Re: Fetch remote only if remote hasn't been fetched recently

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 5, 2025, 16:55 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqtt4u86x2.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CAGJzqskDumbMSbC3rdYT8fZ8gNJ5MOjR_o8RAo9QS-nuvbBinQ@mail.gmail.com>

M Hickford <mirth.hickford@gmail.com> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> Hi. I'd like to fetch from a particular remote, but only if that
> remote hasn't been fetched in the last hour. How could I achieve this?
> Is there a relevant option for `git fetch`?
>
> https://git-scm.com/docs/git-fetch

"git fetch" is "I want to fetch now". If you want to pace your fetches, you have to keep a record of when you fetched in the past and work from there.

I sense there perhaps is an XY problem?

If "git fetch" is done outside end-user's supervision and explicit intent, the remote-tracking branches will become much less useful to the human users. A good solusion that avoids this issue already exists as the "prefetch" task of the "git maintenance" suite.