Receiving Updates

Downloading from Mission Control

While you work, teammates push changes to GitHub. Use git pull to download and integrate their work into yours.

The Pull Command

git pull

By default, this downloads new commits and merges them into your current branch.

What Pull Actually Does

git pull is essentially two steps by default:

1. git fetch: Downloads new commits
2. git merge: Merges them into your branch (unless you've configured pull to rebase)

You can run these separately for more control.

Fetch vs. Pull

Fetch (Safe)

git fetch

Downloads changes but doesn't merge. Lets you review before integrating.

Pull (Convenient)

git pull

Downloads and integrates changes in one step. Faster but less control.

Specifying Remote and Branch

git pull origin main

Pull with Rebase

git pull --rebase

Instead of merging, rebases your commits on top of the pulled changes, creating cleaner history.

Handling Conflicts

If you and a teammate edited the same lines, Git can't auto-merge:

Auto-merging navigation.js
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in navigation.js
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit.

Open the conflicted file. You'll see:

<<<<<<< HEAD
const speed = 1500;
=======
const speed = 2000;
>>>>>>> main

Edit to resolve, remove markers, then:

git add navigation.js
git commit

Best Practices

• Pull before starting work each day
• Pull before pushing
• Commit your work before pulling
• Pull frequently to avoid conflicts

Viewing Remote Changes

After git fetch, compare with:

git log HEAD..origin/main    # See new commits
git diff HEAD origin/main     # See changes

Next: Scanning for Changes

You can now synchronize with teammates. Next, we'll learn to examine differences between versions with git diff.