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

All such complex sugestions while the solution is so short and easy:

#!/bin/bash

BRANCH="<your branch name>"
LAST_UPDATE=`git show --no-notes --format=format:"%H" $BRANCH | head -n 1`
LAST_COMMIT=`git show --no-notes --format=format:"%H" origin/$BRANCH | head -n 1`

git remote update
if [ $LAST_COMMIT != $LAST_UPDATE ]; then
        echo "Updating your branch $BRANCH"
        git pull --no-edit
else
        echo "No updates available"
fi

Answer 2

If you have an upstream branch

git fetch <remote>
git status

If you don't have an upstream branch

Compare the two branches:

git fetch <remote>
git log <local_branch_name>..<remote_branch_name> --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.

Answer 3

git ls-remote | cut -f1 | git cat-file --batch-check >&-

will list everything referenced in any remote that isn't in your repo. To catch remote ref changes to things you already had (e.g. resets to previous commits) takes a little more:

git pack-refs --all
mine=`mktemp`
sed '/^#/d;/^^/{G;s/.\(.*\)\n.* \(.*\)/\1 \2^{}/;};h' .git/packed-refs | sort -k2 >$mine
for r in `git remote`; do 
    echo Checking $r ...
    git ls-remote $r | sort -k2 | diff -b - $mine | grep ^\<
done

Answer 4

If you run this script, it will test if the current branch need a git pull:

#!/bin/bash

git fetch -v --dry-run 2>&1 |
    grep -qE "\[up\s+to\s+date\]\s+$(
        git branch 2>/dev/null |
           sed -n '/^\*/s/^\* //p' |
                sed -r 's:(\+|\*|\$):\\\1:g'
    )\s+" || {
        echo >&2 "Current branch need a 'git pull' before commit"
        exit 1
}

It's very convenient to put it as a Git hook pre-commit to avoid

Merge branch 'foobar' of url:/path/to/git/foobar into foobar

when you commit before pulling.

To use this code as a hook, simply copy/paste the script in

.git/hooks/pre-commit

and

chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

Answer 5

Maybe this, if you want to add task as crontab:

#!/bin/bash
dir="/path/to/root"
lock=/tmp/update.lock
msglog="/var/log/update.log"

log()
{
        echo "$(date) ${1:-missing}" >> $msglog
}

if [ -f $lock ]; then
        log "Already run, exiting..."
else
        > $lock
        git -C ~/$dir remote update &> /dev/null
        checkgit=`git -C ~/$dir status`
        if [[ ! "$checkgit" =~ "Your branch is up-to-date" ]]; then
                log "-------------- Update ---------------"
                git -C ~/$dir pull &>> $msglog
                log "-------------------------------------"
        fi
        rm $lock

fi
exit 0

Answer 6

If this is for a script, you can use:

git fetch
$(git rev-parse HEAD) == $(git rev-parse @{u})

(Note: the benefit of this vs. previous answers is that you don't need a separate command to get the current branch name. "HEAD" and "@{u}" (the current branch's upstream) take care of it. See "git rev-parse --help" for more details.)