absolute latest code from the remote repository.
Risk: If others have pushed changes while you were working, the automatic merge can sometimes be messy, creating an extra merge commit in your history.
✅ Best for: Quickly updating your local copy of a branch.
💡 Pro Tip: Rebase for a Clean History
f you want a neat, straight commit history ✨ that looks like one continuous line of work, you should use the --rebase option with git pull.
Why rebase? It takes your local commits and re-applies them on top of the remote changes, avoiding the extra "merge bubble" commits.
The Best Way to Update Your Code:
git pull --rebase origin develop
🧼 Keeps history linear
🙌 Avoids “merge bubble” commits
🧠 In Short: merge vs. pull Command Guide
| Task | Best Command | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Merge feature into dev |
git merge (or PR merge) |
Controlled, reviewed, and creates a clear merge point. |
| Update your feature with latest dev | git pull --rebase origin develop |
Clean history, avoids unnecessary merge commits. |
| Get all latest changes without merging immediately | git fetch origin |
Safe & predictable. Lets you inspect changes first. |
| Just sync your local branch quickly | git pull origin develop |
Fast, but can leave a messy history. |
🧰 The Professional Team Workflow Cheat Sheet
Follow these steps for a clean, collaborative workflow:
1️⃣ Always start your day with a fetch: Know what's happened on the remote:
git fetch origin
2️⃣ Before pushing your code, update with rebase: Ensure your branch is up-to-date and linear.:
git pull --rebase origin develop
3️⃣ Push and create your Pull Request (PR) ✅
git push origin feature/awesome-update
4️⃣ Merge through PR (GitHub/GitLab) 🧩
🔒 Safer, reviewed, documented.
💬 TL;DR
🧠 merge → Combine two lines of code manually or via PR, leaving a new commit. \
🌐 pull → fetch + merge from remote, used for updating your local branch. \
🎯 Best practice → Use PRs for merging features and pull --rebase for syncing your local work.\
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