Git Remote Workflow

Working with remote repositories: essential commands and workflow.

Fetch - Download Remote Changes

# Download all remote changes (does not merge)
git fetch origin

# Fetch specific branch
git fetch origin main

# Fetch from all remotes
git fetch --all

# Clean up deleted remote branches
git fetch --prune

Pull - Download and Merge

# Fetch + merge (default behavior)
git pull origin main

# Fetch + rebase (cleaner commit history)
git pull --rebase origin main

# Pull all branches
git pull --all

# Pull current branch (if upstream is set)
git pull

Push - Send Changes

# Push current branch
git push origin main

# Push new branch and set upstream
git push -u origin feature-branch

# Short push (if upstream is set)
git push

# Push all branches
git push --all origin

# Push tags
git push origin --tags
git push origin v1.0.0

# Force push (use with caution!)
git push --force-with-lease origin feature-branch

Merge Strategies

# Merge feature branch into main
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git merge feature-branch

# No fast-forward merge (creates merge commit)
git merge --no-ff feature-branch

# Squash merge (combines all commits into one)
git merge --squash feature-branch
git commit -m "feat: feature description"

# Abort merge
git merge --abort

Typical Development Workflow

# 1. Update main branch
git checkout main
git pull origin main

# 2. Create feature branch
git checkout -b feature/new-feature

# 3. Make changes and commit
git add .
git commit -m "feat: add new feature"

# 4. Get latest updates from main
git fetch origin main
git rebase origin/main

# 5. Push
git push -u origin feature/new-feature

# 6. Clean up after PR merge
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git branch -d feature/new-feature