Git course #4 – remote work: remote, fetch vs pull, force-with-lease

Working with remotes is everyday work in every team – but many people only use git pull and have a vague idea of what actually happens. Tracking refs, the difference between fetch and pull, when to use --force-with-lease instead of --force, and how remote branches actually work is knowledge that saves you from irreversible mistakes.

Remote – configure and manage

# List remote repositories
git remote -v

# Add remote
git remote add upstream https://github.com/magento/magento2.git

# Change URL
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:company/project.git

# Remove remote
git remote remove upstream

# Fetch information about all remotes
git remote update

Fetch – safe update

Fetch downloads changes from remote and updates tracking refs (origin/main, origin/develop) without touching local branches. Always safe.

# Fetch changes from all remotes
git fetch --all

# Fetch a specific remote
git fetch origin

# Fetch a specific branch
git fetch origin main

# After fetch check what is new
git log main..origin/main --oneline
git diff main origin/main

# List remote branches
git branch -r
git branch -a   # local + remote

Pull – fetch + merge in one

# Standard pull (merge)
git pull origin main

# Pull with rebase instead of merge
git pull --rebase origin main

# Set rebase as the default pull strategy
git config --global pull.rebase true

# Check what will be merged before pull
git fetch origin
git log HEAD..origin/main --oneline

Push and force-with-lease

# Regular push
git push origin main

# Push new branch and set tracking
git push -u origin feature/order-export

# Force push (DANGEROUS - overwrites remote history)
git push --force origin main  # never on shared branches!

# Force-with-lease (safe equivalent of --force)
# Aborts if someone else pushed changes since last fetch
git push --force-with-lease origin main

# When is force-with-lease needed?
# After git rebase -i on a feature branch - SHAs have changed
# After git commit --amend on a feature branch
# Never on main/develop/release!

Tracking branches

# Check tracking for each branch
git branch -vv
# * main          a3d5e2f [origin/main] Add product export
#   feature/cart  b4c6d7e [origin/feature/cart: ahead 2] Fix total

# Set tracking manually
git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/main main

# Create local branch tracking remote
git checkout --track origin/feature/new-api
# or shorter:
git checkout feature/new-api  # Git automatically finds origin/feature/new-api

Working with multiple remotes

# Typical fork setup: origin = your fork, upstream = original
git remote add origin git@github.com:henryk/magento2-module.git
git remote add upstream git@github.com:company/magento2-module.git

# Update your fork from upstream
git fetch upstream
git checkout main
git rebase upstream/main
git push origin main

# Check if your branch is current with upstream
git log HEAD..upstream/main --oneline

Cleaning stale tracking refs

# Remove tracking refs for branches deleted on remote
git fetch --prune
git remote prune origin

# Set automatic pruning
git config --global fetch.prune true

# Display stale tracking refs
git remote prune origin --dry-run

Summary

Fetch is safe – it only updates tracking refs. Pull is fetch + merge, with a rebase option. Force-with-lease is the only acceptable form of force push on feature branches after rebase. Tracking branches connect local branches with their remote counterparts and enable git push without specifying remote/branch. Next post: team workflow – Git Flow, trunk-based development and code review.