Git pull vs fetch

[Bill Wohler]

Hey folks,

I'd like to propose that in either Git repository, we use git fetch
followed by git merge --ff-only in lieu of git pull. This can also be
accomplished with git pull --ff-only. If the latter fails due to local
commits, then git rebase --preserve-merges can be used.

I like to do this to reduce the number of spurious merge commits.
Intentional merge commits to document a developmental path are, of
course, fine.

The fetch also lets you first perform a diff with origin to see what has
changed since that may suggest a preference for merge or rebase.

I use the --preserve-merges since rebase will flatten any explicit
feature branches you have without it.

How does this sound?

If you prefer the spurious merge commits, please explain why and we can
discuss.

Thanks.

[Mike Kupfer]

Post by Bill Wohler
I like to do this to reduce the number of spurious merge commits.

This sounds okay to me. We have a similar policy at $DAYJOB (using
Mercurial instead of Git).

mike