Git Fetch

Fetch

Purpose

Download updates from a remote without changing your current branch.

Commands

git fetch

• Download updates from the default remote
• Use before reviewing incoming changes or rebasing

git fetch origin

• Download updates from a specific remote
• Use when you have multiple remotes configured

git fetch --all --prune

• Fetch all remotes and remove stale remote-tracking references
• Use during cleanup in active repositories

git diff HEAD origin/<branch>

• Compare your current branch with a fetched remote branch
• Use after fetch to inspect incoming changes
• Example: git diff HEAD origin/main

Notes

• git fetch is safer than git pull when you want to inspect changes before integrating them

Reference

• https://github.com/BankyBluePrints/banky-smart-prompts/blob/main/prompts/devops-tools/git/git-basics/remote/fetch.md