How are Git pull and Git fetch different from one another?

Are you working on the clone? For those who don’t know about the clone, it is a duplication of another repository. In other words, you own your code after you get a copy of another person’s source code. It is when these two commands called Git pull and Git fetch come into the picture.

They are used by the users of Git. They do so to keep the cloned repo in an updated condition from the original version. 

The beginners may get confused between the two of them. And if there is confusion between the two, then it may become difficult to implement them. So, let us first understand the two of them. 

What is Git fetch command?

If you want to convey to your local git about the retrieval of the latest meta-data information derived from the original, then you are required to use the git fetch. In short, it is a command to check the availability of the changes.

If you want to remember it in a better manner, you can focus on the word fetch, which means checking or finding. One example of it can be 

git pull origin ankur bugfix

What is Git Pull command? 

If you want to first check and then copy those alterations from the remote repository, then you can use the Git pull command. Your focus on the word pull, meaning bringing the changes, can help to recall it easily. Its example can be, 

git pull origin ankur bugfix

Difference between Git pull and Git fetch

There is a difference in the functions of the Git fetch and Git pull as well as the given examples. You can use both of them according to your needs. This discussion makes it clear to you about the three copies comprising of your work on your workstation.

The first one is that you have in your commit history, in your repository which is already saved by you. The second one is the copy that you are working upon and adding continuous edits to it which isn’t committed to your repo. Apart from these two, the third copy includes the locally cached copy that is in the remote repository. 

Hence, you can use git fetch first or the git pull first. These are the differences between the git pull and git fetch commands.