Git Pull from Another Repository - Shell/Bash

When working on a project, it is common to have collaborators working on the same codebase. Git is a powerful version control tool that allows developers to work together, share code, and track changes made to the codebase. One of the most important features of Git is the ability to pull changes made by other collaborators into your local repository.

Pulling changes from another repository

To pull changes from another repository, you must first add the remote repository as a source for your local repository. This can be done by using the git remote add command followed by the URL of the remote repository.

git remote add upstream <repository-url>

Once you have added the remote repository, you can pull changes made by others into your local repository. This can be done by using the git pull command followed by the name of the remote repository and the branch that you want to pull changes from.

git pull upstream <branch-name>

For example, if you are working on a project with a remote repository named upstream and you want to pull changes from the master branch, you would use the following command:

git pull upstream master

Resolving merge conflicts

When you pull changes from another repository, there may be conflicts between the changes made by you and those made by other collaborators. Git will attempt to automatically merge the changes, but if it is unable to do so, you will need to resolve the merge conflicts manually.

To resolve merge conflicts, you must first identify the conflicts by using the git status command.

git status

This will show you a list of the files with merge conflicts. You can then use a merge tool, such as git mergetool, to resolve the conflicts.

git mergetool

This will launch the merge tool and allow you to edit the conflicting files. Once you have resolved the conflicts, you can commit the changes using the git commit command.

Conclusion

Pulling changes from another repository is an important part of collaborative development using Git. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can easily pull changes made by other collaborators into your local repository and resolve any merge conflicts that arise.