A normal "git fetch" will fetch tags that point to commits being fetched. So if you are fetching new histroy that has a tag pointing to it, that tag will be fetched with it. But by default, fetch only pulls "refs/heads/*" (branch namespace). Adding a "--tags" will make it fetch "refs/tags/*" too. This matters if tags are pushed to the remote that point to "historic" commits (ones you already have in your local repo). On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 6:53 AM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday [ at ] crashcourse [ dot ] ca> wrote: > > once again, into the pedantry of a git command. for an upcoming > course, i'm writing a tutorial on how to start working with a remote, > and i'm using the example of adding linux-next as a remote to the > stock kernel, as explained here: > > https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/linux-next.html > > but i was puzzled with the following snippet of directions: > > Fetch linux-next plus tags > > $ git fetch linux-next > ... > $ git fetch --tags linux-next > ... > > is it really necessary to run two separate commands, to: > > * first fetch the content > * then fetch the tags? > > i would have thought that running that second command would be > sufficient, since the git-fetch man page reads thusly: > > -t, --tags > Fetch all tags from the remote (i.e., fetch remote tags refs/tags/* > into local tags with the same name), in addition to whatever else > would otherwise be fetched. > > note, "in addition to whatever else would otherwise be fetched." so > isn't that suggesting that that command would do the normal fetch of > content, *and* get the tags as well? or am i misreading something? > > rday > > -- > > ======================================================================== > Robert P. J. Day Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA > http://crashcourse.ca > > Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday > LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday > ======================================================================== > _______________________________________________ > Linux mailing list > Linux [ at ] lists [ dot ] oclug [ dot ] on [ dot ] ca > http://oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/linux > >