Check if pull needed in Git

Question

How do I check whether the remote repository has changed and I need to pull?

Now I use this simple script:

git pull --dry-run | grep -q -v \'Already          


        

Answer 1

If you have an upstream branch

git fetch 
git status

If you don't have an upstream branch

Compare the two branches:

git fetch 
git log .. --oneline

For example:

git fetch origin

# See if there are any incoming changes
git log HEAD..origin/master --oneline

(I'm assuming origin/master is your remote tracking branch)

If any commits are listed in the output above, then you have incoming changes -- you need to merge. If no commits are listed by git log then there is nothing to merge.

Note that this will work even if you are on a feature branch -- that does not have a tracking remote, since if explicitly refers to origin/master instead of implicitly using the upstream branch remembered by Git.