How do I pull files from remote without overwriting local files

Question

I am trying to set up a new git repo to a pre-existing remote repo   I want my local files to overwrite the remote repo  but git says that I first have to pull those remote files in and merge them   Is there any way to pull but make sure that the local files are not overwritten by the remote

User · Answer

You can stash your local changes first  then pull  then pop the stash   git stash git pull origin master git stash pop   Anything that overrides changes from remote will have conflicts which you will have to manually resolve

User · Answer

So you have committed your local changes to your local repository  Then in order to get remote changes to your local repository without making changes to your local files  you can use git fetch  Actually git pull is a two step operation  a non-destructive git fetch followed by a git merge  See What is the difference between   39 git pull  39  and   39 git fetch  39   for more discussion    Detailed example   Suppose your repository is like this  you ve made changes test2     ed0bcb2 -  HEAD  master  test2   4942854 -  origin master  origin HEAD  first   And the origin repository is like this  someone else has committed test1      5437ca5 -  HEAD  master  test1   4942854 - first   At this point of time  git will complain and ask you to pull first if you try to push your test2 to remote repository  If you want to see what test1 is without modifying your local repository  run this     git fetch   Your result local repository would be like this     ed0bcb2 -  HEAD  master  test2      5437ca5 -  origin master  origin HEAD  test1         4942854 - first    Now you have the remote changes in another branch  and you keep your local files intact    Then what s next  You can do a git merge  which will be the same effect as git pull  when combined with the previous git fetch   or  as I would prefer  do a git rebase origin master to apply your change on top of origin master  which gives you a cleaner history

User · Answer

Well  yes  and no     I understand that you want your local copies to  override  what s in the remote  but  oh  man  if someone has modified the files in the remote repo in some different way  and you just ignore their changes and try to  force  your own changes without even looking at possible conflicts  well  I weep for you  and your coworkers   -   That said  though  it s really easy to do the  right thing      Step 1   git stash   in your local repo   That will save away your local updates into the stash  then revert your modified files back to their pre-edit state   Step 2   git pull   to get any modified versions   Now  hopefully  that won t get any new versions of the files you re worried about   If it doesn t  then the next step will work smoothly   If it does  then you ve got some work to do  and you ll be glad you did   Step 3   git stash pop   That will merge your modified versions that you stashed away in Step 1 with the versions you just pulled in Step 2   If everything goes smoothly  then you ll be all set   If  on the other hand  there were real conflicts between what you pulled in Step 2 and your modifications  due to someone else editing in the interim   you ll find out and be told to resolve them   Do it   Things will work out much better this way - it will probably keep your changes without any real work on your part  while alerting you to serious  serious issues

[git] How do I pull files from remote without overwriting local files?

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