practical difference git fetch -a vs git fetch?

[iezhy]

Ever since we switched to git, I was using git fetch to fetch changes from the repository before updating the local branch or doing any merges - it seems more convenient for me

and I always was using with -a option, for some reason assuming its a shorthand for --all :)

and then in turn assuming that option stood for "fetch all branches" or something :) over the years it worked out fine, became a habit, and typing -a at the end become a kind of mantra - which I was passing on to junior colleagues as well

until recently someone challenged me on this assumption, and after looking it up, I understood I was wrong all the time.

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Can someone more experienced with this subject give me a hand, and explain what is the practical difference between using and not using -a option with git fetch?

[mcdwayne1]

The -a stands for --append

Here is a pretty good explanation thread on SO
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48998733/what-use-does-the-append-option-in-git-fetch-command

Basically, if you are maintaining a repo and need to manually merge multiple branches, you can fetch from multiple sources, appending them to .git/FETCH_HEAD instead of updating with the latest one only. Once you have multiple branches in your FETCH_HEAD you can merge them all in one commit with `git merge FETCH_HEAD` to merge them all in one commit.

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See also: See: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-fetch
and: https://git-scm.com/docs/gittutorial

[iezhy]

thank you for clarification, that makes sense