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

I use a version of a script based on Stephen Haberman's answer:

if [ -n "$1" ]; then
    gitbin="git -C $1"
else
    gitbin="git"
fi

# Fetches from all the remotes, although --all can be replaced with origin
$gitbin fetch --all
if [ $($gitbin rev-parse HEAD) != $($gitbin rev-parse @{u}) ]; then
    $gitbin rebase @{u} --preserve-merges
fi

Assuming this script is called git-fetch-and-rebase, it can be invoked with an optional argument directory name of the local Git repository to perform operation on. If the script is called with no arguments, it assumes the current directory to be part of the Git repository.

Examples:

# Operates on /abc/def/my-git-repo-dir
git-fetch-and-rebase /abc/def/my-git-repo-dir

# Operates on the Git repository which the current working directory is part of
git-fetch-and-rebase

It is available here as well.