How can I configure git pull origin <branch> to also fetch master branch?

Question

We have tools that use history data from master to determine what files are available to download. When using "git pull", the fetch part of that command gets the history of master and thus everything works fine. However, git pull (remote) (branch) only fetches that branch, which sometimes breaks our tools. Is there a way configure git pull (remote) (branch) to also fetch one or all other branches instead of just that branch?

Answer 1

You literally can't do what you're asking for: git pull origin name fetches only the one branch by design. But it doesn't matter: git pull is a bad tool and you should just not use it.

All git pull does is run git fetch first, followed by git merge or git rebase second. Since you have your own tools, just code them to run git fetch first followed by your chosen second Git command second. You now control how you run git fetch , so you can choose to fetch both master and one particular branch, or all branches (the default). Then you run the second command that git fetch would have run: if you were going to do:

git pull origin mybranch

you just run instead:

git fetch origin && git merge origin/mybranch

(assuming you don't mind the minor difference around the default merge message), or:

git fetch origin && git rebase origin/mybranch

if you prefer git rebase as the second command.