Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> writes: > When we run a regular "git fetch" without arguments, we > update the tracking refs according to the configured > refspec. However, when we run "git fetch origin master" (or > "git pull origin master"), we do not look at the configured > refspecs at all, and just update FETCH_HEAD. > > We miss an opportunity to update "refs/remotes/origin/master" > (or whatever the user has configured). Some users find this > confusing, because they would want to do further comparisons > against the old state of the remote master, like: > > $ git pull origin master > $ git log HEAD...origin/master I agree with the patch, but I would use a different reasoning. Your example here is not even correct because the range in the second command would be empty unless the merge conflicted. I believe the more common confusion stems from the tracking displays in git-checkout and others. The issue there is that we *internally* treat origin/masters as a kind of mirror, and the tracking displays all go against user expectations once they have seen a newer state of origin's master by explicit pull or fetch. Michael also pointed out yesterday that short of git fetch origin master:refs/remotes/origin/master there is no way to fetch only one branch. -- Thomas Rast trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html