Where to find changes due to `git fetch`

Question

I didn't want to lose some information after a git pull, so I did a git fetch before. Where can I read the new modifications after a git fetch? I went to the FETCH_HEAD file, but there was nothing more than a big number.

Bawbee

Do you have access to gitk? If you do, run gitk --all to view the current state of all your branches on your local machine, even those branches updated by the fetch. – Juanjuana

try git show object where object is the big hashed number... – Walkon

gitk command works but not gitk all. (By the way, i didn't precise that the remote repository was not changed by me ). In the gitk window, there's no file which indicates the fetched datas – Bawbee

Thanks the git show command did work fine !! Best, Newben – Bawbee

Answer 1

git fetch origin by default fetches everything from the remote named "origin" and updates (or creates) the so-called "remote-tracking branches" for that remote. Say, for the remote named "origin" which contain branches named "master" and "feature", running git fetch remote will result in the remote-tracking branches named "origin/master" and "origin/feature" being updated (or created, if they're not exist). You could see them in the output of git branch -a (notice "-a").

Now, the usual Git setup is that (some of) your local branches follow certain remote branches (usually same-named). That is, your local "master" branch follows "origin/master" etc.

So, after you fetched, to see what remote "master" has compared to your local "master", you ask Git to show you exactly this:

git log origin/master ^master

which means «all commits reachable from "origin/master" which do not include commits reachable from "master"» or, alternatively

git log master..origin/master

which has the same meaning. See the "gitrevisions" manual page for more info, especially the "Specifying ranges" part. Also see the examples in the git-log manual page

You're free to customize the output of git log as you see fit as it supports a whole lot of options affecting it.

Note that your local branch might also have commits which the matching remote branch does not contain (yet). To get an overview of them you have to reverse the revisions passed to git log for (hopefully) obvious reasons.

As usual, it's essential to educate yourself to understand the underlying concepts before starting to use a tool. Please do.

Pes

Any reason that git diff master origin/master wasn't mentioned? It seems to address the OP's question very simply...? (I'm newish to Git and learning so please correct me if wrong.) – Heteronomy

@Howiecamp: that produces different results if you've added commits to your master that you did not get from their master (your now-updated origin/master). It's not a wrong thing to do, but it won't show you the commits they have that you don't (have on your master), while the git log will do exactly that. – Rood

Answer 2

If you just want to see what files will be modified if you do a GIT PULL, do this:

git fetch && git diff HEAD @{u} --name-only

If you want to see ALL differences between your current version and the incoming version, including uncommited local modifications, type this:

git fetch && git diff @{u} --name-only

Monadelphous

I had the same question and I found the answer here: #19475077. In short: It is a shortcut to refer to the upstream branch which the current branch is tracking – Sophomore

Answer 3

Try

git log --oneline --decorate origin/master

This will give you the change log from the master head of the origin remote (you can substitute any other remote branch as needed). You'll get an output somewhat like this:

234121 (origin/master) Commit message 5
872373 Commit message 4
623748 Commit message 3
235090 (master) Commit message 2
192399 Commit message 1

The commit marked (master) is the head of your local master branch. The commit marked (origin/master) is the head of the remote's master branch.

Aesthetics

I think better command is - git log --all --oneline --graph – Selfinductance

This shows more commits than only the ones made after I merged my current local head last time. Were there changes how git log works? – Majolica

Answer 4

I mostly do git log origin/master to see the log of remote repo. You can compare changes like git diff master origin/master which will compare the changes of the master branch with your master branch in remote repo.

A

Note that you can also do git log --stat origin/master to see which files were changed during each commit. – Monadelphous