Difference Between Git Fetch and Git Pull

Last Updated : 06 Sep, 2024

Understanding the difference between git fetch and git pull is important for effective version control in Git. Git Fetch and Git Pull are two important commands in Git that help in managing remote repositories.

While both commands involve retrieving data from remote repositories, they serve distinct purposes and are used in different contexts. In this article, Let us look at Git Fetch and Git Pull separately with the help of an example.

What is Git Fetch?

The Git Fetch command is used to fetch all changes from the remote repository to the local repository. It doesn't make any changes to the current working directory. It stores all the changes in a separate branch called the remote-tracking branch. git merge or git rebase command is used to merge these changes into our current working directory.

Syntax:

git fetch [options] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]

Features of Git Fetch

Downloads updates from the remote repository.
Keeps your working directory unchanged.
Updates only the remote-tracking branches.
Allows you to see what others have committed before merging.

Use Cases of Git Fetch

Use Git Fetch when you want to review updates from the remote repository without immediately merging them into your branch.
Ideal for maintaining a clean working directory while staying up-to-date with remote changes.
Helpful for inspecting remote branches before pulling updates into your work.

How to Use Git Fetch?

Step 1: Let us create a file called demo.txt with "Hello Geeks" content inside it initialize the directory to a git repository and push the changes to a remote repository.

git init
git add <Filename>
git commit -m <Commit Message>
git remote add origin <Link to your remote repository>
git push origin <branch name>

Difference Between Git Fetch and Git Pull

Now, we have my demo.txt in the remote repository.

The local and the remote repositories are now in sync and have the same content at both places. Let's now update our demo.txt in the remote repository.

Step 2: We will update our demo.txt remotely.

Now since we have updated our demo.txt remotely, let's bring the changes to our local repository. Our local repository has only 1 commit while the remote repository now has 2 commits (observe the second commit starting from 4c4fcb8).

Step 3: Let's use the git fetch command to see in the local repository whether we have a change in the remote repository or not. Before that let's use the git log command to see our previous commits.

We can see that after using git fetch we get the information that there is some commit done in the remote repository. (notice the 4c4fcb8 which is the initials of our 2nd commit in a remote repository).

Step 4: To merge these changes into our local repository, we need to use the git merge origin/<branch name> command.

Let us have a look at our commits in the local repository using the git log command.

And we got our remote repository commit in our local repository. This is how git fetch works. Let us now have a look at the git pull command.

What is Git Pull?

Git Pull command is used to fetch all changes from the remote repository to the current working directory. It automatically try to merge or rebase them into our current working directory. It is the combination of git fetch and git merge or git rebase. It can generate merge conflicts if there are conflict changes between our local and remote branches.

Syntax:

git pull [options] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]

Features of Git Pull

Fetches and merges updates from the remote repository in one step.
Keeps your branch in sync with the remote branch.
Automatically attempts to merge changes, which can sometimes lead to conflicts.

Use Cases of Git Pull

Use Git Pull when you want to update your local branch with the latest changes from the remote repository immediately.
Ideal for quick updates when you are certain that the incoming changes won’t cause conflicts.
Useful in collaborative environments where frequent synchronization is required.

How to Use Git Pull?

Step 1: Let's make more changes to our demo.txt file at the remote repository.

Now, we have 3 commits at our remote repository whereas 2 commits at our local repository. (Notice the third commit starting with 09d828f).

Step 2: Let us now bring this change to our local repository using the git pull origin <branch name> command.

We can see that with the help of just git pull command, we directly fetched and merged our remote repository with the local repository.

git pull = git fetch + git merge

Let us see what our demo.txt in the local repository looks like -

And now our remote and local repositories are again in sync with each other.