RE: fetch and pull

===Re:===

I do not think it has much to do with the main point of what John wants to do which is to muck with local branch without checking it out, which is only possible when it happens to fast forward to the new tip of the corresponding branch obtained from the the remote. ===end===

It occurs to me that maybe my concept is off, if it is being so difficult.

Here is what I'm "cooking":

======excerpt======

To keep apprised of other people's work, including updates to the main dev branch, start the day with:

	git fetch

This will update your "remote tracking branches", letting you see what everyone else is working on, and letting you see the central repository's dev (as remotes/origin/dev) compared to your own local dev, so you can see what has been added.

This does not change your local dev, or any other branches you are using. As for your own topic branches, you are the only one who changes them. This is a perfectly safe command and can be performed any time to update your view of what's happening throughout the team. You will, in particular, see your local dev where you last left it, and the current remotes/origin/dev pointing ahead of it. E.g.

	A <== dev
	 \
	  B--C--D <== remotes/origin/dev

In this example, you see plain "dev" still pointing to A, and "remotes/origin/dev" pointing to D. So, you can tell that B, C, D were added. Review the nodes B, C, and D, by reading the comments and seeing which files were affected, and look deeper if it seems to affect what you are doing. Finally, issue the command

	??? 

And this will update your local dev to match the origin.

======

Basically, instead of mysterious "can't push" messages, the idea is that people can feel good about 'fetch' as refreshing their view of the central repo, so gitk can show them how the central dev (and other branches) differs from their own.

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