Unveiling the Art of Sync: Mastering Fetching and Pulling in Git

#github #git #webdev #beginners

How Cloning Works

After cloning there will be two branch references:
1. A regular branch reference that I can move around myself.(the default branch of the Github repo)
2. origin/master. This is a "Remote Tracking Branch". It's a reference to the state of the master branch on the remote. I can't move this myself. It's like a bookmark pointing to the last known commit on the master branch on origin remote.

"At the time you last communicated with this remote repository, here is where x branch was pointing"
They follow this pattern remote/branch.
- origin/master references the state of the master branch on the remote repo named origin.
- upstream/logoRedesign references the state of the logoRedesign branch on the remote named upstream (a common remote name)
Run git branch -r to view the remote branches our local repository knows about.
After committing, the master branch will move but the remote tracking branch will remain unchanged
When you run git status , it will show that the master branch is ahead of ‘origin/master’ by 1 commit. To sync the remote branch with the local branch ,run git push
```
git status
On branch master
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.
(use "git push" to publish your local commits)
```

Once you've cloned a repository, we have all the data and Git history for the project at that moment in time. However, that does not mean it's all in our workspace!
The github repo has a branch called puppies, but when I run git branch I don't see it on my machine! All I see is the master branch. So what's going on?
Run git branch -r to view the remote branches our local repository knows about.
By default, my master branch is already tracking origin/master but there are no branches to track other remote branches. I want my own local branch called puppies, and I want it to be connected to origin/puppies, just like my local master branch is connected to origin/master.
Run git switch <remote-branch-name> to create a new local branch from the remote branch of the same name and connect it to the remote branch. For example, git switch puppies makes me a local puppies branch AND sets it up to track the remote branch origin/puppies.

Suppose that while you are working on the Local repository, the Github Repo has changed. How would you get those changes?

Fetching allows us to download changes from a remote repository, BUT those changes will not be automatically integrated into our working files.
It lets you see what others have been working on, without having to merge those changes into your local repo.
Think of it as "Please go and get the latest information from Github, but don't screw up my working directory."
The git fetch <remote> command fetches branches and history from a specific remote repository. It only updates remote tracking branches. For example, git fetch origin would fetch all changes from the origin remote repository.
We can also fetch a specific branch from a remote using git fetch <remote> <branch>. For example, git fetch origin master would retrieve the latest information from the master branch on the origin remote repository.
```
git fetch <remote>
# If not specified, <remote> defaults to origin
```

I now have those changes on my machine, but if I want to see them I have to checkout origin/master. My master branch is untouched!

git pull is another command we can use to retrieve changes from a remote repository. Unlike fetch, pull actually updates our HEAD branch with whatever changes are retrieved from the remote.
"go and download data from Github AND immediately update my local repo with those changes"

To pull, we specify the particular remote and branch we want to pull using git pull <remote> <branch>. Just like with git merge, it matters WHERE we run this command from. Whatever branch we run it from is where the changes will be merged into.
git pull origin master would fetch the latest information from the origin's master branch and merge those changes into our current branch.
If we run git pull without specifying a particular remote or branch to pull from, git assumes the following:
- remote will default to origin
- branch will default to whatever tracking connection is configured for your current branch which is already setup.
For example, if I am on my local master branch, then git pull would pull from origin/master automatically.
Pulls can result in conflicts hence we should always pull first, then merge conflicts and then push.

Git Fetch	Git Pull
Gets changes from remote branch(es)	Gets changes from remote branch(es)
Updates the remote-tracking branches with the new changes	Updates the current branch with the new changes, merging them in
Does not merge changes onto your current HEAD branch	Can result in merge conflicts
Safe to do at anytime	Not recommended if you have uncommitted changes!